A water-colour painting by T. Batty of The Steps, Smithfield, Stockton. including some terraced housing. Demolished c1929. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A water-colour painting by T. Batty of The Steps, Smithfield, Stockton. including some terraced housing. Demolished c1929.
Please keep the comment relevant to the photograph (some extra detail or history) and avoid addressing it to an individual. Email, postal or web addresses should not be added. Is it possible to buy prints of T. Battys paintings? I’m sure many people would be interested in purchasing them. I’m especially interested in the painting of Kelley’s Ferry c1914. Jim was a relative of my mother (Audrey Sanderson nee Booth)
Hi Tina I am guessing this message may not reach you after so many years since you posted your comment. I am a grandson of Jim (my mum was Thelma Kelley and I recall Audrey was her cousin).
The Batty prints were made available to us by Stockton Museum Service who hold the images in their collection.
The best candidate I could find for this splendid artist was Thomas Batty junior living at Hetherington’s (sometimes Etherington’s) Yard, Smithfield in 1891, but possibly living at the top of Stanley Street, Norton by the 1960’s. In 1911 his family was at Caroline Street, Stockton and mainly employed in bridge building. Whether anyone can confirm the identity of the artist remains to be seen, as I assumed the artist was T for Thomas and he was born and lived locally. The availability of Batty prints, or how they came to be on this site, is a perennial question on Picture Stockton, which nobody has answered. Quite a few families from the condemned Quayside area of Stockton ended up at Stanley Street, Norton or its surrounds, including mine. I remember Stanley Street in the 1960’s and the families near the bottom of the street, but rather vaguely now. I recognise many of the names already put on this site that lived in the area. My main memory of Stanley Street was my toddler sister insisting she take her doll and toy pram to Mrs Snell’s corner shop at every opportunity. An elderly Mrs Sanderson who lived half way up this street encouraged this endless ritual.
If this Mrs Sanderson was Jayne Anne Sanderson (daughter of John and Bertha Thompson) who lived at Number 10 Stanley Street, it is possible it was my great auntie
I believe i am related to the painter T Batty also Publican J Batty, would anyone have any furthur information that would of interest also where can I find prints to help with my family tree.
Batty has used his artistic licence in the above painting, there were more houses (numbers 15 to 28) on the left side of Smithfield (as viewed) than painted. The background has been slightly expanded to show 3 Smithfield, and to its left part of “The Shakespeare Arms” at 2 Smithfield (Henry and Annie Groskop from 1900 onwards). The James Street passage between 3 and 4 Smithfield looks masked by the right side of Smithfield. The height of 1 Cleveland Row, right foreground, has been cut down to sensibly fit in the painting. The painted foreground can be compared with photo t1657 or better t4566 = Photos from the Past (S.B. Leng and Co. Works).
With regard to the above local artist claimed to be Thomas Batty, whose paintings remain popular on Picture Stockton. I cannot confirm the identity of the artist, but possible candidates could be a Thomas Batty (and family), a labourer, born Darlington, and Thomas his young son, born Stockton, living at 2 Hetheringtons Yard, Smithfield in 1891. The entrance to Hetheringtons Yard (or Etheringtons Yard in some sources)is the dark gap on the left side of Smithfield in the above Batty painting, between 15 and 16 Smithfield. Dixons Yard is sharp first left after the steps. I often resided in the same Norton street as Thomas junior in the 1960″s, but I do not know if he was the artist. I may be proved wrong in the future, but these are the best candidates I could find namewise, and they lived within the much painted district. I do not know whether they are related to the well-known Victorian Stockton publicans John Batty, senior and junior, as they also resided close to Smithfield. Concerning last months comments over a pub in Thorpe Street, John Batty junior was listed as a publican at 24 Thorpe Street in 1901, so maybe some beer retailing did go on in this street.
The Steps, Smithfield, Stockton, as painted above by T. Batty appear on the left of PS photograph t1657 titled Corporation Quay c.1880, Stockton. Cleveland Row is off to the right of the steps in both painting and photograph. The Ship Launch Inn is just off view to the left of the steps. Batty appears to have compressed the height of Cleveland Row to get it all in his painting.
I agree with the 24/1/08 comments and map noted by J.O., the steps were from Smithfield down close to the river on the Quayside for the ferry. The aerial photo of Stockton s466 shows the entrance to Smithfield from The Square, with Saint Thomas”s School present, but the topography here does not compare with the above painting. Batty”s paintings on PS are mainly down on the Quayside. Aerial photo t9245 shows the drop from demolished Smithfield down to the river. The above painting shows the entrances to Dixons Yard, sharp left, and then Etheringtons Yard, middle left. On the right the entrance to Hunters Lane for Brewery Square and then the Ropner Shipyard is masked by the house on the right. At the top of the street the entrance passage to James Street is just off the painting to the right, but has been painted by Batty in PS t477. Smithfield turns left at the top of the painting towards the school and The Square as seen in PS photo s466.
If the description that they were demolished c 1929 is correct then these are not the same set of steps that I recall. Those were at the bottom of Castlegate – certainly in my mind. I would look down there after school at Trinity to see if there was any shipping.
I”ve no idea where the steps would have been. I would imagine that the steps would have led down to the Quayside. Smithfield ran from The Square (East of the Municipal building) to the Quayside, roughly on the Bishop Street side road where the old Co-op dairy stood.
The steps were located at the riverside end of Smithfield. Smithfield ran from the Southeast corner of The Square to the riverside east of Hubbacks Quay.Map 18 in The History of Stockton and Thornaby in Maps shows them quite clearly
Where are, or were, these steps?