A postcard showing Durham Road, possibly 1910/1920. Photograph courtesy of Gill Holmes. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A postcard showing Durham Road, possibly 1910/1920. Photograph courtesy of Gill Holmes.
Hi Ann, We live in Belmont Ave.John lives in my parents old house since we lost them,thats next door to Pat in Craigwell.I remember working with your John at Peter Pells when we lived in 77 Durham Road.I joined the Army in 1969 and only came home a couple of times each year.Mam and Dad moved to Craigwell while I was away…..did let me know they had moved .My daughter Hayley has carried on the pet tradition we have a dog,two cats,one jackdaw,one horse and goldfish.
Hi Brian do you still live in the Newtown area.I think we moved next door to you in the sixties when you lived on Durham Road. I can remember you having rabbits and chickens and thinking you must be very rich. We only had a dog as you say a much nicer time to grow up in.
Ann,I do remember the horse and cart there was a wider area outside our back gate where they stopped.I had a look the other day,it seemed much larger when we were young. I can remember when we had rabbits and chickens at the bottom of the garden and a pond where the old Anderson shelter used to be,even had a few goldfish for a while. No television in those day,s we spent all our time outdoors in any weather, life was less complicated then.
There was also a Walter Wilson shop in Norton; near the White Swan (Mucky-Duck) in Harland place. I remember the glass-fronted rack of biscuit-tins and the chair with colourful enamel sign for “Peek-Frean Cream Crackers” available for customers. On the counter a mound of butter and lard in muslin cloth and the hand operated bacon slicer. There always seemed to be an errand boy’s bike (“Arkwright” type) leaning against the shop or nearby tree. The shop front, now Hairdressers, still has one of the original golden balls, now painted black (wood) of “W W” above the window
My father was sales director of Walter Willsons until 1974. From his papers I can tell you a branch was opened at 90 Durham Road on 19th March 1937.There were also other branches at various times in Stockton – in Tilery Rd;78 Dovecot Street;4 Walter Terrace,Norton Rd;162 High St;and the original was in 1 Yarm Rd which opened in Feb 1880 and closed in May 1907. Well done to those who have put 2L”s in Willson; The Smiling Service Grocers was a frequently used slogan as was the target sign – the Target for Thrifty Buyers!
To Glynis Edmunds my younger sister (Carole) remembers you we lived nextdoor at number 94 and you lived at 92 not 99 when you moved out the McAllisters bought your house and Mrs. Mcallister still lives there, Carole my sister remembers you you had two brothers Mick and Pip, we also had twin brothers who were nicknamed Mick and Pip, but were Michel and Philippe respectively, Carole said you married a Frenchman and moved to France is this right?
94 Durham Road was directly opposite Warwick Lloyds Fish shop (also owned by Teasdales before Warwick Lloyd(approaching from Stockton High Street) it was the second house along on the opposite corner to Walter Willson”s on the corner of Lambton Road. I asked my aunt about who lived on the corner of Londonderry Road and she can”t remember their surname but they had a daughter called Sheila who was a schoolteacher and later became a headmistress. Do you remember Mr Patterson”s Fruit shop on the corner of Stavourdale Road, behind the fish shop and also Mr.& Mrs Fleet who had the sweet shop on the corner of Castlereagh Road, Mr Fleet also did the Punch and Judy Show on Redcar Beach in the 1930″s. I remember when I was about 7 or 8 going to elocution lessons at Newtown School and a girl called Carol Bonsal lived somewhere along the block on Durham Road near Daniels. I went to Newtown Infants and then went onto to St. Mary”s on Norton Road as we are Catholics.
I think that my father and his first wife had a small sweetshop in the Londonderry Road area sometime between 1925 and 1930, anyone know the name of a small sweetshop in that area so that I can start searching records. Their names were Bob and Muriel Goldsbrough.
Annette Bailey: You have really brought back memories of people and shops in the area where I grew up. I lived directly opposite Harry Carter`s shop and remember him supplying lots of groceries for our household though my mother`s main shop was done at Newtown co-op to collect the “divi”. Harry Carter provided “tick” for some of his favoured customers that he trusted to settle their sebts. My mother never accepted “tick” and if she couldn`t pay cash we did without. Nelly Tuck survived mainly on her willingness to provide “tick” to any of the less well-off in the area and I often wondered how long some people took to pay back what they owed to Nelly. I am very pleased that you remember that Mr. Thornborough had the cake-shop before Sparks. I also remember him and have mentioned his existance elsewhere on this site but ny memories have been called into doubt by several Newtown oldtimers. Bobby Brown also evokes memories of we kids playing football in the street and reluctantly interrupting our game when Bobby Brown was spotted approaching on his bike. Once he was safely out of the way the football would restart. Happy days. Mr. Tweddle had the shop on Dundas Street after Mr. Slater taking over the shop around 1949 give or take a year. Almost every street corner had a shop of one sort or another and they all seemed to survive very well until the coming of the supermarkets. What price progress? I now live in a tiny village in Spain and the small village shops remind me of the way things used to be during my childhood in Newtown.
Hi Annette I find your comments very interesting. I am trying to place where 94 Durham Rd is? I lived in 61 Londonderry Rd just behind Durham Rd. You are right Slaters had the shop it was bought from them by Tweddle”s. I was quite friendly with Mr Daniels, he had a granddaughter Jacqueline who I played with when she visited. My sister Sheilagh was born 1944 so you probably went to school together. Harry Carter owned the house we lived in. I have in my mind that Mr Daniels passed away or left early 50s. The house was bought by the Catholic Church to house brothers. We had a party line with them as phone lines were hard to come by in those days. Who lived on the same block on the corner of Londonderry Rd ? Perhaps you remember?
To Brian Swales asking about two old ladies living on the corner of Durham Road and Dundas Street,a Miss Ethel Gibson lived with her mother in the house nextdoor to that one, she lived till she was almost a 100 yrs. Also along that block were Mr Daniels the Dentist, and Mr Fordy the Builder lived in the house near to Lustrum Beck at the other side of Dundas Street and a Mr Moor lived in the first one (they were they two set well back off Durham Road with a long front garden. Also Mr Tweddle had the corner shop at Dundas Street before or after Mr Slater. Also does anyone remember Harry Carters Grocers shop along Londonderry Road. Before Sparks shop on Durham Road it was owned by Mr Thornborough. The Drs at the surgery nextdoor to Clark”s chemist were, Dr.Ritchie, Morrell and Webster.
I was born at 94 Durham Road in 1944 and lived there until I was ten years old and I remember Walter Willson”s shop Miss Howe was the manageress in those days and Warwick Lloyd owned the fish shop opposite our house, I remember Clarke”s chemist, the Golliwog and also Slater”s shop on the corner of Dundas Street and also as shop called Nellie Tucks which was at the top of Dundas Street in Eastbourne, also Bobby Brown the local Bobby who lived in Lambton Road who used to ride around on his bike and Newton School where I went to as an infant, also Mr Marley the cobbler on Durham Road at the side of Lustrum Beck.Also Dickie (Richard) Smith, Funeral Director lived in the first house in Lambton Road.
My mother Kathleen Watson worked in Walter Wilson’s shop before joining the A.T.S. at the outbreak of W.W.2. I can remember taking my grandmother Mrs Watson’s “order” to the shop on a Friday to be delivered the next day by the delivery boy. We lived in 29 Zetland Road. Do you remember the co-op stores delivering coal in our back street Brian? The horse once fell down and took all the coal with it this was out side your back gate in Lambton Road and ours in Zetland Road.
Colin, We lived in 28,Lampton Road next door to the Stockdale family.Tony,Margaret and Mick were the names of the kids,I do remember the shop in Zetland Road it,s surprising how this site starts to revive memories that seemed to have been put to the back of my mind.I bought a prize budgie off a chap in Zetland Road for £8.00 in the early fifties a lot of money then!I think his surname was Henderson I also have a feeling that he was related to the comic known as Eli.
Hello Brian, I am Tony’s daughter Caroline. I would love to hear any stories you have of my dad (or any stories from that era) 🙂 You know that house stayed in our family until around the 1990s, I believe.
Brian you are right, Dougie Ayres ran the shop on Durham Rd, and his brother ran the one in Zetland St, which was the original shop. The Ayres family I think lived above that shop in Zetland Rd. Just as a matter of interest, Weatherspoons owned the newsagent on the corner of Londonderry Rd till about 1948-9 then bought out by Marshalls. I was a paperboy for both of them till 1950
I worked in the butchers shop on Durham road as a schoolboy a couple of nights a week and Saturdays for very little reward.It belonged to a family called Ayres(think thats the correct spelling)this would be about 1956-57 I was a pupil at Newham Grange at the time.I took over the job from a schoolmate called Dave Pratt.
Pity the picture is blurred. I can”t read the name of the shop. I assume it was not then one of Walter Willson”s. Walter Willson”s widow bought new in 1927 the old R-R limo I have owned since 1964. Hence my interest. At one time after WW II Walter Willson”s must have been on a par with Sainsburys, but they got left behind and were taken over by Alldays a few years ago and I suppose all trace will have vanished by now. I did not know about the “Smiling Service” logo.
Brian and Benny mentioned Clarke”s The Chemist. It had a black frontage – a bit 1920s if I remember rightly and inside had beautiful mahogany glass fronted cabinets and a shiny brown linoleum floor. I remember the white-coated pharmacist Mr Jackson and also the ivy clad house on the corner which housed the doctor”s surgery in Appleton Road.
I remember going to Harbron”s with a penny clutched in my hand for 4 sports mixtures. Their window was full of sweets,Bassett”s Sherbert Fountains, Rhubarb Rock, floral gums, all different colours of kayli etc. Frozen jubblies mentioned earlier were 4d and we”de go and sit on the swings in the rec on hot summer days and suck them. Also Peak Frean”s biscuits in big tins and Lowcock”s lemonade etc and 3d on returned bottle -quarter of spam in greaseproof paper. I remember Lizzie and Winnie in their floral wrap around aprons.
Phil I think you got your Butchers and Chemist Shop mixed up, as I remember it it was Clarke”s the Chemist, Mr Clarke a tall slim man going slightly bald, with a moustache. There was also another butchers shop at the back of the Durham Road shops called Ayres the Butchers and I think his son may have had the butchers shop near to Creasers the Newsagents. There was also a greengrocers which may have replaced the Durham Road butchers shop at a later date. I remember on one of my visits to England asking the price of the avocado”s and being told one pound and I said that is a bit expensive for one avocado and the lady said it was one pound for the box of about twelve, which I immediately snatched up. At that time people were not in to avocado”s on Teesside, and did not know what to do with them.
In answer to David Mills” question. I do indeed remember Winnie Harbron”s shop. Were there two old dears running the shop? I used to run “messages” for my nana on a saturday morning to Winnie”s shop; and usually to Clarke”s, the butcher”s shop on Durham Road next to Spark”s and Jean Hunter”s shop down the bank (behind Creasers). I think Winnies was taken over by a Mrs Dryden in the early 60″s? She had two lads, Gary was one of them, can”t remember the other one.
On the subject of Durham Road . . . . does anyone remember the two old ladies who lived on the corner of Durham Road and Dundas Street in the 1950″s & early 1960″s? They may well have lived there for many years before that, but I only remember them from the 1950″s. Mrs Fox lived there with her (unmarried?) sister and she owned several houses in the area which she rented out, including 19 Londonderry Road, where I lived with my parents from around 1950 until 1958/59. She also owned my grandparents house, 15 Studley Road which they had the chance to buy from her for £600, this would have been around 1960. I started Newtown School in 1950 so didn”t have far to go, just a run along the back street and into the school yard. I remember going to Mrs Fox”s as a child with my Mother to pay the rent and remember the house as being very dark inside, Mrs Fox had a distintive nervous cough which I can hear to this day!
The Golliwog shop, that sure brings back memories Bob. The wall that was on the corner of the Golliwog shop and Zeatland Rd was our meeting place back in the early sixties. We used to meet our girlfriend there before going on to do our “courting” in the Durham Rd cemetery or the rec. How romantic!! Does anybody remember Winnie Harbrons corner shop round the corner from the Golliwog? Had many a “penny arrow bar” or “frozen jubly from Winnies.
In the early 70″s I rode the delivery bike for Walter Wilsons, the house you see on the right of the picture is where we lived 61 Castlereagh Rd. We moved there in 1959, and my mother still lives there.
Hi John
I know your mam very well & regularly talk to her, as she’s known our family for countless years.
My sister owned the Golliwog shop. She was there during the 60s and 70s.
Memories come flooding back talking about Clarke”s the Chemist Shop, situated behind the Chemist Shop was Doctor Websters Surgery in Appleton Road and having prescriptions dispensed by Mr Clarke. I remember spending a lot of time visiting Doctor Webster who lived opposite Ropner Park in one of the large houses on Darlington Road. I also recall some or the old non Medical cures for various illnesses, one I vividly remember was butter, sugar and vinegar for a sore throat.
Near Clarks Chemist was The Golliwog, a woolshop on the corner of Zetland Road.
Another shop along this stretch of Durham Road in the late 1950″s (early 1960″s?), close to the corner of Appleton Road, was Clark”s the chemist.
Gill Holmes, Gill now you”ve done it. Sparks jam but especially lemon puffs. I”m doing a Homer Simpson here the saliva is dripping off my fangs! As part of a holiday initiative back end of the 50″s visited Sparks Daylight Bakery. We watched the cream being dispensed from ceiling hung hoses onto the bases of jam sponges. A scene imprinted on my brain till this day. For a short while I worked for Ralph Spark”s son, a small electronics firm based called Sparksound on Borough Road in Middlesbrough.
Yes, I remember Walter Willson”s as a child. Further on, on the left there used to be a Sparks bakers shop where the greengrocer”s now is. I can still remember their lemon puffs, vanilla slices and ginger biscuits. There has always been a butcher”s next door to it, and the newsagents then was Creasers where we would buy something on the way to school. I also remember a Miss Bone who was postmistress in the 50s.
The bay windows & upstairs windows of those houses shown on the left haven’t changed in over 100+ years. The shop shown on the corner of Castlereagh Road is now a house.
But does anyone know any details regarding what type of shop this used to be and what it sold back in 1910’s onwards and when was it converted to a house??
I remember well Walter Wilson”s -in the late fifty”s. We lived at 99 Durham Road, at the end of Lambton road just opposite Walter Wilson”s and the fish shop. Our Newtown Junior school was a bit further down on the right.
The wine lodge. Before that I believe it was Walter Wilsons grocery shop.
The Wine Lodge shop as you call it Gill used to be Walter Wilson the Grocers, directly opposite the Fish and Chip shop owned by Mr Lloyd. Further down Durham road about fifty metres was a small group of shops including a Butcher”s Shop and a News Agent”s and opposite was Durham Road Post Office. Brings back many happy memories.
Gill Holmes – Gill was this at on time a Walter Wilson”s complete with the blue circle / yellow background & the well known “Smiling Service” logo?
The shop on the left – before it was the Wine Lodge was this shop Walter Wilsons in the 1950″s/1960″s?
Durham Road – On the left is Lambton Road and the shop on the left is the Wine Lodge (now closed). The road to the right is Castlereagh Road.