Does anyone remember the name of the pub which I believe was run by the father of the Elcoate sisters who when their father died changed it to a sweet shop which I used to go in. The two sisters where big ladies with respect saying that any photos of the shop when as a pub thank you
I went to William Newton, and our Cookery teacher Miss Colman would send me to pick up groceries at the shop I think was called Caukwells, a few doors up from Nellies or the Unicorn. Everything had to be weighed and it seemed to take ages. We would take in 2/0 shillings old money for the provisions towards our cooking class. Our mothers would complain that if they went to the Co-op it would be a lot cheaper plus they would get the divi as well. Most of the time the stuff we made we would eat on the way home regardless wether it was eatable or not. On the other side of the high street was a sweet shop run by two sisters, cannot remember the name. You took a few steps down to get in and we would take ages to make our minds up what we wanted.
That was the Elcoat sisters shop. I used to spend a few old pence on sweets on the way home from Norton Board school. As an older teenager I got to know them better. They kept peacocks in their garden, and when they escaped one of them would be up ladders and on to roofs. She was probably at least 65 by then.
My brain is saying the second Butchers shop in Leven Road was Lumleys from the farm next to the Alms Houses, I went to school with one of the lads, they also had some connection with Lamberts farm where the prison is now. My mother and I walked to Middlesbrough, along the track, past the farm and over the Newport Bridge and saw it open and shut a few times, or I should say lift and lower, fascinating to a budding young engineer. I do not know about Jeavens I thought it was Clark’s Chemist. My sister in law says it was definitely Hutton’s Dairy and sweet shop next to the school. A week away now so will read up when I return.
Quite right Frank and in order. I remember the Police Station. As kids we found 2 collie dogs roaming in my G/fathers fields. We took them to the police station through the front door. On leaving we saw the same 2 dogs in the High Street. The ‘bobbies’ had let them go out the side door while we were still in the office. As regards the shops to the right of the archway, I can never remember the Huttons sweet shop but remember a chemists there called Jeavons.
This has set the memory juices flowing. It was Tommy Lowes and it set me to trying to name all the shops along that block. A couple of houses then Greens shoe repair shop was at the northern end of the block then the back school yard. We had the Police house then Pickersgils (correct me if I am wrong Bob) a couple of houses and then the School Caretakers house just befor the clock entrance to the school. On the otherside of the clock entrance was a sweetshop Miss Hutton or Hunton? I went to the board school with her son but did not get free sweets. We often bought a penny toffee and then you pushed out a number on a board to see if you had won more sweets, I hit the golden one getting a huge bar of chocolate and made myself ill. There was another shop? then Tommy Lowes. It was normal for Rabbits to be hung outside heads fur and all but the butcher would skin them for you if required. My Father had a large heavy catterpult he took with him on the truck and often came back with a couple of rabbits he had knocked over with it. Either mother or I would skin it after it had hung for a day outside and we had rabbit pie, lovely. Stan Everitt and his wife used to meet up with a group of us in the Horse and Jockey and many a memorable argument ensued. Stan was quite forceful on some subjects but he was among people who also pursued a subject to death so it got a bit noisy, he was living on the Green at that time. I am still possitive there were two Butchers at the top end of Leven Road, Everitt was one nearest the High Street. I cannot remember an Eddie Reeves which shop did he work at? Talking about rabbits Dad and I went out on the farm to bring some rabbits back for the pot, I had the shotgun Dad had his catterpult, the place was over run with rabbits, he got three I got none.
In reply to Frank P Mee on 16/05/11, I wonder if the Butcher’s, whose name he can’t remember, on the same side as Norton Board was my Grandfather’s Tommy Lowes Egg & Poultry Shop, located at 2 High Street. It became an Estate Agents after his death in 1959, the house later on being turned into Lindsay’s Bistro. I went to school at Norton Board and can’t remember if there was another Butcher’s on that block. We often called in to see my Grandfather in his shop after school, but as he died when I was six I unfortunately have few memories of him.
My dad, Eddie Reeves, also worked for him as well. I can’t remember the years. Did you know my wonderful dad? He passed away years ago. I remember him being a very good worker. He did a fantastic job and cleaned up all the mess after the job!
Was the butchers alongside the Norton Board School called Laws Frank. He was more noted for his game and you would always see rabbits, hares, partridges and pheasants being displayed in his shop window. Maybe some hanging just outside the door. Also eggs. This shop is where Browns the Estate Agents is now. I can only remember Everetts shop in Leven Road. I do remember the Co-op further along Leven Road but no the butchers. Stan Everett lived on the Green just around the corner from Ragworth Place. He lived in the house of Mr Brown of the toy and record shop in Stockton High Street. This I think was before Mr Brown lived there.
‘Thanks for the memory’… The Butcher at the 0 bus terminus was Billy Toulson, I watched animals being killed and butchered in the area which is now the pie making kitchen and hung off the meat hooks more than once when they escaped. That is now Blackwells and I still enjoy those freshly cooked pies sitting on the green. Half way down the High Street was Curry and Hutchinson later London’s. Tommy Hutchinson killed our pigs, all done at my home 5 Mill Lane, it was he who shouted to me ‘pick up the gun (humane killer) and aim true’ when he and Father were struggling to hold down a pig when the ring came out of its nose. I killed my first pig at just fourteen or slightly younger quickly and on the mark Tommy said he could use me but butchery was not in my blood. Being brought up on the farm and our own small holding we saw it regularly so it was no big deal, it would horrify youngsters today though. There was a Butcher near the Norton Board School and the same side, the name escapes me also the Co-op on the same side as Sparks, plus if I am right two butchers at the top end of Leven Road and another one in the shops half way down Leven Road under the Co-op Dance Hall. They all seemed to prosper, after we had killed our two pigs a year allowed under wartime conditions and given the two to the government the rest went to those local butchers. It was mainly because my Father refused to feed fish meal or the waste collection additive the government supplied. That was all the waste food from house, collections works and school canteens with farmers field clearings of vegetables that had gone over, mainly cabbage. Having our own transport we picked up the waste from R Sparks factory, waste from Pumphry’s jam factory mainly lemon curd. Mr Skelton who owned the Mill down Mill lane Norton was a pal of my Dad and he was a manager at Pumphry’s. We would scrat the fields after potato picking and get enough potato’s to store and feed the pigs all winter. I would scrub and boil the potato’s for the week in a large boiler behind the stables and to that would be added the waste from the jam factory and Sparks – the pigs loved it and the bacon was free from the fishy taste the fish meal gave to it. Every couple of days or so I would throw some lumps of coal into the pig run which they chewed up getting minerals from that. Dad was noted for his bacon and when the local Bobby came to remonstrate with my Mother for driving the Austen two seater without a licence he let her off with a warning and went away with some bacon in a brown paper bag in his pocket. As an aside, Mother would give me a carrier with some bacon and other things in it saying go and put that behind Mrs So and So’s front door and do not let her see you, the woman may well have been on the point of starvation with a Husband away in the forces and kids to feed but you could not be seen to give charity. How times have changed.
Starting at Harlands shoe repair shop – Gallons, McGlaughlans wool shop, Tom Smith, jewellers and watch repairer, Smiths newsagents’ Co-op butchers, another newsagents later Pattisons, Newmans, Binches greengrocer, Sparks, Raines sweet shop, Dodds lending library, Kays wet fish shop, Trotters fruit and veg, then Yorkshire Penny Bank at the corner of Leven Road.
The block shown consisted of the Co-op Butchers shop and a General dealers and Newsagents shop. This was after the war in about 1948. If I remember correctly the frontage of the butchers chop had a marble like front of black and white? As for the butchers shops in the High Street, I remember two at the bus terminus, Lords in the middle of the High Street ( where the photographic studio is today) and the Co-op. There was, I believe, one in Leven Road. There may well have been others.
That block was built originally in the late 1930’s. The houses between the Yorkshire Bank and the the shop across from the one pictured on the back alley to Picton Place were knocked down and a row of shops built. My late wife had a picture of those houses which was original and it can be seen on this site by typing ’15b Norton High Street’ into the search bar. My wife had lived in one of those houses as a child, J.H.Wiley Joiner and Undertaker which was next to J.W.Courts Cycle Agents, her bedroom being over a small alley to Paradise Place. The houses all had gardens at the back and I also have pictures of my wife as a child in those gardens. They were moved on to new houses in Somerset Road, a very nice pleasant place back then, people took pride in their houses gardens and surroundings. J.H.Wiley Joiners moved to Norton Road near Hills main entrance as it then was before it was moved further down Norton Road. My Father in law had served his time at Blairs Engine works before it became Hills Joinery works. J.W.Courts Cycles moved along the High Street towards Mill Street, the Misses Court bought the first house built in Bradbury road and my memory of them is being awakened once a year to the sound of gunfire, I could see into their garden from my bedroom in 5 Mill Lane as men with shotguns fired into the Rooks nests in the tall trees which were part of their garden at the time, they were considered pests. The shops built in the 1930’s made Norton High Street a complete shopping area, walking the High Street you could get almost any commodity you required. Mother could always get me to run down the high street to the Co-op – number 14958 you never forgot or it was a thick ear. The reason for my being eager was R Sparks shop with its window and shelves full of, to me, wonderful looking cakes, with my penny for going I could buy a lovely iced bun, sweet soft and that glorious white icing which I still enjoy now and then but with Sparks long gone it has to be supermarket, not the same. As I passed down the High Street yesterday I was trying to remember what the shop which is a DIY once was, a very vaque memory of it being the Co-op Butchers for a while comes to mind but will not vouch for that, we had quite a few Butchers shops in Norton back then. I am also struggling to remember what was there before the Norton Newsagents. Sitting on the Green it is obvious how Norton has changed, we did all our shopping in Norton apart from the odd run to Stockton Market. Our entertainment was all local with the Moderne and the Avenue cinema’s and as I got older the dancing next to the Avenue fish shop, a nights enjoyment plus your supper right next door. The green was my playground where learning to bowl on a wicket that sloped two ways and sent the ball off in all directions was good training for playing cricket on a swept section of Desert with coconut matting laid out, we played some deadly games of cricket against the Officers and other units where my bowling skills learned on the green laid out (oops sorry got out) well both, the oposition. Then the other day walking in St Mary’s church yard yet another memory of a girl much older than me giving me my first real kiss as against the dry lipped pecks at parties and after the Cadet dances at the William Newton, a new stone with her name and age on it but I smiled as that memory came back, I suppose immortality is being remembered and that smile coming with happy thoughts of those times. Norton had evolved over hundreds of years yet there is a thread running through as things are changed, I suppose my first 18 years of carefree and very happy times even through a war allowed me to see that continuous thread being drawn. I would not change any of it for the modern way of regulated sport or entertainment, we did not even have cricket pads.
This shop was where I had my first paper round. My boss was a Mr Rutherford, a small fair haired man. I got ten shillings a week. The front has been changed since I worked there, I was there about 1959-62. My round covered Pine Street.
This shopping block was built by Chas Tennant Builder which I worked on as a bricklayer in either the late sixties or early seventies, the same builder also built shops further along the High Street towards the green end in the seventies – have photos somewhere, will submit them to the site.
Does anyone remember the name of the pub which I believe was run by the father of the Elcoate sisters who when their father died changed it to a sweet shop which I used to go in. The two sisters where big ladies with respect saying that any photos of the shop when as a pub thank you
What was the shop before David Foxes?
The sweetshop was called Ellcoates.
I went to William Newton, and our Cookery teacher Miss Colman would send me to pick up groceries at the shop I think was called Caukwells, a few doors up from Nellies or the Unicorn. Everything had to be weighed and it seemed to take ages. We would take in 2/0 shillings old money for the provisions towards our cooking class. Our mothers would complain that if they went to the Co-op it would be a lot cheaper plus they would get the divi as well. Most of the time the stuff we made we would eat on the way home regardless wether it was eatable or not. On the other side of the high street was a sweet shop run by two sisters, cannot remember the name. You took a few steps down to get in and we would take ages to make our minds up what we wanted.
That was the Elcoat sisters shop. I used to spend a few old pence on sweets on the way home from Norton Board school. As an older teenager I got to know them better. They kept peacocks in their garden, and when they escaped one of them would be up ladders and on to roofs. She was probably at least 65 by then.
My brain is saying the second Butchers shop in Leven Road was Lumleys from the farm next to the Alms Houses, I went to school with one of the lads, they also had some connection with Lamberts farm where the prison is now. My mother and I walked to Middlesbrough, along the track, past the farm and over the Newport Bridge and saw it open and shut a few times, or I should say lift and lower, fascinating to a budding young engineer. I do not know about Jeavens I thought it was Clark’s Chemist. My sister in law says it was definitely Hutton’s Dairy and sweet shop next to the school. A week away now so will read up when I return.
Quite right Pat, I got slightly mixed up with the names and Gallons jumped out on me.
Quite right Frank and in order. I remember the Police Station. As kids we found 2 collie dogs roaming in my G/fathers fields. We took them to the police station through the front door. On leaving we saw the same 2 dogs in the High Street. The ‘bobbies’ had let them go out the side door while we were still in the office. As regards the shops to the right of the archway, I can never remember the Huttons sweet shop but remember a chemists there called Jeavons.
Hi Bob, my husband thinks the grocery store next to Harlands was called Walter Willsons (smiling service). We stand corrected if we’re wrong.
This has set the memory juices flowing. It was Tommy Lowes and it set me to trying to name all the shops along that block. A couple of houses then Greens shoe repair shop was at the northern end of the block then the back school yard. We had the Police house then Pickersgils (correct me if I am wrong Bob) a couple of houses and then the School Caretakers house just befor the clock entrance to the school. On the otherside of the clock entrance was a sweetshop Miss Hutton or Hunton? I went to the board school with her son but did not get free sweets. We often bought a penny toffee and then you pushed out a number on a board to see if you had won more sweets, I hit the golden one getting a huge bar of chocolate and made myself ill. There was another shop? then Tommy Lowes. It was normal for Rabbits to be hung outside heads fur and all but the butcher would skin them for you if required. My Father had a large heavy catterpult he took with him on the truck and often came back with a couple of rabbits he had knocked over with it. Either mother or I would skin it after it had hung for a day outside and we had rabbit pie, lovely. Stan Everitt and his wife used to meet up with a group of us in the Horse and Jockey and many a memorable argument ensued. Stan was quite forceful on some subjects but he was among people who also pursued a subject to death so it got a bit noisy, he was living on the Green at that time. I am still possitive there were two Butchers at the top end of Leven Road, Everitt was one nearest the High Street. I cannot remember an Eddie Reeves which shop did he work at? Talking about rabbits Dad and I went out on the farm to bring some rabbits back for the pot, I had the shotgun Dad had his catterpult, the place was over run with rabbits, he got three I got none.
In reply to Frank P Mee on 16/05/11, I wonder if the Butcher’s, whose name he can’t remember, on the same side as Norton Board was my Grandfather’s Tommy Lowes Egg & Poultry Shop, located at 2 High Street. It became an Estate Agents after his death in 1959, the house later on being turned into Lindsay’s Bistro. I went to school at Norton Board and can’t remember if there was another Butcher’s on that block. We often called in to see my Grandfather in his shop after school, but as he died when I was six I unfortunately have few memories of him.
My dad, Eddie Reeves, also worked for him as well. I can’t remember the years. Did you know my wonderful dad? He passed away years ago. I remember him being a very good worker. He did a fantastic job and cleaned up all the mess after the job!
Was the butchers alongside the Norton Board School called Laws Frank. He was more noted for his game and you would always see rabbits, hares, partridges and pheasants being displayed in his shop window. Maybe some hanging just outside the door. Also eggs. This shop is where Browns the Estate Agents is now. I can only remember Everetts shop in Leven Road. I do remember the Co-op further along Leven Road but no the butchers. Stan Everett lived on the Green just around the corner from Ragworth Place. He lived in the house of Mr Brown of the toy and record shop in Stockton High Street. This I think was before Mr Brown lived there.
I forgot to mention Salmons the chemist next to Dodds lending library.
‘Thanks for the memory’… The Butcher at the 0 bus terminus was Billy Toulson, I watched animals being killed and butchered in the area which is now the pie making kitchen and hung off the meat hooks more than once when they escaped. That is now Blackwells and I still enjoy those freshly cooked pies sitting on the green. Half way down the High Street was Curry and Hutchinson later London’s. Tommy Hutchinson killed our pigs, all done at my home 5 Mill Lane, it was he who shouted to me ‘pick up the gun (humane killer) and aim true’ when he and Father were struggling to hold down a pig when the ring came out of its nose. I killed my first pig at just fourteen or slightly younger quickly and on the mark Tommy said he could use me but butchery was not in my blood. Being brought up on the farm and our own small holding we saw it regularly so it was no big deal, it would horrify youngsters today though. There was a Butcher near the Norton Board School and the same side, the name escapes me also the Co-op on the same side as Sparks, plus if I am right two butchers at the top end of Leven Road and another one in the shops half way down Leven Road under the Co-op Dance Hall. They all seemed to prosper, after we had killed our two pigs a year allowed under wartime conditions and given the two to the government the rest went to those local butchers. It was mainly because my Father refused to feed fish meal or the waste collection additive the government supplied. That was all the waste food from house, collections works and school canteens with farmers field clearings of vegetables that had gone over, mainly cabbage. Having our own transport we picked up the waste from R Sparks factory, waste from Pumphry’s jam factory mainly lemon curd. Mr Skelton who owned the Mill down Mill lane Norton was a pal of my Dad and he was a manager at Pumphry’s. We would scrat the fields after potato picking and get enough potato’s to store and feed the pigs all winter. I would scrub and boil the potato’s for the week in a large boiler behind the stables and to that would be added the waste from the jam factory and Sparks – the pigs loved it and the bacon was free from the fishy taste the fish meal gave to it. Every couple of days or so I would throw some lumps of coal into the pig run which they chewed up getting minerals from that. Dad was noted for his bacon and when the local Bobby came to remonstrate with my Mother for driving the Austen two seater without a licence he let her off with a warning and went away with some bacon in a brown paper bag in his pocket. As an aside, Mother would give me a carrier with some bacon and other things in it saying go and put that behind Mrs So and So’s front door and do not let her see you, the woman may well have been on the point of starvation with a Husband away in the forces and kids to feed but you could not be seen to give charity. How times have changed.
Starting at Harlands shoe repair shop – Gallons, McGlaughlans wool shop, Tom Smith, jewellers and watch repairer, Smiths newsagents’ Co-op butchers, another newsagents later Pattisons, Newmans, Binches greengrocer, Sparks, Raines sweet shop, Dodds lending library, Kays wet fish shop, Trotters fruit and veg, then Yorkshire Penny Bank at the corner of Leven Road.
The block shown consisted of the Co-op Butchers shop and a General dealers and Newsagents shop. This was after the war in about 1948. If I remember correctly the frontage of the butchers chop had a marble like front of black and white? As for the butchers shops in the High Street, I remember two at the bus terminus, Lords in the middle of the High Street ( where the photographic studio is today) and the Co-op. There was, I believe, one in Leven Road. There may well have been others.
That block was built originally in the late 1930’s. The houses between the Yorkshire Bank and the the shop across from the one pictured on the back alley to Picton Place were knocked down and a row of shops built. My late wife had a picture of those houses which was original and it can be seen on this site by typing ’15b Norton High Street’ into the search bar. My wife had lived in one of those houses as a child, J.H.Wiley Joiner and Undertaker which was next to J.W.Courts Cycle Agents, her bedroom being over a small alley to Paradise Place. The houses all had gardens at the back and I also have pictures of my wife as a child in those gardens. They were moved on to new houses in Somerset Road, a very nice pleasant place back then, people took pride in their houses gardens and surroundings. J.H.Wiley Joiners moved to Norton Road near Hills main entrance as it then was before it was moved further down Norton Road. My Father in law had served his time at Blairs Engine works before it became Hills Joinery works. J.W.Courts Cycles moved along the High Street towards Mill Street, the Misses Court bought the first house built in Bradbury road and my memory of them is being awakened once a year to the sound of gunfire, I could see into their garden from my bedroom in 5 Mill Lane as men with shotguns fired into the Rooks nests in the tall trees which were part of their garden at the time, they were considered pests. The shops built in the 1930’s made Norton High Street a complete shopping area, walking the High Street you could get almost any commodity you required. Mother could always get me to run down the high street to the Co-op – number 14958 you never forgot or it was a thick ear. The reason for my being eager was R Sparks shop with its window and shelves full of, to me, wonderful looking cakes, with my penny for going I could buy a lovely iced bun, sweet soft and that glorious white icing which I still enjoy now and then but with Sparks long gone it has to be supermarket, not the same. As I passed down the High Street yesterday I was trying to remember what the shop which is a DIY once was, a very vaque memory of it being the Co-op Butchers for a while comes to mind but will not vouch for that, we had quite a few Butchers shops in Norton back then. I am also struggling to remember what was there before the Norton Newsagents. Sitting on the Green it is obvious how Norton has changed, we did all our shopping in Norton apart from the odd run to Stockton Market. Our entertainment was all local with the Moderne and the Avenue cinema’s and as I got older the dancing next to the Avenue fish shop, a nights enjoyment plus your supper right next door. The green was my playground where learning to bowl on a wicket that sloped two ways and sent the ball off in all directions was good training for playing cricket on a swept section of Desert with coconut matting laid out, we played some deadly games of cricket against the Officers and other units where my bowling skills learned on the green laid out (oops sorry got out) well both, the oposition. Then the other day walking in St Mary’s church yard yet another memory of a girl much older than me giving me my first real kiss as against the dry lipped pecks at parties and after the Cadet dances at the William Newton, a new stone with her name and age on it but I smiled as that memory came back, I suppose immortality is being remembered and that smile coming with happy thoughts of those times. Norton had evolved over hundreds of years yet there is a thread running through as things are changed, I suppose my first 18 years of carefree and very happy times even through a war allowed me to see that continuous thread being drawn. I would not change any of it for the modern way of regulated sport or entertainment, we did not even have cricket pads.
This shop was where I had my first paper round. My boss was a Mr Rutherford, a small fair haired man. I got ten shillings a week. The front has been changed since I worked there, I was there about 1959-62. My round covered Pine Street.
This shopping block was built by Chas Tennant Builder which I worked on as a bricklayer in either the late sixties or early seventies, the same builder also built shops further along the High Street towards the green end in the seventies – have photos somewhere, will submit them to the site.
This newsagency shop was called Forbouys.