London bound express (diverted from the main line) passing the site of Norton Junction. Photograph and information courtesy of Dave Summerfield 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
London bound express (diverted from the main line) passing the site of Norton Junction. Photograph and information courtesy of Dave Summerfield
The good old days – I lived in Roseneath Ave right next to Junction Road bridge, we would sit on Rob McIntosh’s shed roof, train spoting all day when the divvy (DIVERSION) was on. HAPPY DAYS.
You”re dead right Annette, my Mam was Doris. Sadly she passed away in 1958 just a couple of years after we moved from Roseworth. I remember the days in Roseworth with fondness, we were quite a gang of young villains down that way and we were always covered in mud – at least until the pavements were laid! Lynda, you”re right too, Robert Alderson did have a brother called Christopher. His dad was a bricklayer and he built the new kitchen/bathroom for us at Hallifield Street before we moved, when Dad got the council grant to modernise it. My Uncle Billy did the plumbing and Dad laid the floors, put in the windows and the new fireplaces, while another family friend called George did the plastering. It was a very self-help world in those days.
Roseneath Ave……Anon even has the families in order from the Walker”s side of the street to Griffiths. I also remember all the other names. We were in no. 29 and Marram”s were also across the road.
Lots of references to Roseneath Avenue. I lived there for a time and I remember the Roberts, Lavericks, Spaceys, Blackburns, Pinkneys, Walkers, McGanns, Roberts, Youngs, Wallaces, Devlins, Brookes”, Kniefseys, Griffiths. The dates I lived there 1954 – 1964.
Hello Frankie Bowron I remember you from Roseneath Avenue, was your mum called Doris, if I remember rightly your mum was very kind to us when our mum was ill, I noticed my brother Phil has been in touch with you regarding the railway track at the bottom of our gardens. We moved into that house after my dad was demobbed from the RAF, we were the first occupants to move in to No 42, we used to play in the woods off Blakeston Lane, happy days!!
I lived at No 29 Roseneath Avenue from 1954 to 1967 but cannot remember many of the people who lived in the “little close” part of Roseneath, apart from the corner people who were called Roberts. They had two boys called Alan and Malcolm. Did Robert Alderson have a brother called Christopher? Seem to remember someone of that name. We ended up in Roseneath after my dad was demobbed from the RAF. My name was Brookes then and I had a younger brother (David) and sister (Lesley). We all attended Redbrook School, which I gather has recently had a 50 year re-union. I didn”t find out about it until after the event which is a shame because my year was there from the beginning in 1957.
Hi Phil, ah yes it was Annette, it comes back now. Your neighbour on the other side was a chap called Malcom who had lost both his legs, he had a son called David I think. He was a scoutmaster and in later years he took me for the exam to get my cyclists badge. Next door to us in 46 were the Aldersons. I have a photo of myself and Robert Alderson standing in the cockpit of a Vampire at Thornaby Air Show. (Come to think of it, that might be a good photo for this site) Roseworth was brand new at that time (early fifties) and apart from those coming from the Stockton “slum clearance” programme, a lot of those who moved in were the families of men recently demobbed from the armed forces.
Jonathon Clayton. Your Grandfather was a Signalman working in the Signal Cabin which was near to where the lines went to Carlton and to Hartlepool. With my brother and Grandfather we would go to this cabin and sit with your G/father. If we had any rabbits that we had shot he always got one. Eric Clayton was in the year above me at Frederick Nattrass School. I have past his business premises many times when driving through Carlton and along the Letch Lane back to Norton.
Hi Frank You are correct – my name is Philippe and the sisters were Annette & Madeleine. Both still alive and well living in the Cleveland area. We moved to Primrose Hill in 1956 I believe. I was too young to remember much about the Roseworth house other than the trains whizzing past! Annette does contribute to this site from time to time.
Aye, I remember there was a little chap from next door called Phillip – your Mum pronounced it the French way. Was one of your parents French or French Canadian? I think you had two sisters – one called Madeleine but I can”t remember the other girl”s name. As I”ve found a couple of times on this sight, memories aren”t always as good as you”d hope… If I recall properly you moved to a house in Ragworth some time around 1955.
We lived at 42 Roseneath in the mid 1950″s and I seem to remember (although I was only a little “un)standing on the draining board and looking out of the kitchen window at the steam trains going past at the bottom of the garden.
We lived in 44 Roseneath Avenue (we were the first occupants when it was built) and our garden backed onto the line just south of the Junction Road bridge from where this photo appears to have been taken. We had a grandstand view of all that passed during a diversion. I got all of the “Streaks” in my Ian Allen at the time – and The Flying Scotsman on more than one occasion. “Hawes Wood” in the background was colloquially known as Ozzies Wood to us young tykes and we often roamed over there, getting home “arl clarty” from catching newts in the flooded clay pit. “Tarzan” sometimes held court on the bank, hard by the bridge and just to the left of where the photograph was taken. He”d regale us with tales of his jungle adventures – all in his imagination I guess.
My grandfather was the signalman (stationmaster?) and lived in the buildings behind the train during the war. My father (Ted Clayton) grew up there and later worked at ICI in Billingham where I grew up. My uncle is E A Clayton who has the John Deere dealership in Carlton. I live in the States now and was saddened when they tore this place down.
I used to live in Romsey Road and watch the trains in my mis-spent youth in the 1950″s. From my bedroom window on a night I would see the live cinders being ejected by the goods engines climbing Stockton Bank, what memories! I have a large collection of photographs and colour slides taken on the bank and at Stockton but always seeking more.
Well done to all of the writers of the above comments,oh! what fantastic memories of the Sunday diversions. I used to leg it down Romsey road from Ragpath Lane to get to the line in hope of seeing an A4, A3, A2, A3 Pacific!!!!!! I remember the streak Bittern was used frequently!
Re: Sidings on the “back line”. The 1938 official “Handbook of Stations” identifies Norton Junc. Siding (Bell”s Siding), ie where the trucks are in this photo, right on the back of the curve. Presumably, the Handbooks next reference to Norton-on-Tees Gas Works Siding is connected with the Gas Supply House already identified in the comments section for this photo. Whether this siding(s) is at the front of the back curve (more likely from past inspection and informers, it extends at least half of the curve), or a short spur on some maps hugging the inner side of the west curve (ie just behind the coaches above, or where the caravan is on picture t2183, although long lifted)is unclear. I know of no other rail connected gas works at Norton, unless it could be some throwback to the long gone iron works. The Gas Works Siding is deleted by the time of the 1956 Handbook, although entries for Bell”s Siding, Stockton Concrete Works, Crookes Farm Siding and Norton -on-Tees Station Yard appear in both the 1938 and 1956 Handbooks. The back quarry line presumably a short lived constructors or internal users line (on one web reference) is not mentioned at all.
No.60020 “Guillemot” arrived for cutting at Darlington Loco Works in March 1964. Britannia No.70005 withdrawn in July 1967, was sold for scrap to Campbells of Airdrie in Jan 1968.
Norton Junction – The A is passing the earliest railway single floor cottages of the 1830/40s, (roof-line and chimney stack above loco) The ticket office and parcel at the south end of this row became a Methodist Chapel from 1877 till the demolition of this row in the late 1970s for Harpers Garden Centre. The brick building (above loco tender) is the Gas-house, which supplied to railway housing and local farms. The Inspectors-House was gas-lit till 1980s (British-Gas) is behind the second coach and is still occupied. A rake of steel coal /iron-ore wagons stands on “The Back-Line” Sky lined is the extensive “Hawes-Wood “, with its tree and bush covered gravel and stone Quarry camp- site for Stockton District Boy-Scouts, from 1920s to 1950s Woodland gone, now site of Norton Golf Club. The stone wall to the left was part of a boundary wall alongside a track from Junction Road for horse drawn wagons, the wooden fence (bottom, centre) was the original gated access to the Junction.
The Sunday morning only East Coast Main Line diversions, finishing about 1 pm, brought very little traffic. The all day Sunday diversions usually finishing well into the evening brought a lot of much appreciated inter-regional traffic. If you were lucky such diversions could start early on Saturday evening, with the sound of endless Deltics resonating through the Blue Hall and Roseworth Estates(a change from WDs and EE Type 3s, on loose coupled endless freights). Possibly the last unpreserved Pacific through Norton Juncs was Britannia No.70005, “John Milton” hauled past in scrap condition by a diesel in late 1967, around dinnertime, just before the 1 pm express to Kings X. Thus it was seen by an astonished proportion of Fred. Nattress schoolboys. Nobody could find this Pacific in the local scrapyards, and I think it was scrapped at Hull.
Stan. I see what you mean when you mention the trespasser. I can say that I used to trespass on this line towards Fussicks Bridge. We collected wild strawberries from off the embankment. Very nice they were but a took a lot to make a dessert for the tea. We also shot rabbits along the embankment. Believe it or not the railway rabbits tasted different to the ones caught in the fields. We also collected coal and coke which was discarded from the trains.
Norton Junction, a piece of the original Norton staion is still visible to the south of the railway housing terrace in Junction Road opposite Harpers where the present lines meet. A much bramble and nettle overgrown wooden and gapped platform (sleepers?) and the stunted remains of original fence posts are in place. An ideal place for brambling. No sign of brick or stone work, it must have just been a halt .
Dave – Great memories keep flooding back when I see photographs like this. I must admit, however, I did have to check my A4 listings to see which engine was 60020. “Guillemot” being the answer. When I was a kid train spotter I knew all the names without referring to books, as I am sure you did. By the way, isn”t the person near the second carriage trespassing?
A Sunday afternoon London bound express (diverted from the main line) passing the site of Norton Junction station, now the site of Harpers Garden Centre on Junction Road – I believe a second Norton Junction station was built further to the south of this location when the new larger curve was opened in 1875 (I have a railway map from 1920 showing the remains of the new 1875 platforms in the junction of the lines at what is now Norton South Junction). This image of Gresley A4 (Streak) number 60020 will bring a smile to the faces of anyone who spent many happy childhood days in the Fifties & early Sixties trainspotting around the vantage points at Norton Junction – on a weekend there were always large groups of kids at the two bridges on Junction Road or at the garages at Norton South box or further down the bank towards Fuswick Bridge – a shout would go up of “Streaaaaak” which would echo down the line & kids would give up whatever mischief they were up to & race to the lineside to watch the awesome engines & carriages glide past – most of us could only dream of ever reaching the destinations on the carriage boards – London Kings Cross!!Much ridiculed today, trainspotting was a way of life for many young kids during the post war years when money was in short supply – all we needed was an Ian Allen spotters book & a pencil – our parents would not see us until we came home hungry & ready for a bath.