These photographs of Billingham Beck Valley Park were taken in August 2010 by Bob Irwin. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
These photographs of Billingham Beck Valley Park were taken in August 2010 by Bob Irwin.
Picture Stockton Archive 
A popular walk in our young days was to go down to the Old Mill, then turning left towards the 99 steps. Over to the other side of the railway towards Norton Station. Passing by the slag tip you could see over the valley ‘The Wynds’. If you were caught in there by Bob Kennedy, ‘God help you’. Also at Billingham Bottoms we would go there fishing with our home made rod with the bent pin and the jam jar. Stickle Backs and Red Breasts. What we caught would be released into Norton Duck Pond on the way home.
Other nice walks would be to go up to Norton Station, down past the concrete works and along to Hawes Wood and then on to the top of Junction Road. Other times, the same way but diverting over to the Wash and up to Wynyard. Another walk was up Parsons Walk, over the railway to Kiora, what is known now as Ragpath Lane. It was then turn left down to Darlington Lane past Fewsters and home, or turn right up to Junction Road and down to the Green. All these walks were in the country. Leaving Norton Green or the end of Norton Avenue you were in the country. No big estates like Roseworth and Hardwick.
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The lad who drowned in the beck was Dennis Faith from Greta road.
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Popular walks indeed Norman. Pre-war when Church was a must for families, dressed in our Sunday best we would come out of Church and walk down the Green and then the High Street, our parents meeting and greeting friends and us kids told to behave would be bored out of our heads, the only break being when we put our tongues out at the kids we did not like. Light spring and summer evenings meant we would walk the old mill path to friends or my Aunt’s in Billingham then back home again. Much more interesting as we wandered along the paths on the bank whilst our parents walked the wider main path. Past the mill, over the concrete bridge and over what we always called the New Road, it had a cycle path and this was before the war. As we got older, we left our parents to do the usual village walk and we took off in groups of girls and boys down to the mill, over the railway, past the concrete works and back up Station Road. Older still we would deviate to Cowboy Valley to watch the young lovers sneaking kisses off the beaten track as they thought. The jeering from us usually got us chased by angry lads disturbed from their chaste courting. The beck was our playground and we often swam in the ‘S’ bend in summer although I do remember at least one young lad being drowned there. It became our own courting ground as we got older still and we were the ones trying to snatch a kiss in Cowboy Valley. I often walked that area up to a couple of years ago with my Westie, he loved it and the memories would flow as names and scenes flooded back. A much gentler different time before home entertainment killed the family walks. Sunday’s were the only day off for many as it was a six day working week back then. Sunday evening was show your face time in your best bib and tucker, a time to relax and meet the neighbours who lived further afield down the High Street. Dad being the local removal man for many seemed to know them all. My grandchildren go to the Castle Eden walkway play area now. We all go and picnic there in the fabulous new play area, Stockton Council you did us proud, every kid has a smile on their faces with so much to do, well done. Things change, for the better? who knows, my grandchildren are still getting the outdoor experience, probably not as much as we did where everything to do was outside. As long as they have outside and safe facilities it will be the things they remember in years to come.
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This was a popular walk from Norton to Billingham down Beaconsfield road and along the side of the beck to the main Stockton Billingham road, then up Billingham bank toward the station. It was a fairly fast flowing beck and not one to fall in. It was a nice Sunday walk to see friends of Mum and Dad.
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