The Co-op building and funeral furnishing department on Hutchinson Street 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
The Co-op building and funeral furnishing department on Hutchinson Street
hi i dont know this street but my granddad john thomas franks (jack ) lived there on his marriage lines dated 1931 it says he lived at 26 hutchinson street.if any one knows any information on him it would be much appriciated regards michelle
I too went to Mill Lane school with my brother Keith in 1952 the only teacher I can remember was a Miss Train. We lived in Brunswick Street,
Read Mary Bruce”s comments about going to Mill Lane School, I starterd there in 1945 to 1955. Lived in 3 Dean Street that was at the bottom end of Dovecot Street near the moor. I moved to Roseworth When I was 13, and then Later in life I too have moved to Suffolk, where about in Suffolk do you live Mary?
I was born in Stockton and went to Mill Lane Infants from 1944-1948. I lived in 24 Hutchinson Street, my aunty Sarah, uncle Sid cousin Jeoffrey lived in no 22 and my aunty annie and family lived in no 20. I don”t where my relations are now, can anyone help? I moved away from Stockton when I was young and now live in Suffolk. I just found this web site and I think it”s great!
Hi Alan, Yes I attended the school from 1947 to 1957 and travelled down Stamp St to Hutchinson St, Dixon St to school. Its quite a coincidence that you mentioned the old railway turntable. Me and a friend actually helped the engine crew to turn the turntable with a loco on it and as a reward we were given a ride on the loco to the rear of Walter St before getting off as they were going to Redcar. Got home late to a walloping for causing mother aggro. We were about 10 or 11yrs old at the time.I fondly remember walking past the old co-op laundry and smelling the strong smell of starch and watching the women working huge steam presses. Then onto the large boiler house that supplied the laundry. Remember the smell eminating from the co-op bakery Alan? The smell of freshly baked bread and then home to tea. It”s all changed now Alan. I took a copy of the photo for old times sake. Remember Jerry Carer”s shop on Dovecot St where we used to get our sweet and ice lollies on the way to school? Where did it all go eh??
I enjoyed reading your comments about the Co-oP establishments in Hutchinson Street Keith. I remember all what you described apart from the stampeding cattle etc. Perhaps I was just unlucky on a few occasions. I remember enjoyed watching the loco turntable near the footbridge. I could never understand how one man could manually push a loco completely around. I attended Mill Lane Infants from 1942 until 1944 when I transferred to Holy Trinity. Were you at Mill Lane at that time?
What an excellent photograph. I agree with Alan Wealleans re-the manufacture of coffins. I used to pass this location every day of my schooldays travelling from Balaclava St across the footbridge near the railway station, down Stamp St to Hutchinson St then Dixon St. I vividly remember the smell of burning horse hooves as the blacksmiths were shoeing the stores milk delivery horses. The blacksmith used to give me and my brother a handfull of bright shiny nail used to shoe the horses with. Just to the right of the blacksmiths shop was Mill St West and Bob Bells allotment where he used to keep racing pigeons. Bob lived with his family in Stamp St. Does Alan remember the day”s when cattle drovers used to drive maybe a dozen or so cows from the stock yard near the Station down to the slaughter house in Calafornia St scattering us school kids and frightening us to death at the prospect of being trampled to death, or the flocks of sheep running amock. No wonder we were always late for school and six of the best from old Pop Bailie at Mill Lane school. Happy day”s eh?????????????
This is the first time I have seen the street of my birth on the web site. The open doorway to the right is where the Co-op blacksmith”s shop was in the nineteen forties. My Dad sent me there to collect the horse droppings for our allotment near the Moor Hotel.We had a little wooden box on four old pram wheels,probably from my pram! When we had collected enough to warrant it we would push the cart from Hutchinson Street to the garden. No mean task! The building to the left was the Co-op Joiners shop. Many weird and wonderful things were made there. Wheels for the milk floats and coffins to name two. It was the lovely smell of the resin in the softwood that first got me to thinking of a career in the woodworking trades.when I was as young as six or seven. I also kept rabbits at this time and got my free sawdust and shavings for the hutches in there. Immediately to the left of the properties shown were the houses on the west side of the street. The first three or four of these had been bought by the Co-op for the sole purpose of storing their ready made coffins. Macabre but true. On dark and stormy nights I dare not look over that side of the street in case I saw something I couldn”t explain!!