This photo shows Robert Boiston and an employee outside Farm Stores butchers on Dovecot Street. Rea’s Ices (Pacittos) in the background was owned by the father of singer, Chris Rea. A cobbled West Row is running between the two premises. Courtesy of Peter Boiston. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Thanks to all Stocktonians of more mature years who reminded me of who had shops opposite the Hippodrome (The Arc). The little theatre was on the corner and next to it was the butchers shop where my late Mother cashed in her meagre ration cards. Staples I think now!
Aline, there was a theatre on the corner of Prince Regent St opposite the Hippodrome called The Little Theatre which sometimes showed films in the mid 50s and I think was used for amateur Dramatics, but that is as much as I can remember about it.
The Little Theatre in Dovecot Street had regular performances by “The Masquers” who were local to Stockton area and regularly performed there in the 1950’s (I have some of the programs). Perhaps others may remember them?
I knew of them and I have some black & white photos of some of their productions from the 50s taken by the local papers. These were given to me by a lady who appeared in their plays along with her husband during the 1950s. They were a friendly close knit group who often met for dinner at the queens hotel in Stockton.
I might be wrong. On the left of the Golden Falls was the Y.W.C.A – I think it was painted red?
Does anyone know if this was 32 Dovecot Street?
Can anyone remember A THEATER, that was on the left of what used to be the Golden Falls? I used to go when I was a child can’t remember when it was knocked down or who it belonged to. I would love to know more about its history.
STAPLES was opposite hippodrome (the Arc) next door to the Golden Falls chinese restaurant and the other shop was on Norton Road.
Good days
That was the place that played cartoons..you could sit in there all day and the films just continued..over and over
Was the butchers possibly called Lightfoots, or was this in another location?
I can’t help you about the butcher but my work colleagues fathers family had a family butchers in Dovecot Street. I can’t tell you where it was or when but the name was Pickering.
Alan, was the butchers not the original Staples before it moved to Norton Road?
During the war years and for some time after I imagine, the Golden Falls Chinese Restaurant was a family butchers. The name escapes me now, too much water has flowed under the bridge. I am hoping someone can recall the butchers name. During the war time rationing, the lack of meat, eggs etc was woeful. Out would come the ration books and Mother would make the decision of what not to get!
As I got older I bred tame rabbits and, although I could not bring myself to eat the offspring of my pets, I was quite happy to take them, when fattened up, to this butcher for him to do the dastardly deed! I banked the cash (not much I can tell you!) and it supplimented my meague pocket money. Happy days in my cottage industry (not declared on my tax form – much too early!). I described my ‘hobby’ to my animal loving daughters as they grew up – they think I’m an appalling capitalist!
I remember the comic shop. I think it was a few doors away from the Butchers.
It had a great selection.
I used to live in Milbank Street, off Nelson Terrace. Does anyone recall the shop we used to take our comics /books to exchange when we had finished with them? I suppose this was a kind of video shop of the 60/70s. I also had the pleasure of going into Mr Moon’s your shop. (now an electric wholesalers).
There were so many good shops in Dovecote Street and adjacent streets with a variety not available today. I cannot think of a clean, smart dairy shop like that of Mr Moon. I had good reasons for calling there in connection with David.
What a trip down memory lane reading all these posts and seeing the photo of Dovecote Steet! My father ran the Dairy in Nelson Terrace where I was born. Yes I remember all of the shops and premises that have been mentioned as we didn’t move out until my father retired when I was 20 so all of my childhhod was spent around these steets. Miss Jones that ran the Dolls Hospital was a very good friend to my mother and I remember the shop very well it had a large high glass counter with dozens of boxes behind selling wool and dolls clothing etc. She used to sit in the back with a open gas range and fire, surrounded with cardboard boxes!! Bought my first watch from Kelsey and Blackburn and remember helping to sweep out the repair shop one day to earn a new watch strap! Bought my first ‘Triumph’ bike from Halfords. Anyone remember the ‘Court Players’ puting on stage plays at the Hippodrome? I used to sneak in and watch the rehearsals then go and get them some tea and milk.
I lived at 34a Dovecte Street up till 1957 it was behind a wood yard and Mr Moon always delivered our milk. My man and dad met in Newman’s bakery which was in Dovecote Street in 1946
I remember buying a Raleigh racing bike from Halfords in Dovecot Street in 1974. The bike cost me £34 and it was only 5 speed and when I see the bikes nowadays, how times changed. Halfords was always a pleasure to look around and admire the shiny new bikes, which were in the upstairs showroom and can still picture the showroom with all bikes stacked neatly side by side. I still love my cycling and always pop into the Halfords in Bridge Road to admire the bikes there. I saw the photo of Ratners and remember getting a Gent’s Signet Ring from Ratners and still have it.
My next door neighbour used to work for Sparks Bakery and used to deliver to their shop in Dovecot Street which was on the same side as the Farm Stores.
Roberts Wet fish shop was a place that always got my attention and where I used to buy herrings and mackeral for bait to go fishing.
Roberts Fish shop is a shop I never thought would shut.
My father bought me my first pushbike from Halfords in Dovecote Street.
Halfords was a nice shop to look around as a schoolboy.
That bike had to last me a long time and I had to look after it, something you dont see these days.
I have seen cod in Roberts window 4 feet long.
Nearly correct Martin, it was RATNERS JEWLERS, there is a photo on this site.
A shop just before Roberts in the late 60’s early 70’s was a fashion shop called Rickards. He also had another shop on the Town Square at Billingham.
Another shop I remember in the early 70s was Merediths cake shop, just past the wet fish shop, where my auntie Kathleen worked and had all our birthday cakes made.
The surgical appliance shop was indeed named Beauclarks but it was owned by a Jewish family named Vanderveldt. The Vanderveldts were our neighbours for some years. It is quite possible they later renamed the shop. I only remember it from before Stockton Secondary School moved to Grangefield.
Brian, I think you are correct in saying that Wylemans was on Nelson Terrace.
In addition to buying many stamps there I found it a good shop for pencils, paper and paints and pens. Also handy as it was on my way home from Trinity.
I remember Wyleman’s being run by a old lady, it was across the road from the Regent Pub. As I lived in Milbank St it was just around the corner so I was in there many times.
Remember Roberts Fish and chip shop next to the wet fish shop? They were one of the best in town, always very busy. The wool shop was Lena Smith’s. Remember ‘The House of Solace’ which was the tobacco shop (maybe the stamps were in there). I knew Josephs shop on the corner with Nelson Trce and just around that corner was Kelsey the jewelers. Also next to the Education offices was a double fronted shop made into two shops with a central door made into two with the doors being set at 45 degrees each, they sold baby clothes and haberdashery etc.
My parents bought me a new bike from Smarts for passing my 13 plus in 1953. I remember all the other shops people have talked about, having lived in Tarring Street all my young life.
I don’t remember a stamp shop in Dovecot Street but there was a stamp shop on Nelson Terrace called Wyleman’s during the fifties. It was run by an elderly lady who used to show you books of stamps to look through, I spent many a weekly pocket money there! The shop was between the Northern Echo & Finlayson’s who sold all kinds of chemicals.
I do not recall a stamp shop in Dovecote Street, but there was one on Nelson Terrace. It was pretty run down and needed a lick of paint. In the late 1950s it was run by a bespectacled old lady who emerged from the back room whenever anybody went into the shop. It was called Wileymans or something very similar.
Anyone remember the shop in Dovecot Street that sold stamps, it would be the early or mid fifties, dont recall the name of the shop but it was between the ice cream bar and the fish shop on the same side, I bought my first stamp album there a ‘Trafalger’ and many a stamp to go into it.
At last, some people who remember the Dolls Hospital. I have asked on this site before if anyone remembered it, and yes, it was a tiny poky dark shop, with trays of glass eyes and heads and hair. If I had known you remembered it Dorothy, we would have reminisced about it before! The chiropodist was Hanrahans, he used to do home visits to my Grandfather, and he did have ‘surgical appliances’ in the window which was on Nelson Terrace, think he had a daughter called Jean. Newmans also had a coffee shop in the late 50s early 60s. Cups of frothy coffee in glass cups with glass saucers, and the machine hissing on the counter. Good meeting place for teens on a Saturday afternoon.
Maureen, the shop you refer to that sold surgical appliances was I think called Vandervelde? When I was having my son in 1962 I was sent to get fitted for an elastic stocking from my doctor on prescription. A man took me into the back room and measured my leg from my knee to toes, I dont think that would be allowed now, he would have to have a lady present. Also I baught my baby sons Christening Gown in a Baby Linen shop over the road from the surgical shop – can anyone remember what its name was? There was a wool shop owned by Dorothy Smith, I used to put wool away for my mam as you only could afford to pay for a few ounces at one time. How things have changed….
The surgical appliances shop which I referred to earlier was next door to the wool shop I believe.
Just around the corner from Dovecote Street, in Nelson Street, opposite Bright Street. Was Kelsey & Blackburn, who sold watches & clocks. Also, on the corner of Dovecote Street and the High Street was a jewellers called Collinwoods, later became Rathers or was Rathers further up the High Street to the left after Marks & Spencers.
The shop people are describing as Bells toy shop used to be Smarts Toy shop where I worked in about 1958. It sold cycles and prams, also Hornby Dublo train sets and Donkey Boilers. It was owned by a Jewish family and we used to store toys in a building where the fire station was almost opposite for the Christmas club, people would put them away and pay weekly up until Christmas. We always used to pop over to the Farm Stores for the pork pies which were great for our tea breaks or lunches, happy days.
John, wasn’t it Hanrahan’s the chiropodists?
Ian Black, how well I remember the wool shop in Dovecot Stree, whenever my dolls needed repair we always took them to the ‘dolls hospital’, being very young I thought my dDolls were actually going into hHospital – Oh the innocence of childhood. I seem to remember the shop as being long and very narrow or was that all the goods etc. the shop seemed very busy and very full.
Yes you are right Maureen, it was Buttery’s. When my mother was young Mrs Buttery lived next door to my mother in Ragworth Place, Norton. They were friends until Mrs Buttery died. We as children lived in the days of the sweet coupons but always managed more than our rations because of this friendship. In her later years she lived in Albany Road with her daughter who still lives there. I delivered the meat to her on a Saturday. Always a welcome tip from her.
Dovecote Street shops, is there anyone still around that remebers Joseph’s, the cheap shop opposite corner to the Hippodrome 1939-? and Newmans the Grocer and the smell of coffee?
Yes ,I remember Josephs. I mentioned it in an earlier post.
Maureen – was the surgical shop you mention not on nelson terrace and sold skoll sandals??
Another business from the 50’s in Dovecot St was a tiny shop selling knitting wools and knitting accessories, and also boasting a Dolls’ Hospital with a repair service. Not that I had an interest in knitting or dolls, but I did sometimes help my parents work on the doll repairs. The proprietor was Miss Jones.
MAYNARDS SWEET SHOP, WERE DID THEY ALL GO??
I can remember a sweet shop in Dovecot St called Buttery’s, it was on the left hand side walking up from the High St. There was also another shop that we used to walk pass quickly giggling as we went. It was a shop that sold surgical appliances, some of which looked a bit rude to naive young girls! I think it was called Beauclarks or something similar. This would be in the 50’s.
The manager of Bells Sports when Salisburys took them over was a Welsh chap & Neville Bickerstaff took over the Gymnasia business when his dad died.
Don’t forget The Golden Falls Chinese Restaurant on the opposite corner to the Hippodrome! It had that rather dodgy, home made little water feature under the staircase in the corner!
My Mam (Anne Summerfield) & my Auntie (Jean Parker nee Allen) both worked for the Bickerstaffs in Bells Toy/Sports shop in Dovecote Street – initially in the small shop opposite the Farm Stores & later in the larger two storied shop nearer to Nelson Terrace. It was a frightening experience being in the shop when the Fire Engines raced out of their station & onto Dovecote Street – it looked like they were going to come straight through the shop window. After moving to the larger two storied premises nearer to Nelson Terrace, Bells Sports was taken over by a company called Salisburys which as well as selling sports equipment sold handbags. The Bickerstaffs then concentrated on their Gymnasia buisness in a factory on Blue House Point Road in Portrack where I worked in the summer of 1967 – they made all types of sporting equipment including goal posts & high quality Table Tennis tables which were used at many major sporting events. Mr Bickerstaff loved horse racing and would wait for a daily phone call from his contact at the stables before giving me a sealed envelope for delivery to the betting shop on Portrack Lane – strangely I was never asked to go and collect any winnings!
Salisburys also opened a branch of the Dovecote Street store in the new Woolco Store at Thornaby where they has two departments, one selling sports equipment and one selling handbags. I worked there on Saturdays in 1968/69 & would cringe every time the call came over the shop tannoy for ‘Dave Summerfield go to ‘Handbags’. I believe the Dovecote Street sports shop eventually moved to premises on Yarm Lane in what may have been the old Uptons shop (on the opposite corner to Jocker Browns)- but I’m unsure whether it was still owned by Salisburys at the time it moved into Yarm Lane.
Other shops in Dovecot Street which have closed down over the past years; Co-op Supermarket, Kiwi-Save, Discount for Beauty, Leader’s, Tiptop, Track’s Music, Dovecot News, Curtess, Market Jeweller’s, Tykes, The Spread Eagle and Robert’s Fisheries.
I was in Dovecote Street today and I spoke to the girl in the cake shop which used to be the Farm Stores. The young lady allowed me to see that the stairways up to my fathers office were still the same ones I climbed as a child, the same toilets and office. It brought back a lot of memories looking out of that upstairs window at Pacittos. And the long room where the pork pies were made is still there. What a shame Dovecote street can’t become lively again.
Timpsons, Halfords, Jacksons the Tailors. Bellsports was a shop I always liked to visit.
Then there was the public houses – the White Hart etc.
I remember your dad very well one of the few gentlemen in the town. I worked next door in the co-op butchery it was half day on a Thursday and a lad Rodger who worked for your dad would come into me and I taught him how to butcher beef as the farm stores only sold pork.
The farm stores later became Smyths cake shop.
Also Bradburys curtain shop.
The point I was making was Bells sport shop was at the junction before moving to nearer Nelson Terrace on Dovecote Street.
ALSO MASONS FRUIT SHOP, JAKE CARRS BETTING SHOP, DUNCANS GROCERY SHOP AND OLD EDUCATON OFFICES WHICH IS STILL STANDING OPPOSITE..
I remember going in here for their cold meats and also got ice creams from the shop facing it – not sure of the name of it or the date.
This photo was taken when Bells sports shop was opposite this junction in Dovecote Street,which was owned by the Bickerstaff family.
My father was the manager of the Farm Stores and my family visited the shop on most days when we went shopping in Stockton. The streets are cobbled in this picture. I dont know if the fellow next to my father was called Fred who I beleive was my godfather. I was born in 1956 and lived at newly built Roseworth.