This is a bag from Leslie Browns, which was the most popular toy shop in Stockton for several decades from the 1950s onwards. Courtesy of Cliff Thornton. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This is a bag from Leslie Browns, which was the most popular toy shop in Stockton for several decades from the 1950s onwards. Courtesy of Cliff Thornton.
This wonderful shop clothed my daughter!. She was born a tad early and very small in North Tees. The staff would not let her (and my wife) out unless she was warm & clothed. I was chased off to Leslie Browns to buy a collection of dolls clothes. The lass is bigger, more than twice my strength and definitely more lovely than I now – good stuff from that shop!
Yes I loved it at Les Browns I remember the record booths, those where the days. What I used to like was the model railway upstairs in a glass case and you put I think it was a penny or twopence in the slot and watched it going round. Who else remembers that?
I can’t remember where I read it but somewhere it said most of the stock from Les Browns went to Australia.
Saturdays where great. Saturday morning with Roy Rodgers and trigger at the Odeon then Saturday afternoon in Les Browns and I remember Friday 22nd November 1963 watching the Beatles at the Globe the same day we heard the news of president Kennedy. Modern times has a lot to answer for I think. Give me back the family values of the 50s and 60s any time. The memories of those days at Les Browns will last a life time.
I too have fond memories of going to (we used to call it Browns toy shop) when I was a kid in the 1960’s. I remember getting toy cowboys and Indians and dinky and corgi cars from there,as well as 2 puppets, an Andy Pandy and one of a clown when I was in Middlesbrough hospital getting my tonsils out. Everytime I had a tooth taken out with the dreaded gas at Pedlows dentist on Yarm Rd.my mum would always take me to Browns and by me a toy because of my fear of the dentist. Anyway,I agree it was something magical about the place, loved it.
My brother and I used to go to Leslie Browns every saturday after either the Odeon, or the ABC minors, we always bought a model aircraft. We would build them on saturday afternoon and evening, then they would be in pieces on sunday morning after they had crashed whilst trying to fly them.
I have several long playing records with a Leslie Brown sticker on, they put them on all the LP’s they sold, they include Elvis, Eddie Cochran and Cliff – they all in mono and still get played. The booths were legendery, and I was always scared to ask to listen to an LP that I knew I would not buy, I would listen and run, but as a kid thats what you did.
Leslie Browns was simply the best Toy Shop ever… much better than the big toy hypermarkets we have now. I remember going to buy toy soldiers there in the 1960s, then when I was a little older the latest records – happy days.
Yes i think Leslie Browns was every kid / adults dream and as an avid the collector of Britains ltd animals I used to love coming from Thornaby to Leslie Browns to get one, also got my first Sindy Doll, Tressie and Pippa dolls from here. I too loved the rides outside and the glorious shop windows. I loved the huge Stieff and Breyer collections they had too……….. between LB and Rpaish in the boro they were heaven………
Ken Sawyer what a memory you’ve got – Hintons was one of the first shops to move in when the new precinct was opened. The company logo, I think, was a pair of stylised scales and the new shop had automatic doors. I knew Patrick Hinton and was invited to a Christmas party at their large store in Middlesbrough. Just on the subject of the new shopping precinct, whilst I regret the loss of the Historic high street frontage, I remember following an old couple inside on a bleak November day to hear the lady say to her husband ‘Isn’t lovely to be able to do the shopping in the dry and warmth’. So apart from the asthetic loss perhaps it’s not all bad.
Yes there was a Music shop on Yarm Lane, it was called Burdon’s. I think a relation of theirs taught at Holy Trinity, known as Daddy Burdon, a good teacher who was not a stick merchant. However, I never reached his class because of the war. When I came back in 1942 I went straight into Mr Cock Salmon’s class. “He of the stick and butterpate”. But I hold no grudge, it was normal in those days with Billy Hewitt, Pop Andrews, Tommy Sowler who sent me for six of the best off Billy Hewitt, for not owning up about flying a paper aeroplane while he was out of the classroom. I remember it well, I always told the truth after that, I had not lied but did not own up, I still tell the truth despite the consequences.
Back to the story of Burdons music shop – Miss Whitely eventally tried to teach me the piano, but I never got past ‘The Bue Bell of Scotland’ then I gave it up. I prefered to play out with the lads down ‘Norton Sandy’ on Junction Road, fishing for taddies, newts or anything else. I also learned how to roast potatoes on our open fire which we built. Another hobby was building rafts out of oil drums and driftwood. Strangely, my old pals seem to have gone. My dear Mum sold her nice new Burdons piano to Mr Carrol, of Carrols Saleroom Norton. He wanted it for himself and that is what happened to it. We then bought our first motor car, second hand with the money. That little car helped me to combat ill health and keep going despite serious heart problems. I had to give up all sport and lead a ‘sedentary’ life, that is how I came into Mechanical Dentistry. Thanks to Dr Edith Armitage my Doctor. Dr Inkster the Heart specialist gave me 20 years to live if I followed his advice, that is 66 years ago and in 1994 a triple byepass and a few other things thrown in. Keep smiling.
After posting a response to Pat Pattison about a music shop in Yarm Lane, which I conjectured to be Burdon’s or Burton’s was not quite either. From the depths of my mind came the name Ossie Burden, who amongst other things organised touring concert parties for the Forces on ack ack sites & other services sites. He could soon find a cast from amongst his customers for that shop was his.
Confirmation is with a photo entitled Yarm Lane (3836) with the information ‘Photograph kindly donated by the husband of the late Doreen Thomas (Author of Strike a Light – the Story of John Walker)’ and this posting by Cliff Thornton.
“I`d like to know when this photo was taken. I see that Oswald Burdens music shop was there, next to the Green Bushes. Originally full of pianos and classical instruments, Burdens shop moved with the times and in the 1960s was hiring out amplifiers and p.a. systems to local pop groups who couldn`t afford to own their own gear. 31/07/2006”
The shop in Yarm Lane vaguely remembered by Pat Pattison was Burdon’s or Burton’s. My mother, quite a well known contralto who broadcast on BBC Northern Matinee concert and conducted 2 choirs bought much of her music there & I was often given the task of collecting it. Next door, I think, was the quality grocers Hintons.
You are right Mike Date, Debenhams did have a record department – it was on a mezzanine floor at the back of the shop. There was also Whiteley’s, which was in Finkle Street next door to the Yorkshire Bank, which sold records, although it was slightly more of an old fashioned shop which specialised in musical instruments and sheet music, but they did sell 45s, EPs and LPs. Vaguely also remember a shop in Yarm Lane, maybe next door to the Green Bushes, and wasn’t there an electrical shop in Bishopton Lane (Deans?) which also had a selection.
I will always remember Leslie Browns for the records and the ‘sound proof’ booths that we used to cram into so that we could hear the record before we bought it. They were always up to speed with the latest groups and I remember seeing Bob Dylan’s first album in the window and wondering who he was (must have been early 60s) someone at school enlightened me and lent me a copy, I think it was Ian Dack, thanks Ian. From then on I was a Bob Dylan convert and now have a lot of his albums on CD and still play it especially the early stuff. I don’t really remember many other shops selling records in Stockton at that time although Robinsons or Debenhams did open a section around that time I think.
Chrissie Savage (nee Hatfield) – It most certainly was and if memory serves the booths were up two stairs somewhat above the main floor level, ground storey. Listened to and bought my first record there – Apache by the Shadows. Again a little hazy but the sum of 6s/8d comes to mind.
I remember standing in the sound booth at Leslie Brown’s listening to my first full price 45rpm ‘Hey Jude’ in 1968 as a 12 year old. Before then it was 2/6 for a second hand record on the market and 7/6 (at least!) for a second hand LP.
Was it Leslie Browns that had the sound-proof booths so you could listen to your favourite records before you bought? If so, I spent numerous Saturday afternoons there as a teenager, crammed into one of those booths with 3 or 4 friends (sometimes more) attempting to enjoy hearing the latest releases, without suffocating. I sort of recall the shop entrance was quite near to the No 3 bus stop where we all caught the bus back home to Roseworth. Susan Smith, did you by any chance live in Ragpath Lane, and have an older sister called Pam? We may have been neighbours, and probably caught the same bus home from LB!
I remember an Elian smith that lived opposite me in Romsey road roseworth we moved there from Norton when I was 4, and stayed there till I was 26 when I married and moved back to Norton. Sat afternoons was record day at Browns got my first 45 there still got it Rolling Stones (Come On) and all my others there’s loads of them.
I loved going to Leslie Browns – always wanted those train set layouts they had on display.
LB’s was the first stop after the Saturday minors at the Odean. My brothers would buy jokes (Stinkaroos to stick in cigarettes, itching powder, etc.) at LB’s and then we’d go round the corner to pick up crabs legs to eat on the bus ride home to Roseworth. As we got older we shopped in LB’s for the latest records. For me, as the youngest with no source of income when I was first allowed out with my siblings, LB’s was a place where everything was magical but unattainable. Everything back then had a richness because we didn’t have money to buy – just window shop and wish for (bagseye that one!).
Best toy shop ever, far better than toys r us. It was, as Sandra said, “magic”. You dont get that feeling in toys shops now. I lived in Billingham so we didnt go to stockton that often and Leslie Browns was the highlight of the trip, could spend all day in there. So sad when it closed.
I have fond memories of Leslie Brown’s, I used to love gazing into the right hand shop window, where all the best toys were displayed, ( the left showing mainly musical instruments,)
I can also remember a `Lego` model of York minster, by the staircase. it was an amazing place to be as a kid.
I too lived the magic of Leslie Brown”s. I had a Saturday job there in the mid 60s. I worked upstairs on the doll counter. It was wonderful unpacking the new doll stock as it came in and putting them into the glass case. I remember the advent of Tiny Tears, Sindy and Barbie and their respective boyfriends Paul and Ken, Action Man and GI Joe. Brown”s was a lovely place to work.
I remember when a small child in the 60″s putting a penny in the slot to see the train go round. Also having a ride on the motorbike. I used to think it was magic at christmas time and I got to relive that magic by working there in the 90″s up until the day it closed its doors. Mr and Mrs Brown made a lot of adults and children live the dream by making this magical haven and all the memories of this shop will remain with a lot of people for ever.
I wonder if this image evokes any memories of the best toy shop in town? For me it was buying practical jokes to try on my friends, or buying test-tubes of chemicals upstairs.