This photograph shows Thomsons Scrapyard on Grangefield Road. Name changed from Thompsons to Thomsons after information from Kevin McGowan) 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This photograph shows Thomsons Scrapyard on Grangefield Road. Name changed from Thompsons to Thomsons after information from Kevin McGowan)
Thanks to the presence of the scrap yard business, this area got photographed from the air in 1950. You can see the yard, the Rec (Rudds), the tip and the inlets that were part of the reservoir/pond, all mentioned below.
http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw033960
The reservoir still contains water in this 1949 image:
http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw024094
This scrapyard is now going through a closing down process, all the machines are being dismantled etc, I believe it has to be cleared by May of this year. Not sure if true but the council have supposedly purchased the land.
I worked at Thomsons from summer 1970 to 1972 as a fitter under Ken Peacock who was then foreman fitter. I started work there after Thomsons bought out the scrap division of J D White Ltd. of Harewood Works Thornaby, and offered employment to all staff. The work of the fitters was quite dangerous at times, having to work at heights with no safety equipment and work between mountains of scrap as cranes worked overhead. Being a railway enthusiast I had been hoping to find something from scrapped locos ( number plates or even works plates ) unfortunately during my time there they were only scrapping goods wagons. One of the machines we had to maintain was a hydraulic press that was used to remove the steel wheels from the axles of scrapped wagons , in fact some of the machines in the yard were still hydraulically operated by water as opposed to oil which would normally be used. One sad memory of Thomsons was the accidental death of a young electrician called John killed while repairing a rail mounted crane in the yard.
Was his name John Scott, I think he played football for the Rocket pub on Durham Road.
Sounds like the John I knew , he owned a reliant robin which he used to come to work in
You may remember my dad, Harry Gallagher who worked there
Don’t think you will see anything there now Julian, but just across Grangefield Rd from the cut through to Grays Rd there was a track leading to the tip, with small allotments on one side, stretching to the Beck embankment, and the playing area on the other side. The shelter was where the track started, the entrance door was down an excavated pathway, on the playing field side. The Rec. was one of the first places to lose it’s iron railings to the war effort. To Anon, sad news about Kieth Moody doesn’t seem that long ago that Kieth, Eddie Graham and myself were recruited by Bill Jeffs when he got the job at Whitby.
Thanks Gran, that’s interesting. What year would this have been and where was the entrance to the shelter? I’m going to have to have a drive down that way and take a look now!
Julian, The reservoir was excavated into the field between the back gardens of Grays Rd and the beck. An inlet and outlet were cut into the beck. It was partially paved with fairly steep sides. It was never ever used for any purpose, but at times became a bit of a semi-dangerous playground for gangs of kids from the local area, Oxbridge and Mill-Lane. They were generally chased away by Mr. Johnson,the coal merchant, from Marlborough Rd, who used to come bellowing and shouting at them. He was a very bad tempered man who kept his cart-horses in the biggest field, which backed on to Thomsons, which on my last visit up there was covered by bushes and scrub. I lived in the the old semis next door to the shop, which was Pollocks in those days, and I now see there is a large embankment at the back of the houses which did not exist in the era I am talking about. In passing, I lived at no.53 Grays Rd, and one of the previous tenants was Will Hay. A lady from the Spennithorne Rd area committed suicide in the reservoir, and a 4-year old cousin of mine fell in and was drowned. It may be of interest to you that there was also a big underground Air-Raid shelter excavated at the entrance to the Rec which was never used and the entrance door was permanently locked.
Reservoir? Where was that, Gran?
The rec was named after Alderman Rudd. In the forties there used to be a big sign to that effect, in the cut-through from Grays Rd to Grangefield Rd. It might surprise some to know that the back part of the rec was a major council rubbish tip, where kids used to scrummage about amongst the household litter which was banked up about 15ft deep. There were never any goalposts there, and the first innovation at the end of the war was to cast a concrete slab bang in the middle to act as a cricket pitch. In the early 50s two tennis hardcourts were laid. Many kids played football there, particulaly in the double summertime evenings, with jackets as goalposts, quite a few who went on to play professionly and in all levels of amateur football. The house where I lived was directly inline with the blast when the huge metal ball was dropped from the crane onto the mainly military scrap. I am always surprised to see our old house in Grays Rd still standing to this day, but there is large embankment at the bottom of the gardens now. There are many other memories of the Rocks at the back of Thomsons – sometimes the Home Guard and the Green Howards practiced, the cart-horses in Johno’s field who pulled his coal-wagons, the two drownings in the resevoir in the field which our house backed onto, and the stick of bombs, one of which killed Mr.Chapman in his house adjacent to the institute in Grays Rd.
I think Rudd’s Rec was named after either a local councillor or an Alderman if my memory is correct. I remember we used to walk through the scrapyard as teenagers from the Bishopton Lane side. We also always went to the fair that came to the waste ground opposite H W Steel foundry leading down to the tunnel into Dovecote St past Mill Lane School.
Steve Smith… Blacksail Close? One of my old school mates, Neil Tunney, lived at number 3 – you may remember his elder brothers and sisters? I recall this yard well, I used to be able to see it from my old school. Upstairs in Harry Horseman’s music room. Room 18? The green gates of the yard were quite impressive, even if we didn’t know what went on behind, you could hear the noise for miles! Lovely story abou the dog, John. Does anyone know why the Rec (rectreational, I guess) was known as Rud’s?
I left school at fifteen in 1962 and started work at Thompsons Scrap Yard. I trained as a burner and machine operator, I remember going into the boilers of steam locomotives and burning out the ‘innards’ – what a job! but it was really well paid (for a fifteen year old anyway). There was no Health and Safety then but also not very many accidents, you used your common sense. During my dinner breaks I would explore the yard and find parts and bits and pieces from 2nd world war planes and other equally interesting things. It was a good job, hard and dirty, but as soon as my exam results came through I left and got a trade as a motor mechanic. A good move but Thompsons showed me what work was about as well as working with some pretty rough blokes – who were the salt of the earth – and I never regretted a single moment.
Like Steve Smith, myself and his older brother David also played in amongst the scrapyards, this would be a few years before Steve as then it was not fenced off. I particularly remember playing in the shell of an old helicopter. Just below the scrapyard were the ruins and pounds of the old mill. This was also a great play area for us kids.
Still going strong and taking scrap metal from many sources, I wonder how it keeps operating in todays environmental climate?
In my younger days, I lived in Blacksail Close which is on the other side of the scrapyard. Lots of us kids spent many happy hours playing in the old steam trains and carriages, before making our getaway over the fence to safety before the security guard and his dog caught us.
In my younger days I photographed quite a few condemned steam trains in the “scrappy”. I”ve got the negatives so will make effort to have them printed.
Thomson scrap yard was and still is one of the main yards for scapping of our railway infrastructure, from the 50s to the late 60s. I remember well seeing rows of steam engines on Phoenix siddings waiting their turn to be shunted into the yard, in the 70s when I was Guard I use to shunt Thomsons yard on P76 local placing empty wagons in the siddings and taking loaded ones to Lackenby or others to Tees Yard for forward to Sheffield. In my later years I actually trained the Thomsons staff who shunted within the yard area. While there training I had a walk round and found a stack of old tram lines in the corner of the yard, (I think these were from the days when they took up the lines in Stockton). Railway locos still go to the yard but mostly by road.
Some years ago I daily passed this entrance to Thompson”s scrapyard on my way to “Rudds Rec” for the purpose of exercising my dog Patch. One particular day another dog owner told me there was a fightened stray dog hiding behind the right hand side gate. On investigation I found the dog was heavily pregnant and if approached she would run out on to Grangefield Road into traffic. I contacted Stockton Animal Welfare also the RSPCA to ask for their assistance, even with their resources the dog proved very elusive to catch. To his credit an employee in the scrapyard made a temporary shelter for the animal behind the gate where she always went back to. She was fed and watered, but at no time would she allow anybody to get close to her. However she needed to be caught because Christmas was approaching and the scrapyard would close for the holiday. Thankfully after much patience the Animal Welfare officers with the help of a sedative in her food managed to catch her. One of the officers later contacted me to say the dog had been taken to the RSPCA sanctuary where should would be looked after. I was told she and her pups would be put up for adoption in the fullness of time. It was a pleasing outcome for all involved in helping that poor animal.
It”s not Thompson but Thomson. T.J Thomson to be precise.