An old drawing of Kelly’s Ferry fully laden with passengers. Despite the new bridge, men who were employed in the shipyards, which developed on the South Stockton bank of the river in the 1830s, continued to use the ferry, a private enterprise. The men living in Stockton who worked in the shipyards on the Thornaby side, would have had a long walk down to the stone bridge (and later Victoria Bridge) and then back up the side of the river to the shipyards. Working up to a 12 hour day was enough! Kelly’s Ferry crossed the Tees by the Shiplaunch Inn, at the foot of Thistle Green. This provided the workers with much shorter journey to work. The normal load of Kelly’s largest boat was 60 men, but he carried anything up to 112! There were up to 1100 crossings daily, so the shipyards had to stagger their lunch hours. A single fare was 1/2d, and a weekly ticket was 9d. The shipyards declined rapidly in the 1920s, and in 1950 the crossings ceased altogether. Various other ferries crossed the Tees up until the early 20th C, providing cheap and quick crossings for the thousands of workers who worked in the areas industries. The first ferries were rowing boats, but later steam provided extra power for longer journeys up the river. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Jim Kelly was my grandfather and the ferry belonged to his family. I think they sold it to Head Wrightson although Jim carried on working on the river till the early 1970s before he had an accident at work. My mum Thelma often helped her Dad on the Ferry
The old picture house you”re talking about had lots of old boats in it. As a boy i used to climb in there through a broken window above a door in the back alley. Many a time i had to hide up in the rafters because some copper was onto me
My grandad, John Thompson a fiery scotsman, was one of the last ferrymen on this crossing. I remember my dad telling me that they often used to find bodies floating in the tees and rather than land them at the Thornaby side of the river, they took them across to the Stockton side because the Stockton police gave you 1″/6″ (I”ve forgotten how to write one and six). Thornaby police only gave you 1″/- As far as I remember, the big old rowboat that they used was put into storage in the old picture house?? at the bottom r/h/side of westbury street near the five lamps until it was pulled down.