A view of Wilsons Department store, (‘Everything for the home. Everything for the family’), Pickersgill & Sons and The Vane Arms Hotel, Stockton High Street.
Stockton High Street
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A view of Wilsons Department store, (‘Everything for the home. Everything for the family’), Pickersgill & Sons and The Vane Arms Hotel, Stockton High Street.
Picture Stockton Archive 
Terri Ridley became Terri Foley and ran several pubs in Stockton with her husband Mick, including the Mulberry Tree (North Eastern), the Horse & Jockey and the Mitre.
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I remember Wilsons during the sixties. My friend Yvonne used to work on the wig department and we used to go and see her and try the wigs on a saturday. I used to love that shop because it had everything in it, a bit like Boyes. Just reading message from Terry Burns, yes I was Glynis Spires. Pauline now lives in Canada but do not have any contact. Hope your sister is ok. Tell Yvonne I still remember going into the shop and having a laugh with the wigs. Happy days.
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Thinking back now, when Uptons were in Yarm Lane in 1970 they didn’t move into the old set up of the High Street but moved into the new precinct from Yarm Lane after it opened.
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I’m sure Uptons was on Yarm Lane, not the High Street.
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Not disagreeing with you because we can’t put a date on the photo. I can remember Wilsons and Doggarts and Clydesdales. I think Uptons moved into Clydesdales when it closed. Uptons was still in Yarm Lane in 1971.
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Wasn’t it Uptons? Seem to think that was where we got my little brother’s pram.
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I think you’re right Brian. It is where we bought our 1st pram in 1965. It was a Marmet pram that you could take the body apart from the wheels so you could place it in the car.
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My wife seems to think it was simply called the Pram Shop!
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Does anybody know what the shop was called to the left of Wilsons – you can just see a pram in the corner of the window? The building is taller and looks older than Wilsons.
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Charles Morris was a furniture store with branches in Stockton, Middlesbrough, North Ormesby, South Bank, Redcar and West Hartlepool.
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Thanks for the information about post-war businesses at 56 High St, and to any future commentators in advance. A good photo of the shop at 56 High St c.1930 when it was occupied by Joshua Goldston, the picture frame maker and well-known councillor (Mayor in 1927?), is already on Picture Stockton. Like my family, the Goldston’s were some of the first recorded Polish or Russian Empire immigrants to settle in Stockton, but I could not find the exact town or village they came from on various maps, possibly due to spelling and translation problems.
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56 High Street, Stockton – All we have been able to establish is that the property was known as Chippendale House from 1952 to 1955 when it was occupied by GS and M Sutton, a furniture retailers. In 1958 it was occupied by Pooles Ltd, business unknown and then in 1960-61 it was occupied by Charles Morris and Co. Ltd, again business unknown.
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Does anyone know the history of the shop at 56 High Street in the 1950’s and early 1960’s? It can be seen above on the right of Wilson’s trading as ‘something’ Morris, with possibly independent offices on the upper levels. What was the full name and profession of Morris’s? I have a detailed OS map of the High Street dating from the 1950’s that may have once belonged to the owners of 56 High Street (likely a chain of national shops, or a property owning institution). This property is shaded in red pencil on the map along with the buildings directly behind it, and J. Jones Ltd (the costumier chain) at 147 High Street, suggesting some connection or interest between them, but what? The names and locations of some other major High Street retailers are lightly written in grey pencil on the map, but not coloured or shaded in, suggesting less significance.
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My mother worked in Wilson for about 15 years up to it closing for the new development. She was in charge of the fancy goods and wallpaper departments. Her name was Betty Callender. She worked with Joan Mash. I worked on a Saturday in the Hat department and also in the grocery department (in the days when you were served – no supermarkets then). I can remember a girl in the office called Angela.
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I remember going into Wilsons with my mother and grandmother on saturdays to see my sister on the cosmetics and the wigs department. They always had to try them on and yes, one week they did buy one each, ash blonde wigs, they must have looked like the beverley sisters. My sister Yvonne Burns started at Wilsons after she left Hardwick secondary school in the late sixties. My sister tells me that she worked with girl called Terri Ridley who worked on the hosiery with a lady called Nora who would keep saying to Terri “fill em up, fill em up, you must keep them filled up” referring to the stockings and tights. Also working with them was Jean Saysell who was on the shoe department, up and down the ladder all day and back and forward to Blundells with returns to be repaired. The manager was Mr Aitchson, and the manageress was Mrs Peacock. Head of the shoe department was Cybil, school friend who use to come in the shop. Also from Hardwick were Glynis Spires and Pauline Howes. Yvonne remembers all the smells as if it was yesterday, and names like Evening in Paris, 4711, Goya, Yardley,Coty la monta, Max Factor, Old english lavender, Grosssmiths, Mysticque, also the basket full of soaps. One afternoon the girls went to the Vane Arms to see the pop group The Trogs with lead singer Reg Presley – happy days. Opposite Wilsons our brother Kenneth burns worked on the market on the record stall, and a bit further along on another stall worked peter butterfield before he joined the army. When Wilsons closed in about 1969, Yvonne went to work with our father, Harold Burns, in Sparks bakery; now thats another story.
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