This postcard shows the Transporter Bridge. Courtesy of Keith Roberts. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This postcard shows the Transporter Bridge. Courtesy of Keith Roberts.
My mam, Susan Hadaway, lived in Howard Cresent with sister Judith. My mam remembers trips on the Transporter and told me all about them – do you have any photos of my mam around the time you were friends please?
On 17th October this year the bridge has the Centenary of its opening. Its worth checking the Middlesbrough/Stockton web sites for details of celebrations. We will be there with our Grandsons, the Great/Great Grandsons of Alderman Joseph McLauchlan who laid the foundation stone in 2010 after a ten year campaign to have it built. My wife Peta (Riley) Sutherland is the Granddaughter of Joseph – his daughter Lucy married Alderman John Riley of Stockton. We have the trowel and mallet used by Alderman McLauchlan to lay the stone on 3 August 2010. It is hoped they will be used to lay a centenary stone.
Yes Paul – I noticed it was blue last year and I thought it a bizarre choice of colour. Black or a rust red would have been a better choice.
The transporter bridge – what supurb feat of engineering. Been over loads of times! Though it was painted black now its blue?? Well it was last year!
How many people out there had to walk over the top of the transporter? I worked at Heads, so this day I decided to get the bus to Port Clarence. On this particular morning the ferry had broken down, so the choice was to either walk over the top, or get the bus all the way round to the Boro. so guess which one I took? Yes, climbing over the top was pretty tough but I was a lot younger then, would I try it now? ….maybe
I walked over the top many times after a ‘late’! night in M’Bro.!!
Me – George Morris and my good mate Bill Collier..
There is a very similar transporter bridge over the Kiel Canal in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. It is at Rendsburg and is actually suspended from the main railway line bridge.
I think that there are some 20 similar bridges in the world.
I remember the Transporter bridge when I was approx 6 years old, my dad had a boat on the river and we got stranded, I think at Seal Sands. When we eventually got back to the Transporter bridge it was closed for the night, and we had to walk over the top of it – 7 kids my dad and our dog Sooty. My sister Mavis Christine May (Rayner), twin sisters Florence and Sandra May (Rayner), my big brother John May (Rayner), my sister Marion May (Rayner) myself Maureen May (Rayner) and little brother Alan May (Rayner) and my dad Johnnie May. We used to go to Haverton Hill infants and junior school in the 50’s. I remember the Headmaster was called Mr Taylor, and my first teacher in the infants was Mrs Atkinson. There was another teacher I remember, I think her name was Mrs Caybourne, and if anyone was ever naughty she used the ruler over your knuckles. We were born in Sweethills, Pearl St and Victoria St. My mam, Mary Rayner, was very good friends with Hilda Burdiss and Nancy Bateman. We moved up the hill to Howard Crescent and lived there until I was 9 years old, 1966.
Me and my sister Marion were very good friends with Diane and Yvonne Laird and our neighbours were Kenny, Norman and Erica Allborn. My elder sisters the twins, Sandra and Florence, were good friends with the Hadaways – Judith and Susan, they lived at end of our street Howard Crescent. We used to go on the Transporter bridge when we went to Stockton market with my mam.
My grandad was Tommy Walker, a boxer who lived down the village. We used to go to Snowdons shop for groceries with my mam – those were the days eh?
Would love it if anyone could remember our family.
we would have been known as the May family or mebe people knew us down at sweethills as the rayner family.
Maureen. I left a note on the other page about Haverton school and the book I have about Haverton.. George Morris