Alliance Street, Wilfred Street, Hind Street, Templar Street (with closed Trades & Labour club), you can see how things look there now, compared with when I was a child living there in the 60s (as shown in some of the Parkfield pictures on this site). All these streets are due for demolition in October 2006.
Photographs and information courtesy of Mick Maroney.
It is interesting to see the comments about Wilfred House, I would have loved to have seen a photo of it as I was also born there and lived there until I was about 2 years old. I remember the staircase and playing in the walled garden.
I lived in Hind Street, best years of my life. My mam and dad were member’s of the K G H club in the 80’s and 90’s.
I lived in 12 Templer Street round about 1977 for a few years with my parents, the Cuthberts. I remember playing with friends on Hind Street, the McShanes and Gaskells and swinging upside down from the metal stairs at the club at bottom off Hind/Alliance Street. I remember a boy who had a brace on his leg, I think from polio maybe, and a family that still had a tin bath in front room. My younger sister has a friend who funnily enough rented number 12 in the 90’s and I think she caused a fire there! Not sure if Templer Street is still there now but I have lots of childhood memories.
I was a member of the trades and labour club in the 80s and remember it as a canny little club. The beer was always cheaper than anywhere else and if you wanted a game of pool you had to carry your beer up the narrow staircase to a room which was probably one of the bedrooms when it used to be a house. It was only a small pool table which just about fit into the room. The weirdest thing though was that it was also a shooting range for air guns, the target was on one wall and if it was ever used you would have had to fire the gun from the other side of the room and over the pool table. Wonder if it would be allowed nowadays?
THE TRADES AND LABOUR CLUB. THIS MUST HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE MOST HONEST COMMITTEES EVER IN RELATION TO WORKING MENS CLUBS. IT IS THE ONLY CLUB WHERE ANY MEMBERS GOT PAID OUT.
I am another Ann Hughes and I also lived in wilfied House in the early 1950″s. We must be related. My great great grandfather was also jacob Hughes. We used to visit Moses and mary ann hughes who also lived in Hind Street. We have a family mystery which I would like to explain to Ann Hughes (not me). Please can you contact me through this site by emailing the site team. They will then give you my email address.
I also used to live in Wilfred House when I was about 5 years old in 1953. Lots of my family lived there on and off. My grandfather Clifford Hughes was adopted by Moses and Mary Ann Hughes who lived with Jacob Hughes in Hind Street. To p evis it would be great to contact each other. I remember the lovely bathroom in Wilfried House it had Blue flowers all over it. Also the beautiful cloured glass windows on the staircase.
We grew up in Hind street and have many a spooky story about the times we had there. Did anyone else feel any strange presences in those houses? Perhaps the area was quite spirtually charged….
I am a 72 year old member of Ann”s family who used to live in Wilfrid house. It is where I grew up, went to school, sheltered from airaids etc. We had happy times but sadly there do not seem to be any photos of it. I know it is now demolished.
My brother bought his house in Hind Street when he was married in November 1972. We came down from Scotland for the wedding in Stockton and our dad had tears in his eyes as he saw for the first time the lovely house his son had bought in Hind Street!!! Our dad died later that year on the 6th of December. My brother”s two children were born here and, although he never met them, I know our dad is SO proud of his grand kids!!!
LONG LONG TIME AGO OOR LARRY MC SHANE AND HIS WEANS JO-ANNE & RYAN LIVED IN HIND STREET AND WE ALL CAME DOWN FROM AIRDRIE TO SEE THEM. THE TWO WEANS ARE MARRIED NOW AND RYAN HAS A LOVELY LITTLE GIRL CALLED ERIN AFTER HER AUNTIE!!!! HOPE YOU SEE THIS AND UNDERSTAND IT`S SAD TO SEE A STREET LIKE THAT GO DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OBLIGED ELEANOR MC SHANE
Hi Bill,re KGH club Des was very kind to me over the years as a member. I went to his funeral last year and a few of the older members were there, we had a chat about old times.We had quite a few stewards in the club over the years always on first name terms. If you tell me your mother & fathers I will probably remember them.
Hi Malcolm, I was also a member of the Knights. My boss had me join,(Des Crooks) Also my mother and father looked after the bar. I think most of my family were members at one time.
I was doing an enquiry at the Nights of the Golden Horn about 1970 and was surprised to see some old aquaintancy”s there from earlier years at the Red Lion at Norton. Eric Bunn and Harold Seaman. I played darts with Eric Bunn in the M”bro league. In fact we were partners in the Doubles Competition and reached the Finals. (Thats another story). Eric Bunn was also a very good Goalkeeper playing for Sparks in the Stockton Saturday League. A real Gentleman.
I was a founder member of the Knights of the Golden Horn Club, we met at the White Hart in Dovecot Street (now Georgia Browns)and we all bought shares to buy our own club it was opened in June 1966 and was a very popular club for many years doing charity work and many other things. I am also a past president of the club and worked many years on the committee, I might still be remebered by some past members. Happy days.
to ann hughes regarding the house that you used to live in, wilfred house it was made into a club in 1966 and called knghts of the golden horn i worked there from 1980 to 1996 when it was sold by the brewery. i spent a lot of time researching the house and have a lot of photos of it as a club but none of it as a house,i would be very interested if you had any.
My family used to live on Wilfred Street cerca 1950 and 1960 in Wilfried House. The trains from th railway line behind used to shake the house, but we all loved it. My great grandfather Jacob Hughes used to live in Hind Street. Wilfried House was sold to a Working mens club about 1980/90 but is now sadly demolished.
Well my Grandmother used to live in Hind Street. Back in the 60″s it was still a very decent area. The old folks would scrub their steps and the doors to most of the houses were painted in a “Scumble” varnish which essentially allowed pitch pine doors to look like oak. The cobled streets were extremely durable and never needed any maintenance. Many houses had polished brass plates indicating the name of the head of the household. I must have played Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band 100″s of times in the front room of my grans house. The front room was never used and always kept spick and span for special vistors and her grand children. There was a fabulous fish and chip shop around the corner and two corner shops at either end of the street. Hardly any cars were parked in the street. Yup it was cold going out to the back yard to “the privy”. The area could have been turned into a students accomodation block like King Edwards Square in Middlesbrough. Oh well … maybe in 20 years time it will be time to demolish Fairfield…
I knew some of the people shown in your review of the Stockton Test (the modernization of some houses in Alliance Street in the 1950s). I moved into Templar Street (at the top of Alliance Street) in 65. It was a pretty decent place to spend childhood years in the 60s – playing out every night in the cobbled streets. Things started to go downhill in the 70s, but the decline really kicked in in the mid-90s. Like others before her, my mother left her house in 2002 because she no longer felt safe. Such a shame – particularly in the wake of the Stockton Test.