A postcard showing a view of a weir near Billingham. Looking east Billingham church and village in background. Biilingham – Stockton Road on the right. c1920 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A postcard showing a view of a weir near Billingham. Looking east Billingham church and village in background. Biilingham – Stockton Road on the right. c1920
That Weir brings back memories for myself because me and my friend were lucky not to have drowned in the water below the Weir. We were sailing down Billingam Beck in our dinghy and we were swept over the small waterfall.
The beck was in flood and we had sailed from Blakestone Lane down to that weir.
I didn’t want to go near the weir but boys will be boys and the dinghy flipped over and threw us in the freezing water.
I remember dragging ourselves up the concrete wall which had railings round it.
When we started walking home towards Norton carrying the inflated dinghy and soaked from head to foot a gentleman told us to put the dinghy above our heads to stop us getting wet in the rain.
I saw my friends mother the other day and she still remembers the day we came home soaking wet.
I do because she had a rabbit in the pot and she gave me a stew.
She still gets wild rabbits from her relatives and cooks them for herself.
All this happened when I was a schoolboy in the 70s.
Just below the weir is where we fished as kids with our line with a bent pin or net and jam jar. Once saw 2 lads bigger than me who placed a sack on the stream bed and when there were a lot of fish above the sack they lifted it. Caught more fish than I would have done in a fortnight.
The road on the right is Billingham Bank and this weir is where Billingham Beck does a 90 degree turn just next to the bottoms roundabout.