Sunters Transport moving the last boiler to be manufactured by Rileys of Stockton c1960. Photograph and information courtesy of Norman Hill. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Sunters Transport moving the last boiler to be manufactured by Rileys of Stockton c1960. Photograph and information courtesy of Norman Hill.
Possibly one of the last commercial boilers to be riveted
We run on 4 Riley steam boilers dated 1962 and still working perfectly. I can supply photos if required…
Stuart Inkster is as always helpful on this material. Interested in the Goodings working at Riley Boilers but can’t make the connection – if any – with my Grandafther Walter who died in 1916. His Father was also a Walter, who married Lucy Williams from Redruth, who died in his office at the steelworks(ironworks ?) at Hartlepool. As well as Grandfather there was Raymond and Harry both in Stockton Cricket Club records as scoring 100’s. Raymond married Emma Cowell, Harry married but no children and died in 1990. Plus Reginald who married Edith ?, Elizabeth went to South Africa, Cyril was killed in WW 1 and Lucy Edith died young. We believe there was some connection with Goodings in Redcar area perhaps later. If there is a connection between my Goodings and the Riley Boiler Goodings Stuart Inkster will see the interest immediately ! My wife, Peta (Riley) is the Granddaughter of Alderman John Riley, the last family Director of Riley Boilers and Lucy (McLauchlan) Daughter of Alderman Joseph McLauchlan of Transporter Bridge fame. Appreciate any info filling in gaps/connections.
Hello Stuart, Thank you, yes it was very sad, Albert will be missed by many. Yes Great Grandad was known as Jack and we have always known of the (yow yow), but never know why, now we know! I never knew him as he died when I was a baby.
Hello Caroline, I spoke to your Grandad Albert Gooding last year and was sorry to learn that he passed away last month. I believe he was a fitter at Riley”s. Was it your Great Grandad John Gooding who was known as Jack (yow, yow) Gooding because of his strong Staffordshire accent?
Hello Stuart,
This is Richard (son of Ian and Peta). They have lost your phone number and address. Please be good enough to call them to help them make contact with you. Thanks.
My Dad, Gene Gooding, my Grandad Albert Gooding,my Great Uncle Edgar Gooding and my Great Grandad John Gooding, all worked at Riley boilermakers in Oxbridge.I have a couple of photos, I will arrange to get them on here.
To Norman Hill – Could you contact the Picture Stockton Team, regarding your two photographs of Riley Boilers. c1960.
For years now I have been trying to get pictures of Mary St Oxbridge. We used to live in no19 next door to the coal yard and I can remember standing in the doorway watching those great boilers move slowly up the street just inches away from the walls. My other memory is of the large steel double gates that we used as goals for our games of football. If any one reads this and has some photos of the area I would love to see them, I can be contacted on petermulcaster@yahoo.co.uk, many thanks
Stuart, The Santa Maria and Santa Barbara which were built for the Grace Line of New York, were built two years before I was born! I spent twelve months in Furness S.B.engineers drawing office and saw many photos of these fine ships. They were motor vessels having twin Sulzer diesel engines installed, so the Riley boilers would be for driving the steam auxilliary machinery, and heating etc. I don”t know if they were the largest ships of their time built on the Tees. It”s possible that both the Athelprince and the Athelviking built the year before may have that distinction, they were slightly longer, with a similar gross tonnage but with a much greater deadweight tonnage.
Peter do you recall hearing about the Ship Santa Maria and her sister- ship the Santa Barbara. They were built by the Furness Shipbuilding Company at Haverton Hill and officially launched on the 15th august 1927. I believe that at the time, these were the largest ships ever built on the Tees. Both were fitted with two oil-fired horizontal multi-tubular boilers by Rileys of Stockton.
From 1940 to 1950 I lived on the corner of Sheraton St. and Carr St. which was about 200 yards from Riley Boilers, the noise at that distance was bad when riveting was being done, and during the war that was night and day, how the folks in Mary St. and Light Pipe Hall Rd.coped with that din I don”t know. I do recall the incident of the boiler rolling off the low loader in the late forties. I do remember also when large boilers were leaving the works, lamp-posts (gas) having to be removed to allow the low loaders to negotiate the narrow streets and tight corners, before getting on to Oxbridge Lane. Some of the boilers were delivered to The Furness Shipbuilding Co. at Haverton Hill, where I was serving a Marine Engineering apprenticeship. Some years later during my sea-going career, I sailed on a number of ships fitted with Riley boilers, and I found them to be a real quality product, a credit to their makers.
Probably not the last boiler then as my father finished with Sunters approx 1961 & by 1965 was driving bin lorries.
If this is the last boiler manufactured by Riley”s, I would date this photograph to 1965 the year the firm ceased trading. The firm were manufacturing boilers in excess of 30 tons. On one such occassion in the late forties when the road was still cobbled. A holding chain snapped and the boiler crashed to the ground. A crane had to be used to hoist it back on to the low loader. There were many complaints from local residents at the time regarding burst water mains.
My father Harry Hill was the driver of the vehicle in these photographs.