A view of Norton High Street showing the Jubilee Cross and the Red Lion Inn. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A view of Norton High Street showing the Jubilee Cross and the Red Lion Inn.
At the end of the back gardens on Weston Crescent was there just a wall between the back garden and the dog track? I ask as there is some dispute about where the ends of the back gardens are. Thanks.
I grew up in Weston Crescent and the dog track was DEFINITELY behind our house. My Dad used to lift us kids up and we peeked over our back fence to glimpse the dogs running. Lying in bed at night I could hear the megaphone “Over to you Mr Starter”. The dog track ran down the back of Mount Pleasant Road and along the back of the houses on Weston Crescent up to about number 25.
Barry, I think you are wrong. Mount Pleasant Road finished at Gladesfield Road and then it became Weston Crescent; this would have been where the car park was for the track. Weston Crescent backed onto Belle View dog track which backed onto Swainby Road all along side each other. Cheers, Peter
The dog track backed on to BOTH Weston Cres AND Mount Pleasant Rd. I lived in Mt P and my boyfriend lived ten doors away in Weston Cres and the dog track was behind both our homes. Whenever I go back now I still think it looks strange without the track – just those brick houses now.
THE DOG TRACK AT BELLE VUE WAS BEHIND MOUNT PLEASANT NOT WESTON CRESCENT, I HAD A FRIEND WHO LIVED IN WESTON CRESCENT HIS DAD WAS JIM DANKS AND I SPENT A LOT OF TIME AT THEIR HOUSE, I LIVED IN SWAINBY ROAD WHICH ALSO BACKED ONTO THE DOG TRACK.
Theresa, your Grandad is correct. The dogtrack at Belle View did back onto Weston Crescent. I delivered the papers for Thomas”s newsagents to Weston Crescent in the back end of the 60″s.
theresa buttill the dog track was on norton road.the entrance was by the road next to the belle view fishshop,which was the name of the dog track. my father-in-law told me that when he was a young lad –he was born in 1908– he used to go to the track and the bookmakers used to get the young lads to race round the track for a penny so that they could put bets on them before the dogracing actually started. some of the kids did nothave shoes and the track was made of cinders so it must have been tough on the feet.my father-in-law must have benefitted from it because he later joined the army as a boy soldier and he used to run for the regiment.
was there ever a dog racing track in Norton my granddad tells me there was and he would love to see some old photos if any one has any He said his house in Weston crescent backed on to the track.can you help
Thanks Bob for all your hard work in Norton, the photographs brought back many happy memories of my life in Norton 1928-1951. My relations Thomas Kidd and family lived in a house called The Laurels, it stood on the High Street next to Mr Currys residence called The Manor. It has dissapeared now, and I would be interested to know why it was knocked down? I can not remember the number. The family moved into Keithlands Avenue about 1938. Flying Officer Alfred Kidd the only son, was killed in 1944, a Navigator Pilot on Lancasters over Germany.