This photograph shows at Tram at Norton terminus. Courtesy of Norman Hill. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This photograph shows at Tram at Norton terminus. Courtesy of Norman Hill.
My Grandfather, William Storr, from Norton, drove trams and I have a cutting from the Gazette in 1963 where he was interviewed, aged 79, for a series called Living Memories. He started as a conductor in 1903, aged 19, at 3 shillings a day for sixteen hours, seven days a week. At 22 in 1906, the year he married, he became a motorman (driver) and his daily pay soared to 4s.6d!! One night when he was driving along the Wilderness Road, a man jumped on board with a knife in his hand. Grandad asked no questions, but promptly hit him with the control handle, and pushed him off! I also have another cutting, but it is undated, which tells the tale of a man called Thomas Pennant, aged 70, of Stanley Street, who walked in front of a tram on the High Street in Stockton. Grandad, who was driving, and was a six footer, tall for those days, leaned over from his cab which was open, grabbed the man and held him against the front of the tram until he could stop. In 1921 Middlesbrough, Thornaby and Stockton Corporations bought out the Imperial Tramway Co, and Grandad continued to drive trams right up to the time of the last on the Norton to North Ormesby run. The last tram between Stockton and Middlesbrough ran on December 31st 1931, my Mother was 10 at the time and remembered seeing it pass along Norton Road. Middlesbrough trams, running along Linthorpe Road, lasted until June 1934. Grandad Storr then worked in the Middlesbrough depot and offices until he retired in 1949 at 65. He was a big Union man, and helped form the Vehicle Workeers Union in 1919, where he was Secretary for 19 years. This eventually merged into the Transport and General Workers Union. When I was a child we lived with him, and I remember George Chetwynd (who I think was MP for Stockton?) coming to the house to visit him.
I travelled on the trams from NORTON when I was 5 years old. The last tram ran in 1931.
Yes I have travelled on the exact model tram as this, probably in about 1932. I was just a little boy. Probably about four years old. My father had taken Floss our spaniel dog and me down the village to ‘The Laurels’ which stood opposite Lumley’s farm to see our relations Tom and Margaret Kidd and family. I think we walked down and I was given a treat to ride up to the Green on the tram. We were only allowed top deck with the dog and when we had almost stopped outside the pub the dog jumped off the top deck onto the ground! I am pleased to say she was not hurt other than shocked. Stockton Corporation were very far sighted and ran a very good service for many many years. Even the Ashville Avenue service was every 20 Minutes the O service evey five minutes.
It is a mystery what happened to The Laurels, it just seemed to disappear after I left Teeside in 1951. Next time I saw it it was offices but even this has changed again just last year. For any Norton people that recall the family in 1939 they moved into Keithlands Avenue right at the top on the left corner joining South Rd. When the dangers of war became clear they moved to Kirklevington. Alfred Kidd joined the RAF, trained in Canada and became a Navigator-Pilot based at Scampton. He was killed like thousands of others fighting for this country. His sister Margaret ex Richard Hind School and WRAF died on 11th February last in Halifax Nova Scotia at the age of 85.
How many contributors to this forum ever saw any of the trams or travelled on one?