The conservatory at Preston Park Museum. c1950

A view of the side of Preston Park Museum, including the conservatory. The museum was built as the Preston Hall in 1825 for David Burton Fowler, it was acquired by Stockton Corporation in 1947 and opened as a museum in 1953.

5 thoughts on “The conservatory at Preston Park Museum. c1950

  1. I think, what Bob mentioned about Kiora. Is the hall, which still there on Ragpath Lane. The rest were all Farmsteads

  2. Bob Harbron – You mention the last green-house/ conservatory was at Norton Hall which supplied flowers and plants for Wilton & Billingham social occasions outside the Village Kiora. Living in the area all my life I have never heard of a the village Kiora, where is it?

  3. The Conservatory or Winter Garden, was a Victorian structure called Winter Garden, introduced to England by Prince Albert in 1853. An O.S map of 1896 Norton shows 7 such structures on the Big-Houses of Norton. A Mr Wilkinson who worked as a servant in “The Priory” Norton High Street for over 60 and said grapes were grown in the Conservatory, till the 1940s when coal rationing came. ” I worked for the Brown family from 1911 till 1977. The last Brown, Miss Nellie a patron of Stockton Red-Cross and Nursing would send a few baskets every year to Stockton and Thornaby Hospital, of which she was a govenor. The boiler-house was always popular, it was here the head gardener and his gang met every morning to plan the days work, with a bench for a smoke and a constant supply of hot-water for a mash of tea, at times more pipe-smoke came out of the building than coal smoke. Heating supplied Conservatory, Green -house and the house radiators. It was also used by the laundry-maid for drying in wet weather and wet clothing of the gentry. The last such building 1990 was in ICI Norton Hall, where a green-house/conservatory supplied flowers and plants for Billingham and Wilton Social occassions and planting out. Outside the Village Kiora, Ragworth,Howden and Blakistn had similar features. A Quote from Victorian Domestic”s – Replete from their Christmas meal, the family and guests retired to the warm winter-garden with its cushioned benches around a large Christmas tree, lit by many candles and set among exotic plants. The candle light reflecting on the glass and sending back the gleam of diamonds from the frosty branched outside

  4. Many people are not aware that the original bed of the Stockton and Darlington Railway runs parallel to Yarm road and is concealed by the trees just inside the outside perimeter of the park. The best time to view it is during the winter months when there is less leaf growth. The raised bed can be picked out running north to south a few yards inside the edge. In the local press this there was a reference to a project put in place involving the Council and some schoolchildren to exhibit the bed in some way. Other web site contributors may know more about the project.

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