Head Wrightson Stockton Steel Foundry based at Oxbridge. Photographs courtesy of Ken Rhodes. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Head Wrightson Stockton Steel Foundry based at Oxbridge. Photographs courtesy of Ken Rhodes.
Hi. Worked at Heads (as we called it) from 1970 until shortly after I finished my apprenticeship as a moulder/coremaker. Good times there, hard work, but lots of fond memories. Football out back at lunch break or across to the Oxbridge Club on a friday at finishing time. Getting the fish and chips from Snowdon Road chippie (obviously mine were free) or cadging a cuppa from old Billy’s billie can (It would be there all day on an old stove and the tea was stewed beyond belief. you had to be really desperate if you ever went back again) I started at the ‘Apprentice Training School’ (which I believe was once a garage workshop) under the tuition of a Mr John Finn a great guy who went on to teach at Longlands College and who would give me a lift to Billingham every Wednesday evening, and his assistant (sorry, name forgotten) who reported to the man in overall charge of the training school, Harry Soppet. After our first year in training we were transfered to whichever foundry we would eventually finish our apprenticeships at and I was sent to Stockton Steel foundry, The Moor Works, in Light Pipe Hall Road, where I first met Les Wilkinson. He came across as a strict no nonsense kind of bloke with us apprentices, but I found him to be an OK guy and we got on fairly well. He had a terrible habit of looking down the feeder heads as a mould was being cast and on this one particular occasion the wash hadn’t been burnt off properly and of course when the steel went in the remaining vapours exploded out, burning poor Les quite badly. I remember his seeing blackened face as he went passed on his way out of the foundry. He was off work for some time after that and on his return one of the first things I saw him do ??? Yep, looked straight down a feeder head. Ah Well.
Other guys I remember are Albert, on the core floor, moonlighted as a taxi driver, old Ernie who had the patience of a saint, little Peter Turnbull and Jim , the crane driver, who could cast a run of moulds from a ladle with a running stopper like a maestro, incredible thing to see. Big Alan Jenkins,Little Geoff, Eddy Welsh (Squeaker), Charlie and Billy the meat man, always had the pork for Christmas.
DID YOU WORK AT HEAD WRIGHTSON’S? If you did the Teesside Industrial Memories Project, a volunteer group who specialise in recording oral history, would like to talk to you about a book they are planning on the history of HW and the personal experiences of its employees. They are looking for stories and memories of your first day, apprentice years, night school, day release, the workforce, management – all the things that influenced or affected you at work. If you get in touch with them they will arrange to visit you and record your memories for the benefit of this and future generations. They want the highs and lows, the good and the bad….please contact Albert Roxburgh on 01642 586969 or email albrox2@btinternet.com
I was born in no 42 light pipe hall road in 1944 and would like to find photographs of the street, also the house in question. My grandfather was thomas pybus who I believe worked at head wrightsons. Any information would be gratefully accepted. Thank you B F Grainger
Hi Colin. I remember all the Wakenshaws in SSF and all the young lads you have mentioned. I worked in the Pattern Shop with Charlie Hunter for quite a number of years when the Pattern Shop was at the top of the Foundry and when it moved over the road opposite the Moor Hotel.If you look at the third photo the chap with his back to the camera is Charlie Templeman when he was Les Wilkinsons assistant Foreman.I have other photos of the founry and the fettling yard which i will put on this site at a later date
I served my time at stockton steel foundry as an apprentice moulder/core maker with a forman called Les Wilkinson. We had some great times there with other apprentices notably Charlie Templeman, Peter Turnbull, Ruddy,Mick Brady,Keith(tab)Hunter whose father was the foreman in the pattern shop over the road opposite the Moor hotel. My father worked on the furnace, my brother also worked there as a moulder we had the time in the burning yard a future mayor of Stockton Sid Redeacan. As I say we had good times laced with lots of hard work with doing your own job as well as going for the fish and chips for all the men on a Friday.
Hello Ann, Riley Boilers ceased trading as a manufacturer in 1965, when Head Wrightson took over the main assembly and construction shops. Rileys continued under the name Riley”s of Stockton carrying out service and maintenence contracts. They remained in the drawing office buildings, on the apex of Mary Street and Riley Street and ceased trading altogether in 1979. With regard to origins of the name Light Pipe Hall Road, I can only assume that in the days before any residential housing was built along this road, the track led to the old Light Pipe Hall and Estate just north of Tynedale Street. Interestingly, I have a distant cousin from this area who is a Trenholme, but spelt with an e. I would love to hear more about your time at Riley”s and can be contacted through Picture.stockton.
Riley”s Boilers was ajoining Head Wrightsons Stockton Foundry and when it closed down it was bought by HW and used as a stores area for wood patterns and moulding boxes and other tackle. When all of HW Foundries were shut down both the Rileys and Head Wrightsons sites were sold off to Thompsons the scrap steel merchants across the road on the Oxbridge Moor site.
Hello Keith Tilley, I didn”t realise that Head Wrightsons was in Oxbridge, because when I left school I worked in the office at a place called Riley Boilers (Stockton Chemical Engineers), was this the same place. Also you mention Light Pipe Hall Road, I don”t know where it got its name from but my Grandmother was born in that road as most of her family were, their name was Trenholm.
Head Wrightson foundry in Oxbridge was situated in Light Pipe Hall Road. An interesting name, does anyone know where it came from? As a boy growing up in Wren Street I can remember the sound of the steam hammers (so I was told) constantly thunping away. The only time you noticed them was when they stopped.
Head Wrightsons had a few people who were related to well known people. Firstly Davin Eccles Father was in Government when he started at HW. David Eccles was also the nephew of Sir John Wrightson. Another at that time was a Labourer in the Maintenance Dept. whose brother was the Speaker of the House. I believe his name was Mills. The 3rd person I knew worked in the Erection Dept. He was Russian and his Family escaped from Russia during the uprisings and his father was a Russian Zsar.
I worked as a shift metallurgist at the British Steel Hartlepool South Works steel plant for a time back in the seventies. The first hand on the furnace could usually tell when it was time to tap by looking at the state of the “melt” in the furnace hearth. His opinion, almost always correct, was double checked through analysis of a molten steel sample taken from the furnace just prior to tapping.
I remember the manager at SSF a Mr David Eccles now The Hon David bringing a number of his college friends down to look around the foundry. I got the duty to show them around.They were amazed that men and boys worked in those conditions. Certain men could tell by just looking at the molten metal when it was the right time and conditions to pour the hot metal into the sand moulds. A very clever man.
Ken Rhodes – Ken I was lucky enough to have a visit to this site back in the early 60″s. Had my father not been a steel worker I probaly would have equated the noise, heat & dirt with a short visit to Hades. As it was I was still amazed watching the operation of the Bessemer converter. The mouth spewing a stream of molten sparks, changing colour as the process progressed. I was lead to believe that one individual had the sole task of watching the flame & the steel was teemed on his say so! To watch the moulds being filled from the ladels was also an incredible sight, it appeared that the sand itself caught fire.
These three photos are from Head Wrightson Stockton Steel Foundry based at Oxbridge. The first one shows a ladle being filled with molten steel. The second and third show hot metal being poured into sand moulds to make steel castings