I was the kid who bagged the winkles and crab claw legs for Bill Sharp whose stall (a caravan stall about 18 foot long on wheels- painted white with bright orange stripes) stood the market twice a week near the Zebra Crossing and Pet stalls. Dave Brown an earlier poster mentions buying them. When the crabs arrived from Scotland they were still alive and crawling around in a wood barrel drum. They were boiled alive and I’m told just fell asleep and died. The winkles also came from Scotland and I used to go to Thornaby station to collect them, I was unable to move a barrel of winkles alone, and the rail porters had to help me lift them on a barrow, the job then was to push them up the station bank steep slope onto Mandale Road, Thornaby and away. They once rolled off the barrow and we had thousands of winkles to pick up from off the road.
I remember Stockton market well from 1949 onwards when I was 5 years old. My grandmother Annie Dobson from nearby Mill Street West would take me shopping there every Wednesday and Saturday. My family lived on Derby Street, just a few minutes down Wellington Street to the market. I remember the vegetable and fruit stalls near the town hall, the man who had a stall between the town hall and the Shambles who always had a crowd around his stall as he auctioneer style rapid shouting out his wares assuring potential customers that there was something shady about his low prices. As I grew older I found the almost last stall across from John Walker’s shop (inventor of the friction match) where the man sold magazines and I was able to buy used science fiction magazines. Could swap them back 2 for 1. I migrated from England in 1967 so my memories of those times are particularly vivid.
The joke stalls were the highlight of my childhood, partly because of parental disapproval. Does anyone remember the pottery pigs which came with a pellet to insert in its rear end and when lit with a match began to defecate at some length.
Interspersed amongst the market stalls were a few jokes/trick shops where you could buy little porcelain busts of Winston Churchill with real live smoking cigars. You could also buy stink bombs encased in thin glass circular vials. A school child’s dream !
I can remember remember buying 7″ singles from the second hand stall, they were ex juke box and had no middle, the stall was between the town hall and the shambles.
I moved to Stockton when I was 7 back in 1960, and one of my first memories of the High Street was the magnificent market! Particular memories are getting my mam to buy me either a bag of winkles or a sixpenny bag of crabs legs.
I remember, as I got older, buying some of my first records from the second-hand stall near the Shambles (or was it closer to the Town Hall?)
Does anyone remember the old guy with the weighing machine?
And of course, the whole High Street benefitted from the presence of Gigi(?) Moon!
I too remember the lamps the owners of the Tilly lamps were known as Frankies, can’t remember the first names. There were 3 Brothers ( I think ) They has café’s on the sea front in South Shields two at the south end close to the bandstand and one at the north end between the pier and the groyne, known as the trippers end I knew the one known as Big Frankie he lived just a couple of doors down from my Aunt in Mowbray Road. South Shields, he also had a small grocers shop, as well as the café on the front, the café sold all the usual seaside items, to take away there was always a queue, for a parcel of fish & chips and a tea tray to have on the beach, and the 1p ice lolly on a stick, It had its advantages my Aunt knowing him when he was in the café on the sea front, and we spent the day on the beach as we always were able to have a table and of course good portions of fish and chips, to boot
Ah yes, Stockton Market, many memories – who remembers the man on the pottery stall, doing his mock auction and conjuring with all the plates and not breaking one! The green grocery stalls could leave todays rubbish standing for taste, and all locally grown. My dear old Mum would always ask if in a cafe, if they were Garden Peas? can you imagine that today?. Mind you she was a Worcestershire lass who met my Dad, who came back from Eygpt in the first world war with water poisoning, as a nurse at Birmingham. Her parents were farmers and nursery people. Her friend was Mrs Lumley of 65 High Street Norton, who had also been a nursing sister at the Military Hospital in Dudley Road Birmingham.
I worked on the Tilley Lamps for several years in the early sixties. A family who ran the beach front amusement arcades in South Shields came down with two truckloads of lamps at the onset of winter. Stacked them in a warehouse standing close to where the Queens supermarket was built. There were 4 or 5 barrows with wooden frames, into which were fitted 12 lamps. In the warehouse we cleaned the glasses or replaced them if broken. (I remember the name “Jena” on them) then the lamps were filled with paraffin, pumped up,(with a compressor, fortunately.) and lit. After lighting, the mantles were checked and replaced if necessary. After the lamps were burning well for five minutes, the barrow was sent trundling off to the market, it was quite a job to hang lamps on all the stalls as quickly as possible. The lamps had a double function, heating as well as light. I”ve still got scars on my wrist from catching the top of the lamp whilst hanging them. Throughout the day, the Geordies walked around around pumping up the lamps as the pressure started to fail. At the end of the day we took them down and back to the warehouse pretty sharpish so as not to slow down the corporation lads taking the stalls back in.I only remember one lamp in flames, it caused some damage to a ladies knitwear stall. I cannot remember the name of the Geordie family, but the little chap who collected the money was called Jimmy, a lovely fella. Sadly, Jimmy was beaten up and robbed years later, by one of the lads who worked with me on the lamps. Jimmy never recovered, but as he lived more than a year, evidently it was not classed as murder. Later, I think the lamps were replaced by electric bulbs, looking back I suppose that hissing sound was part of the atmosphere of the market. Amazing, the memories this site has brought back!
Memories come flooding back of going to the market with my mum in the 60″s and the hissing Tilley lamps, there was a stall near the town hall that sold wonderful toffee apples either red or brown, if I was lucky I got one. Then when I got into my teens I used to buy records from a stall and remember buying Paul McCartney”s first solo album there.
The majority of the lamps on the market in the 60″s were paraffin lamps, made by Tilley and also Hasag. They were known as doughnut lamps as they had a large doughnut shaped fount (paraffin container) at the top of the lamp. They made a hissing sound because they were pressure lamps. Most of them were supplied by a chap that had the garage on the side of the Riverside pub. He used to rent them out to the stallholders, and always had them lit and ready to go on the winter mornings. I do not remember seeing any gas lamps at the time. I still have one of these Tilley lamps in my collection it is 60 odd year old and still in good working order.
Sorry to be pedantic, but I seem remember the hissing lamps being gas powered? And fitted with mantles which produced a very intense light. I was very young at the time, so stand ready to be corrected!
I to can remember the smell of the parafin lights along the market my favourite stall was one that was near either the Town Hall or Shambles and sold material it was owned by an elderly gent with a gorgeous border collie dog called Kim who was always with him. I used to go and sit at the back of the stall with the dog while my mam shopped. You wouldnt dare leave kids like that now. Can anyone remember the model of a skating rink that came out around Xmas time it was in a wooden box? I think you probably had to put money in to make it go. Those memories that live on
I can remember going to Stockton market when it became dark. One of the most magnificent sensations was the smell of the paraffin from the Tilly Lamps. Presumably all gone now, alas. I liked looking at the stalls which displayed, jokes and tricks. Small busts of Winston Churchill with a smoking miniature cigar. Stink bombs in small circular ampules. Ah, the memories !
Worked on my uncle’s fruit stall several times Bob and Harry Sharp in the early seventies fond memories
I was the kid who bagged the winkles and crab claw legs for Bill Sharp whose stall (a caravan stall about 18 foot long on wheels- painted white with bright orange stripes) stood the market twice a week near the Zebra Crossing and Pet stalls. Dave Brown an earlier poster mentions buying them. When the crabs arrived from Scotland they were still alive and crawling around in a wood barrel drum. They were boiled alive and I’m told just fell asleep and died. The winkles also came from Scotland and I used to go to Thornaby station to collect them, I was unable to move a barrel of winkles alone, and the rail porters had to help me lift them on a barrow, the job then was to push them up the station bank steep slope onto Mandale Road, Thornaby and away. They once rolled off the barrow and we had thousands of winkles to pick up from off the road.
I remember Stockton market well from 1949 onwards when I was 5 years old. My grandmother Annie Dobson from nearby Mill Street West would take me shopping there every Wednesday and Saturday. My family lived on Derby Street, just a few minutes down Wellington Street to the market. I remember the vegetable and fruit stalls near the town hall, the man who had a stall between the town hall and the Shambles who always had a crowd around his stall as he auctioneer style rapid shouting out his wares assuring potential customers that there was something shady about his low prices. As I grew older I found the almost last stall across from John Walker’s shop (inventor of the friction match) where the man sold magazines and I was able to buy used science fiction magazines. Could swap them back 2 for 1. I migrated from England in 1967 so my memories of those times are particularly vivid.
The joke stalls were the highlight of my childhood, partly because of parental disapproval. Does anyone remember the pottery pigs which came with a pellet to insert in its rear end and when lit with a match began to defecate at some length.
Interspersed amongst the market stalls were a few jokes/trick shops where you could buy little porcelain busts of Winston Churchill with real live smoking cigars. You could also buy stink bombs encased in thin glass circular vials. A school child’s dream !
I can remember remember buying 7″ singles from the second hand stall, they were ex juke box and had no middle, the stall was between the town hall and the shambles.
I moved to Stockton when I was 7 back in 1960, and one of my first memories of the High Street was the magnificent market! Particular memories are getting my mam to buy me either a bag of winkles or a sixpenny bag of crabs legs.
I remember, as I got older, buying some of my first records from the second-hand stall near the Shambles (or was it closer to the Town Hall?)
Does anyone remember the old guy with the weighing machine?
And of course, the whole High Street benefitted from the presence of Gigi(?) Moon!
I too remember the lamps the owners of the Tilly lamps were known as Frankies, can’t remember the first names. There were 3 Brothers ( I think ) They has café’s on the sea front in South Shields two at the south end close to the bandstand and one at the north end between the pier and the groyne, known as the trippers end I knew the one known as Big Frankie he lived just a couple of doors down from my Aunt in Mowbray Road. South Shields, he also had a small grocers shop, as well as the café on the front, the café sold all the usual seaside items, to take away there was always a queue, for a parcel of fish & chips and a tea tray to have on the beach, and the 1p ice lolly on a stick, It had its advantages my Aunt knowing him when he was in the café on the sea front, and we spent the day on the beach as we always were able to have a table and of course good portions of fish and chips, to boot
Ah yes, Stockton Market, many memories – who remembers the man on the pottery stall, doing his mock auction and conjuring with all the plates and not breaking one! The green grocery stalls could leave todays rubbish standing for taste, and all locally grown. My dear old Mum would always ask if in a cafe, if they were Garden Peas? can you imagine that today?. Mind you she was a Worcestershire lass who met my Dad, who came back from Eygpt in the first world war with water poisoning, as a nurse at Birmingham. Her parents were farmers and nursery people. Her friend was Mrs Lumley of 65 High Street Norton, who had also been a nursing sister at the Military Hospital in Dudley Road Birmingham.
I worked on the Tilley Lamps for several years in the early sixties. A family who ran the beach front amusement arcades in South Shields came down with two truckloads of lamps at the onset of winter. Stacked them in a warehouse standing close to where the Queens supermarket was built. There were 4 or 5 barrows with wooden frames, into which were fitted 12 lamps. In the warehouse we cleaned the glasses or replaced them if broken. (I remember the name “Jena” on them) then the lamps were filled with paraffin, pumped up,(with a compressor, fortunately.) and lit. After lighting, the mantles were checked and replaced if necessary. After the lamps were burning well for five minutes, the barrow was sent trundling off to the market, it was quite a job to hang lamps on all the stalls as quickly as possible. The lamps had a double function, heating as well as light. I”ve still got scars on my wrist from catching the top of the lamp whilst hanging them. Throughout the day, the Geordies walked around around pumping up the lamps as the pressure started to fail. At the end of the day we took them down and back to the warehouse pretty sharpish so as not to slow down the corporation lads taking the stalls back in.I only remember one lamp in flames, it caused some damage to a ladies knitwear stall. I cannot remember the name of the Geordie family, but the little chap who collected the money was called Jimmy, a lovely fella. Sadly, Jimmy was beaten up and robbed years later, by one of the lads who worked with me on the lamps. Jimmy never recovered, but as he lived more than a year, evidently it was not classed as murder. Later, I think the lamps were replaced by electric bulbs, looking back I suppose that hissing sound was part of the atmosphere of the market. Amazing, the memories this site has brought back!
“The hissing Tilley Lamps”. Yes and the wonderful paraffin smell from them too !
Memories come flooding back of going to the market with my mum in the 60″s and the hissing Tilley lamps, there was a stall near the town hall that sold wonderful toffee apples either red or brown, if I was lucky I got one. Then when I got into my teens I used to buy records from a stall and remember buying Paul McCartney”s first solo album there.
The majority of the lamps on the market in the 60″s were paraffin lamps, made by Tilley and also Hasag. They were known as doughnut lamps as they had a large doughnut shaped fount (paraffin container) at the top of the lamp. They made a hissing sound because they were pressure lamps. Most of them were supplied by a chap that had the garage on the side of the Riverside pub. He used to rent them out to the stallholders, and always had them lit and ready to go on the winter mornings. I do not remember seeing any gas lamps at the time. I still have one of these Tilley lamps in my collection it is 60 odd year old and still in good working order.
You could be right about being gas lights they too would have a distinctive smell and I can vaguely remember one go up in flames Jan
Sorry to be pedantic, but I seem remember the hissing lamps being gas powered? And fitted with mantles which produced a very intense light. I was very young at the time, so stand ready to be corrected!
I to can remember the smell of the parafin lights along the market my favourite stall was one that was near either the Town Hall or Shambles and sold material it was owned by an elderly gent with a gorgeous border collie dog called Kim who was always with him. I used to go and sit at the back of the stall with the dog while my mam shopped. You wouldnt dare leave kids like that now. Can anyone remember the model of a skating rink that came out around Xmas time it was in a wooden box? I think you probably had to put money in to make it go. Those memories that live on
I can remember going to Stockton market when it became dark. One of the most magnificent sensations was the smell of the paraffin from the Tilly Lamps. Presumably all gone now, alas. I liked looking at the stalls which displayed, jokes and tricks. Small busts of Winston Churchill with a smoking miniature cigar. Stink bombs in small circular ampules. Ah, the memories !