Mixed freight train about to pass under Junction road bridge at Roseworth (Seggy bridge) – the Nuffield Hospital now occupies the field behind the loco. Photograph and information courtesy of Dave Summerfield. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This is great. Do you know where the name Roseworth comes from. I live an area in Newcastle which had an old cottage called Roseworth Cottage in the late 1700s. It had a reverend gentleman living in it. Must have been rich because he enlarged it. It seems to have started many houses in the area with the same name. It is described as an old cottage standing on its own in 1816
This correspondence relates to lives that have altered beyond all belief in 2012. People would have said you were mad, if you said you could go to the moon. Nobody knew what it was made of, some people said green cheese! My Dad said ice. We too still get Ringtons tea and have two celebration mugs, I just wish we had got the teapot to go with the mugs. It is sad so many of my old friends were killed in road accidents. Ronnie Horton, Dixie Dean, Donald Wllley, they were all grand lads. Donald who lived on Junction Road was good at building model airoplanes – his flew, mine crashed, but Donald went to work for one of the big aircaft builders doing the war, I think Handley Page, anyway it was near London and Donald was found dead at the side of the road having had an accident on his autocycle. It was a great shame, his mother never recovered from the shock. It is strange nobody North of Norton ring road ever gets in touch with Picture Stockton. I think it is a great help in our local history like Norton Heritage.
That field – where the Nuffield Hospital and the Glebe housing estate is now – was a wonderful play area for me and friends when I was about 10 years old (1970ish). Some land was swampy and one had to be careful to know exactly where these areas were; not always apparent when in amongst crops which were head-height. We had a ‘den’ alongside the brook which flowed through the field because it was a good place to hide/play behind very overgrown shrubs which grew right along the banks of the brook on both sides. We lived at 131 Junction Road (the last house in Norton, next to the bungalow) and at the end of our very long, thin garden, gypsies would leave their horses to graze. I used to take them carrots to eat. Once, I squeezed through the end fence to be with them and when I walked around the back of one of the horses, it promptly kicked me hard on the back on my leg. I couldn’t sit down comfortably for weeks! Needless to say I didn’t go back to feed the horses again. Elsewhere on the site I have explained that in Norton we could hear the ice cream vans’ tunes come across on the wind from Roseworth on Sundays. We could also easily hear the two-tone signals from the trains. Often I could see them from my bedroom window when they stopped at the lowered signal, which you can just see on this photo, next to the houses, just to the right of the rising steam. My favourite recollection of all though is of calling my golden retriever dog, Beth, to my side when she had strayed away from me in the field. One could see the top of her head bobbing up and down as she searched for me. She would be repeatedly leaping into the air above the high-growing crops to see where I was. It’s such a shame that young people nowadays do not have the adventures that we had years ago in places such as this.
My Mother Sheila Andrews went to Oxbridge Lane School – born 1933 lived in a place called Rose Cottage in Hartburn near goods railway line. She left in 1957 and has never returned, however coming down to visit this weekend to go over old ground does anyone know if it still exists or does anybody know her!
Brian Swales. I have not recieved your email, could you try again please. Many thanks to Terry Wilson for valuable information regarding my Grandmother”s family, I had no idea that she had ten brothers and sisters, and hence, I have probably dozens of unknown second cousins. Sorry if we are turning this excellent website into a chat room, but it shows the power of an image and the memories it evokes.
Tim, I have sent you an e-mail regarding the Plumley surname.
To Terry Wilson. The power of this website is amazing. I was suprised, to say the least, to find that I have unknown relatives living so close to me. Yes, my grandmother was Laura Plumley, and I too grew up on the Roseworth Estate (Reditch Avenue)until I was 11 years old. I would be interested in your findings, I understood that the Plumley line came from Wales, is this correct? I have set up a temporary email address at tim.hardy10@googlemail.com if you wish to contact me.
To Tim Hardy – I spent many a happy hour in my youth trainspotting on the bridges on Junction Road & now live not far away in Norton. The names in your recent communications with Norman Kidd certainly rang some bells with me as my mother (now 82 & still living on Roseworth) had talked about some of her cousins called Birtle who lived at the railway cottages on Junction Road. You just don”t forget a name like “Bud”! Was your maternal grandmother, Edith”s mother , called Laura Plumley ? If so, she was the the sister of my maternal grandfather Henry. I sometimes feel I could be related to half of Stockton,yet walk past them.I managed to play in the same rugby team as a half cousin for 5 years and only discovered it when we met as both were accompanying our respective mothers (who were cousins unbeknowns to us) shopping! I have managed to pull together some details on the Plumley side if you are interested?
Bob, You have set the grey matter going now, it was Cpt Williamson that lived in the first house on Station Road. One daughter was called Josie nice looking girl We were well acquainted with the Wrigglesworth and Suddick families. Mrs Lowther of Milner Road was my God Mother. Oh yes there was rivalry between the different housing estates but non of the violence of today. It was just you did not get a game of cricket sometimes. I was very lucky and had some very good pals and spent a lot of time at Tunstalls Farm like you except I delivered the milk from the horse and milk float, I learned to ride and was allowed to take out the horse and trap many times for Jack Nicholson. Frank E. Franks wanted to buy the outfit outright when I took it down to meet Jack Nich from the races. It was a smart turnout, a dapple grey pony with new brown harness, and black and cream trap. Dot was the name of that little pony, but she could buck if ridden with the saddle. I can see the man now with his club foot pulling the Ord”s Bakery Cart. That”s a thought that has never entered my head for 70 years. I went to visit Marjorie Carrigan some months ago she and her husband made Joyce and I very welcome they lived near the Unicorn in her Norton days. You asked about the air raid shelter we moved from 8 Milner Rd about 1931 into 13 Grantham Rd brand new, and built by Frank Whitear who built both Grantham and Whitfield roads. We had an Anderson shelter in the garden which the Cawkwells shared with Mum and I while Dad was away in the war. I think they took a greengrocers shop and had a daughter called Enid. I think that was near the Unicorn as well.
I have a posting on this site regarding the area in which the Ring Road and the Glebe site is situated. Before anything was built the fields were worked by various people. Jack Lumley farming from the Glebe Farm, Lumleys of Darlington Lane who had a Market Garden and Tom Elcoate who had a Small Holding next to Lumleys Market Garden. My Grandfather had a Market Garden that he ran from his home in Ragworth Place and his land stretched fron the Church to approx 300 yards from the Cuckoo Railway and was as wide as from Parsons Walk to Junction Road, 34 acres altogether. A long time before there was building and it was my Grandfathers knowledge that building was going to take place, I was with him in the fields one day when he said there would be trouble with flooding if they carried out the work. He pointed out to me of underground streams and where they started from and where they went to an outlet. He wasn”t wrong either, because for years there was always a flood near to the Fussicks Bridge where at the point of the Ring Road it would be upto 4 feet deep and also effected the houses nearto this point. So for the knowledge of the “Old Timers.”
J Norman Kidd. Station Road started at Fulthorpe Rd. Junction Road started at the beginning of Station Road. On the corner of Fulthorpe/Station Road lived the Harrison’s who had their Joiners & Property Repair Shop at the back of the Tannery. I did remember a Sea Captain who lived in the 1st big house on Station Road. Edgar Manners was part of the Norton Cricket Team, very smart dapper man with a blonde moustache and a gold tooth. Very Military I would say. Living opposite Station Road in the houses up to Jameson Road was a Mr Skelton he was white haired. He was the owner of the Old Mill. I would say that the Sheep Dog Trials would have finished in about 1950 when they were then transferred to the Stockton Show at Ropner Park. I do remember the Ords Bakery Cart. I have a little add somewhere on this site describing it. When I was about 7yrs old I used to help to deliver with the chap who used it. He was called John and he had a clubfoot. We did rounds around Redwing Lane and up Junction Road to Ashville Ave. I would push the cart whilst he was at the front pulling and steering. For my work I received a currant loaf. I do remember the Ringtons cart. We still get Ringtons Tea delivered to the house every 2nd Tuesday. It is their 100th anniversary this year. They are going to sell a model (not toy) of the horse & cart as a commemorative keepsake. If you have any of their old vases, teapots, cups etc. they have a good antique value now. We keep buying these keepsakes hoping one day they will have value. When you lived in Jameson/Milner did you use the air raid shelter for those houses, which was sited, in my Grandfathers field next to the Church? When we were kids there was a lot of rivalry between the Walkers and children from Fulthorpe area. The Doyle’s, Wrigglesworths, Suddicks. It was mainly who had the biggest bonfire. Ours was in my Grandfathers fields and theirs was built in the dump next to the William Newton with entrance from Fife Road.
Bob Irwin, I am sure the sheep dog trials must have started sadly after I had left Norton for my job in Leeds. I would have enjoyed that very much. You have triggered a name from the past with Miss Dowse, I do recall the name but she did not teach me. Edgar Manners did indeed live in Fife Road was he a Norton cricketer?. Yes I had forgotten to include the Pickesgills lovely big house in my recollections of Junction Road. Our friends Capt Wilson and the Kidners, lived at “Veradale” ,right next to the post box, NOT the Ashville Avenue one! the one opposite Station Road. Do you remember Dr Ivy MD I think he was on the end of Fulthorpe and Juction Road he used to keep Airedale Dogs that ran up and down in his garden barking all the time!. Ord”s shop had a two wheel hand pulled contraption, with doors on to deliver bread around the area. We also had the Pikelet Man, Walls and Elderado ice creams, and of course Rington”s Tea with the Horse pulled delivery van and later vans. Strangely they now have a big celebration on now for 100 Years of Service. The Sea Captains were a big part of old Norton and all had flagpoles in their gardens Capt Egglestone lived in Grantham Road and survived the second world war convoys. I wonder what his reminiscences would reveal! People like him gave so much in the Merchant Navy as well as the Royal Navy. When I was leaving school the popular service in Norton was the Fleet Air Arm, that way you got both.
J Norman Kidd. Mentioning Newstead Farm, can you tremember the “Sheep Dog Trials” every Whit Monday? You could enter from the farm or they removed a bit of fencing at the top of Ashville Ave. My Grandfather (Jackson Walker)was always on the entrance in Ashville Ave and we got in for free. Also when you went up Junction Road and reached the end houses opposite the entrance to Smiths Nursery the pavement ended, there was a small dogleg and you were in the Country. At the end of this pavement there was a wooden bench seat. Was this seat dedicated to someone? When you mention the residents do you remember Miss Dowse my teacher at FN. She lived in No22 next door to Pickersgills in the big house. Also Edgar Manners in the end house in Fife Road.
Tim Hardy, What a small world it is, its about 70 years since I last played with your Uncle Bud, it would be through the children from Railway Cottages that I would have been privileged to go inside the signal box which incidentally, shone like a new pin. I think it would be Norton South. Bob mentions the Chapel in the triangle, I think if memory is correct Mr Towel (Harry Towel”s Father) was a lay Preacher there. They lived in the Milner Road – Jamieson Road area near Mrs Winspear”s shop in Milner Road. That little shop provided everything from sweets to fireworks – cinder toffee to mustard. I used to cycle down for loaves of bread. But in the main it was our local sweet shop, Garnets Toffee bars and liquorice wheels and woodbines at twopence halfpenny for five. It was indeed country fields from Fulthorpe Road, up as far as a pond just past Grantham Road on the left hand side. Then about a dozen semi detached houses before reaching “Kyle” where the Gordon family lived (Mickey). I dont think there was anything after that, except an older bungalow before the first bridge. On the other side of Junction Road from Station Road corner, was Ellcoats Nursery (Miss Ellcoate). I think the Barmoor Estate would be built on at least part of their land. The Horton family lived in one of a pair of semi detached house before Northalbert Road. Onwards were about five or six big detached houses, the Whiteley”s of Whiteley”s Music Shop and the Superintendent of Police Mr Hammond. Then Whitefield Rd, Grantham Rd, Ashville Avenue. Then Corby Lodge the home of the Armitage family, (formerly Tyson Hodgsons big house) now Marquise Drive,Road or whatever, next Newstead Farm the home of the Tunstall family who supplied milk to much of Norton, as well as the Co-Op. The Codlin family bought Newstead next, followed by the Durham”s. Visiting after all these years is quite harrowing, ring roads have been put in, estates built and ruined, some demolished, meanwhile Grantham Rd and Whitfield Rd appear to have improved. Why is that?
Correct, Tim The Housing line was built for railway folk “outside the triangle” in the late 1800s. They were superior dwellings having their own gas and piped water when most of the village was both oil-lit and pump water supplied. As well as a house-shop in one of the old cottages in the triangle, education wasn’t neglected with both children and adults able to attend classes in the Methodist Chapel. After 1873 School Act this building was used in very bad weather as an “out-station ‘for Norton Board for many of the railway and local farming children. A Monitor-teacher or Methodist Minister being in charge School inspectors reports covering this in the School-Log noted the excellent marks achieved More information is available, with both drawings and photos in ‘THE IRON-ROAD”, by Carol Fox, from Stockton Tourist Information Office.
J.Norman Kidd. “Buddy Birtle” to whom you refer is my uncle, Edward Birtle, now living in Bristol. He was always known as Bud apparently because as a youngster his face was as red as a rose bud. You are correct that the Railway Cottages was a community of its own. Even though the original Norton railway station was here, in the 1920″s and 30″s this area was quite remote and considered to be “out in the country”, becomming more accessible with the development of Junction Road. This web site, to my knowledge, does not contain any information about this row of cottages, perhaps Mr. Harbron can give some details of when they were built etc.. I assume they were originally intended for the railway staff who were employed around the local station and signal boxes.
Tim Hardy, Sorry Tim for slip with your family name. It is a long time ago that I played with Buddy Birtle, and trips into the signal cabin. In those days it was a proper community of railway people and what a pride was taken in the railway and its running. Nearly all railway houses at that time were as you describe and the people the salt of the earth. Best wishes to all, Norman.
To J.Norman Kidd. The family name at the Railway Cottages was Birtle (not Birtell), they lived at No.6 and I have many happy childhood memories playing around this area. My mother was Edith Birtle (later Hardy), she sadly passed away Nov. 2006 aged 85, but Tom, Edward, Margaret and Winifred are still with us. My grandfather was Tom Birtle and he worked as a Foreman at Stockton Shed and later at the “new” building in Thornaby, hence his entitlement to a railway dwelling. His son, also called Tom, went on to be a professional cricketer, playing for Northamptonshire. My early memories of the Railway cottages (2 up,2 down) were of gas lights, coal fired range, no bathroom and and outsde (non flushing) toilet. I now have a son named Tom. Incidentally, if the locomotive in the picture is a J27, and I am no expert, then I believe that an example of this class of locomotive is preserved and still running on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway between Grosmont and Pickering.
Yes there were two bridges on Juction Road I used to be wheeled up from Grantham Road as a baby to see the trains in the 1930″s. In about 1937 a family called Birtell lived in the Railway Cottages adjacent to the bridge. Roseworth did not exist in those days only Kia-Ora and Blakestone Lane. In the war we also had a prisonor of war camp and a big ammunition dump. Kia-Ora was an important Gun Site for the HAA Unit stationed there.
For the trainspotters from Roseworth the two bridges on Junction Road were refered to as Foggy (first) & Seggy (second) bridges – so named because this was how you approached them from Roseworth when heading towards Norton. There was also the Pigs Lugs, the Doubles, the Garages, Blakey Lane – all vantage points around Norton Junction.
I”ve not heard the name Seggy bridge either – and a large portion of my youth was spent here. The loco is a J27 with what looks like a nasty leak from its piston glands. Typical of the end of steam.
Looks like a J56/7. Seggy Bridge? I used to trainspot there. Didn”t know it was called that. 🙂