This photo taken by Jack Marriott shows Woolworths at 144 Stockton High Street in 1958. Woodhouse furniture shop can be seen on the right and Sparks cafe is on the left. Courtesy of Stockton Museum Service. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Picture Stockton Archive 
The shop on the right of the photo is Woodhouses, they moved from here to the other side of the High Street near the Town Hall, the shop on the left was Sparkes with the cafe above the shop.
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I sold Gazettes outside Woolies for a short time in the early 60s,loved the High Street then. Full of hustle and bustle and characters, did work on the market too,looking after stalls while the owners went off for a bite to eat,then when they came back and gave me a couple of bob I’d go to the cafe up the side street and have fish n chips,bread and a pot of tea,fantastic.
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I started working here as a Saturday girl just after my 15th birthday in December 1963. I was put onto the Christmas card counter. In those days cards were sold loose and were many different prices including whole and half pence. Customers would give me a handful and I had to find the price of each one, make sure it had an envelope then work out the total cost then give change if needed. No bar codes then, no electronic cash registers and no decimalisation either – 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound!!!
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I started working here as a saturday girl a year before we moved to the new building at the Castlegate Centre. I stacked shelves here and worked on the biscuit counter at the new shop.
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Anyone out there remember the bus trips from Stockton and Thornaby in the late 40’s early 50’s to the Panto, to Blackpool to see the lights, to Scarborough and the Lakes in the summer and the mystery tours, think the bus company name was Begg’s buses out of Thornaby.
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Joan Birtle was my aunt, sad to say she passed away on Christmas Day 1992. She left Woolworth”s in Stockton when the new Woolco store opened in Thornaby, I think she was Chief Cashier there. She was obviously very well thought of within the company, I remember the lavish dinner dance at the Billingham Arms laid on in her honour when she had achieved 21 years service. Ill health eventually forced her to retire early.
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I too went from Woolies in Stockton (my second time in that store) with Joan to Woolco Thornaby as part of the Management team. When I saw her name associated with the Sadberge Land Army piece in the Northern Echo online, I remembered the name but couldn’t place her. Now I can. Mrs Rasmussen was the Personnel Manager in Woolies. Ray, Rass’s son in law worked for me in Woolco. John Crombie was my last Stockton Woolies Manager, a great guy. Great memories. Sad to read of Joans demise.
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Even up until the 1980s I remember this end of the High Street busy like this as this was where all the bus stops were. To the right you can just make out the shop which I think was Woodhouses.
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In the early 1950s the store manager was Mr Coffee, the deputy manager was Mr Burnicle (who was to become manager of the Billingham branch) and the staff supervisor was Joan Birtle. I worked at the Middlesbrough branch from 1951 until 1953 when I joined the RAF and was posted to the Suez Canal Zone. During my time there Joan used to post me copies of the Woolworth staff magazine which I very much appreciated.
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Look at all those people in Stockton!! This was when it had amny shops to visit and a market to be proud of. People came from miles away. They even organised bus trips to go shopping in Stockton.
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I can remember going into Woolies at this location as a kid in the mid 60″s. I think the store stayed there till it moved to the new Castlegate Centre in, I think, 1971.
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