Stockton High Street seen from the Swallow Hotel during the 1990s.
Photographs courtesy of Vince Hopson.
Stockton High Street c1990s
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Stockton High Street seen from the Swallow Hotel during the 1990s.
Photographs courtesy of Vince Hopson.
Picture Stockton Archive 
I DROVE FOR THE NORTHERN 1967 – 1970 I REMEMBER THE 55 AND 45 ROUTES IT TOOK YOU ONE AND A HALF HOURS FROM CHESTER-LE ST TO HARTLEPOOL AND TWO HOURS TO THE BORO WE DROVE THE ROUTEMASTERS THEY VARIED IN NO 2104 TO 2111
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I recall travelling from Stockton to Shildon/Bishop Aukland in the mid 50″s.This was on a single decker which left from Church Road outside the Parish Church. I was 5 or 6 years old at the time and believe that the bus had “Favourite Services” on the side and may have been cream with brown trim. I remember that it vibrated violently when standing still and has left me with a road travel sickness problem to this day. I cannot travel more than a couple of miles, as a passenger, without feeling sick or getting a bad headache!
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Re-SDO in Stockton Further to SDO working into Stockton I worked for SDO for a number of years on the engineering side rather than traffic so I’m not 100% about this but as far as I remember SDO never ran into Stockton on a regular basis only to Hartlepool. In the 60″s we did run evening tours on Sundays in the summer, they may have been seen in Stockton then. Hope this is of interest.
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I don”t beleive that SDO ever ran into Stockton. They were participants on the 40 route but by 1955 or so that route ran in two halves: NGT and SDO working Newcastle to West Hartlepool; United working Sunderland to West Hartlepool, with every other journey extended to stockton and Middlesbrough. The interworked Sunderland to West Hartlepool had a 15 minute frequency. The 45 service Newcastle to West Hartlepool via Houghton le Spring was created about 1956 joining NGT”s 12 with United”s 40A. I don”t remember SDO paricipating in that operation other than for irregular short workings in the Houghton area.
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Apparently this was taken in the “80s. I was just guessing, as I didn”t have any dates on record for this pic. I”m glad my pics were of interest to you all. Cheers.
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I can remember in the 1950s the cream and brown Crowes buses, going on a Sunday trip from Stockton “to the moors” with my mam and dad, getting off at Clack Lane End and walking up to Osmotherly then to Sheepwash (past the new reservoir at Cod Beck) for a picnic then walking on to Swainby, to catch the Crowes bus back to Stockton, What an adventure I thought these trips were at the time. My grandchildren now enjoy picnics at sheepwash when we visit the area, the only thing that has changed is we now go straight there by car. I may be wrong but I dont think both services went all the way I think one service went Stockton to Osmotherly and met up with the Swainby service at Craythorne which then went via Hutton Rugby.
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To Chris Hall. You have got me searching my memory banks now re Sunderland and District Omnibus service into Stockton.I left Stockton in 1963 so it would have been before then. The dates would probably have been the late 1950″s to mid 1960″s. It is also possible that they may have only come into Stockton on the two Market days, Wednesday and Saturdays and, if my meomory is correct, their route was in along Norton Road from Norton. As to the type of vehicle I can only hazard a guess at them being AEC”s or GUY”s. I do remember the Northern General only ran one service through Stockton with United providing most of the other services to the distant towns such as Newcastle, Darlington and beyond.
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Talking about Scurrs Buses Brings back memories as My wife Marie Kennedy as she was then lived in Stillington so we was always running to catch that last bus out of Stockton to Stillington especially on a Saturday night, it went from outside the old Cattle Market near to the present Civic Offices. The Scurrs Family also had the Farm just out of Stillington and had two daughters and a son who have all emigrated out to Australia. As a matter of fact my wife and I are going out to lunch today with Maureen Scurr as she was then and Peter Wells ex Stillington boy who are married obviously and live not far from us on the outskirts of Melbourne. Maureen wil be interested to know that people still remember the family Bus service that served Stillington and surrounding districts for so many years.
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George, you are correct the name “Scurrs” had escaped me I alway remembered two boys out of my class at Holy Trinity dashing out of school up the high street every night to catch the bus to stillington, I think one was John Story the other I can”t remember the name, Peter ??
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Thank you for the detailed information on the “Economic” it could be that through the passing of time the mind has become confused, In the 40’s early 50’s (thats showing my age) I used to visit a favourite Aunt in South Shields, I thought that we travelled on the Economic which only ran direct on certain days, otherwise we caught the “United” and had to change at Sunderland (There were still noisy rattling trams operating on the shiny rails ) and get on the Economic to the Crown Hotel at the bottom of Mowbray Road, One thing about this site it does drag up a lot of past memories distorted or otherwise
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To Mr George Clement,Re Sunderland and District running into Stockton . Hello Sir, I have spoken to an historian who specialises in this operator, he says there was only two services which S.D.O could have operated into this area, they were the 40 route, which was Newcastle, via Sunderland ,to Hartlepool, which ran via the coast, and the 45 route,Newcastle/Sunderland/Hartlepool, which ran via Chester le Street. They were operated jointly between S.D.O, United and Northern General. The only other Northern General route which ran through Stockton was the 55 route, which was operated by Northern, jointly with United, and ran from Newcastle to Middlesbrough, via Durham and Stockton. This route used Northerns famous Routemaster Buses during the 1960s. If you could remember some dates, or type of vehicles used, I might be able to provide you with further details for you. regards Chris Hall.
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To Mr Ray Buck, I don”t know a great deal about Crowe Brothers other than they operated out to Osmotherly,the other Operator you mention, is”Economic”of Whitburn. This Operator consisted of two companies, G.R Anderson, and E.W Wilson, who operated under the name of “Economic”, their livery was indeed Brown with Cream relief. Economic operated two busy routes between Sunderland and South Shields, and the fleets consisted of mainly AEC Reliance type vehicles. They were taken over by Tyne and Wear PTE on Jan 1st 1975,and the fleetname “Economic”dissapeared to be revived as an operating subsidury company of “Busways” which is what the Tyne and Wear PTE became after de-regulation in 1986. I can”t recall Economic, either the original company, or the Busways subsidury, operating into Stockton though.
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To Ray Buck. I think you will find that at one time the buses that ran between Stockton and Stillington were operated by Scurrs. If my memory serves me right, Crowe”s only operated a service into Stockton from Osmotherly on Market Days.
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The buses out to the Osmotherly/Hutton Rudby direction were run by Crowe”s Bros. Their buses in my time were pre-war single deckers in a yellowish cream with brown trim. Their garage was in Hutton Rudby and therefore I doubt that they ran a Stillington service. I used to take the bus out to visit a farm in Crathorne. I think their bus service ceased when they began a coach service
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Who ran the bus service out to Stillington and Osmotherley directions, I have vague recollection of Crow’s, which were cream, there was also the Economic which I think ran from Stockton to Sunderland, Whitburn then on to South Shields, these were brown if my memory serves me correctly
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Peter Weatherall – Peter thank you for the clarification, it was obviously Harlepool bus station that I must have seen them.
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The brown and cream buses of G&B were owned by Gillet&Baker and ran mainly around the pit villages of Mid Durham to Hartlepool, I don”t remember them running to Stockton.
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To Mr C Hall. Thanks for your enlightening reply about the buses. I certainly remember buses belonging to Sunderland District running a service into Stockton from Sunderland. It might well have been via Hartlepool. Their buses were dark blus in colour, if my memory serves me right. I did discover some years ago that Wilkinsons, who were based at Sedgefield, were taken over by United. It was Wilkinsons I travelled on when I went to visit my grandfather who lived in Spennymoor. I had forgotten about the trolley buses that belonged to the Teesside Railless Traction Board. In fact I recently bought a model from Lledo of one of the trolley buses in the TRTB colours with North Ormesby as the destination on the model. In this part of the world, Hampshire, we only have one major bus company, Stagecoach South East although a couple of independent companuies offer a limited service in the area.
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Back in the mists of time, do any of you knowledgeable gentlemen remember, a small outfit that ran a few buses, I think, between Stockton & Hartlepool? The company was called G & B and it”s colours were brown & cream.
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To Mr George Clement, The Bus De-regulation era had echoes of the 1920s when there were many Operators running in severe competition with each other, sometimes with dubious methods. All this was stopped in 1930, with the introduction of that years road traffic act, which required Bus services to be fair, and co-ordinated and above all safe. Things were fine until De-regulation in 1986, when it was all thrown to the wolves! and you had lots of new operators creaming of the revenue from the established companies. However, History as always has a habit of repeating itself, and you now have a situation where we have a couple of big operators running most of everything again. Of the operators you mention, Stockton, Middlesbrough (and the Teesside Railless Traction Board) became first Teesside Municipal Transport, then Cleveland Transit, and now Stagecoach North East.Scurrs were sold to Trimdon Motor Services, who were later acquired by United Automobile, who were later to become part of Arriva. Durham District, and Crowe Brothers, were also acquired by United. Sunderland District,and OK Motor Services, were also acquired by Northern General, to become part of what is now Go North East. I can”t recall Sunderland and District ever working into Stockton, but they did have a route into Hartlepool. Hope this is of interest to you.
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To Mr Martin Spires,Some further comments regarding the Buses on these two pictures.The Brown and Cream Bus turning in the middle of the High Street does as you correctly state, belong to the operator Robsons Town Service, it is one of three Bristol LH Buses owned by this operator at this time. Two of these came from Northampton Corporation, the other from London Transport. The Blue and White vehicles are all Trimdon Motor Services vehicles, most of which are also Bristol LH Buses. T.M.S acquired a large fleet of these vehicles from various sources,during 1985, in preparation for the introduction of new services, on De-regulation Day in 1986. If you look on the second photo, you can see a Delta Coaches vehicle next to the Shambles,on the North bound side of the High Street with a van parked behind it. This vehicle is identified (by the three small windows at the rear) as one of their many Bristol RE Buses. Delta Coaches, originally a Taxi company,initially operated two stage carridge services in Stockton from De-regulation day, and eventually had a network of services, and school contracts. They ceased operating around 2004.Their livery was overall white, with a Red and Blue band which went around the vehicle. This was later changed to an awful Red and Grey livery, which in my view did nothing to enhance their appearance. The Green, White, and Yellow Buses are all Cleveland Transit vehicles. Finally a slight correction, Trimdon Motor Services were acquired by United Automobile services on 22nd of March 1990, whilst United were acquired by what is now Arriva, around 1992.
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Chris and Martin, Whilst I will not dispute the names of the buses in the photos, having left Stockton in 1963, but as a boy growing up inthe town there were a number of bus companies operating. Stockton and Midlesbrough Corporation buses along with United, Northern, Wilkinsons, Scurrs, Trimdon Motor Services, Durham and District, Sunderland District Omnibus,and Crowe Bros of Osmotherly. so much for deregulisation when most of those names have disappeared. I occasionally see coaches belonging to OK Motor Services in this part of the world, Hampshire.
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Chris, Correct me, but I”m sure the Blue & White buses in the photo are Delta and the Brown & Cream are Robson”s. Deregulated services Late March 1988.
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The other thing to notice about this picture, is that it was taken at the height of the so called “Bus Wars”, during the period when Bus Services were deregulated. The Blue and White Buses all belong to Trimdon Motor Services, who were Cleveland Transit”s (and United”s) biggest competitor at that time, T.M.S registered many Services around Stockton from 1986, and remained a thorn in Cleveland Transit”s side for years. Trimdon Motor Services were taken over by Arriva (as was United) whilst Cleveland Transit became part of Stagecoach, and survives today as Stagecoach on Teesside.
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This photograph, and the next one,(if it was taken at the same time) were taken no later than October 1989, this is because the two Cleveland Transit Double Deckers seen on the right hand side of the high street in the first photo, were of a type which had all been taken out of service by this date.
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