ICI Billingham anti bird patrol During 1952/53 great flocks of starlings started roosting on the main pipe bridges at sunset. ICI invited employees with shotguns to clear the roosting birds, a short lived idea, as more damage was inflicted by the shotguns than the birds. (This information was kindly provided by P. Barron) 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
I thought it was a famous horse, maybe L’scargot or even Arkle, but I’m not a horse racing man.
I found the following on the Net.
“The largest Gold Cup field has been the 22 who lined up in 1982. Silver Buck, at 8-1, won; Night Nurse, the 11-4 favourite, was pulled up; and Sunset Cristo, a 50-1 shot, struck a blow for the no-hopers by finishing third.”
Was it Silver Buck that won the Gold Cup when Sunset Cristo came in 3rd?
What was the horse that beat Sunset Cristo when he was 3rd in the Cheltenham Gold Cup?
Yes, that’s the horse Anon. I don’t know the horse that beat it but it is the same one in each race that they competed in and the same horse would beat Sunset Cristo each time. But once Sunset Cristo had the edge on it and won a big race and at a good price.
Ray Hawkie`s horse was Sunset Cristo which came third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The 3rd one to the left is the tall chap with the dark 3/4 coat on. I am counting the chap standing to the rear as part of the ones on the left. I knew him as a hunting sportsman using his twelve bore shot gun. He did spend time chasing the starlings from the pipes with my brother. Again he does look like Ray Hawkie.
Sorry to query that statement Bob, I went to school, Richard Hind, with Ray and also knew him at ICI and kennelled my dog with him. That does not look like Ray, have you picked out the wrong one, he was quite tall.
3rd from the left looks like Ray Hawkie. He was my Foreman at ICI. Lived and built the kennels at Blakeston Lane. He owned and trained a very good racing horse that won the Cheltenham Gold Cup?? or was it one of the main Goodwood races? He is now living at Middleton in Teesdale.
My uncle, Henry Eldon Fletcher, took part in this Starlingshoot. I recall seeing a photograph of him, with others, “bearing arms”.
Bird patrol I.C I. – This anti -bird patrol. Due to the covering of narrow walkways and ladders in bird-droppings from an estimated 15 to 20000 birds attracted by the heat of the plants. The patrol was also in place in the 1960s after a number of accidents to plant operators. The 1960 “Starlingshots” were issued with special “Nobel Division, rock-salt catridges. I.C.I paid to have the guns cleaned and serviced by an “on the site” qualified armourer. The 1960s scheme was put down as succesful, although the birds had to be followed for about 3 weeks as they moved over the vast works with 4 or 5 “shooters” , plus a “mobile force” waiting until the armada settled.