This postcard shows Norton Duck Pond and was sent to Mollie in Kent in 1901.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This postcard shows Norton Duck Pond and was sent to Mollie in Kent in 1901.
I have just found 2 delightful photos, from a collection of my great Grandmother, of this line of buildings in 1929. It has taken some research to find the location, with just ‘Yorkshire’ on the back of one. So glad I found it. The family must have visited from Middlesborough.
They show exactly what is described, horses waiting to be shod, with a young boy watching.
Maybe, my Grandfather! I would like to post them here to link to this comment, but do not know how.
This delightful picture brings back many childhood memories. My elder sister and I walked every day from our home in North Albert Road to Norton High Street Primary School with the duckpond being about halfway between and a perfect stopping off point. Behind the photographer was an expansive grassy bank leading to St. Mary”s Church. To the left and out of view was the newsagent shop and a blacksmith forge. At the time that I remember (early 1950″s) the forge was still in original condition as it would have been at the time this postcard view was taken, and horses were often tethered outside waiting their turn to be shod. The shoes were heated on the large open furnace inside and the shoeing process was carried out in the doorway, presumably because it gave better light than the unilluminated interior. Brown fumes and burning wool smell made this location a “must stop” for a young boy on his way home from school. The pond was fitted with a concrete bottom at about this time and never had ducks on it as I can remember. Never deep, the pond was not a dangerous place but when frozen (as it often was in those winters) it was a magnet for local children.