The High Street in Stockton, c1897/1898.
Photograph courtesy of Brian Swales.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
The High Street in Stockton, c1897/1898.
Photograph courtesy of Brian Swales.
You will not remember the large roofed church North Terrace Wesleyan Chapel (above the guy in the pony & cart) Sarah, because it closed in 1955 & was demolished, then Cowies garage was built there and then Crake & Mallon Funeral Services on the corner of Hume Street. The church can be seen in the church section of this site.
A friend, here in Northumberland, believes that an ancestor of his – Robert Whiteoak, died age 43 in 1903 – was at some stage, before moving on to Gateshead and Byker, the licensee of a public house on Stockton High St. As we haven”t access to the appropriate directories etc in this neck of the woods, I would be very grateful to anyone able to provide any info. Thanks
Thanks for the replies, I hadn”t realised the view was of much further down the High Street than I first thought and don”t remember the church being there.
Sarah the large-roofed building is the North Terrace Weslayan Chapel. The Norton Road Congregational Church was set back off Norton Road on the corner of Tennant Street & had a shallower sloping roof(check ref:-S1105 &C1910).
Although the chapel I mentioned in my post, does seem at a closer look is too near the High Street. There is another one on the 1899 map further up Norton Road on the junction with Hume Street. The building is called the Wellington Methodist Church dating from 1866. It is hard to tell otherwise.
The rooftop on the right is what is now the Castle & Anchor pub. The farthest rooftop on the left is an old Church and in front of that is the Maxwells Corner shop.
It was a Chapel, that was situtated between Laing Street and Tennent Street. A bus stand and grassed area now stand here. This is shown on the 1899 Stockton (North) map. I remember the building when it was still standing in the early 70″s.
I”m fairly certain the building you refer to was the Norton Road Congregational Church. Opened in 1845 and the final service was held there in 1973.
What is the large-roofed building in the far distance (seen above the head of the person travelling away from the photographer)? Anyone know?
Stockton High Street looking towards Norton Road. The light coloured building, with the sun blinds down, in the centre of the photograph is the original Robinson”s department store. In 1895 Matthias Robinson & family moved from Hartlepool, where he had started his first department store in c1876, to live in Hartburn. In 1896 he bought numbers 149 & 150 in Stockton High Street and altered these two town houses into his first Stockton department store. Unfortunately, just three years later, this store was completely destroyed by fire. Undaunted, he immediately erected a huge temporary wooded structure in nearby Wellington Street to carry on his business. He then submitted plans for a new larger store to be built on the same site which was opened in 1901. This new department store was the largest in the North of England with no less than 48 departments. He wisely installed a sprinkler system and to give added pressure, the water was fed from the high tower at the rear of the building, still a familiar feature of the Stockton skyline to this day. Robinson”s was a well known department store for many years and was eventually taken over by the Debenham”s group in 1962. Ten years later the Robinson family name disappeared altogether. The name Robinson”s can just be seen (using a magnifying glass) on the original photograph.