A busy day on Stockton High Street, the photograph is thought to have been taken in 1944.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A busy day on Stockton High Street, the photograph is thought to have been taken in 1944.
Bob, 1956-7-8, if you remember there was a raised wall on the South side of the Shambles built at the same time, was that when the toilets were built? In time although you could park out side the Regal they fenced it off as a taxi rank. Nothing changed for years then each time I came home something was different. Just checked one of my books, they were definitely there in 1970 as a photo shows.
When were the metal railings which formed islands in the middle of the south end of the High Street introduced? I can never remember the High Street without them after the War… You could do a U-turn between them opposite the cinema.
No, I never saw that many cars together at any time during the war. The coaches seem to be some kind of outing as they definitely were not service coaches. All the cars are pre 1950. When the first new shapes appeared and what makes me feel old, is that I drove most of the types, makes me a museum piece I think. My guess and it is a guess would be 1947-8-9 when things were picking up a little bit after the bleak years. When the war was over, things got even worse than during the war, bread being rationed for one, that never happened during the war.
During the war didn’t the cars have to have special painting in white near to or around the headlights during the war, which these don’t have?
It has to be pre-war, going by the cars. They are really old style cars, or modern cars for the time the photo was taken. The modern type cars for that date would be 1935-ish.
I have to agree with Fred Starr and Martin Jones. Are there any signs of ‘blackout’, air raid or bomb blast precautions in evidence, eg on the shop windows, streetlights or bus windows and lights? Again ,as mentioned, the number of private cars on the High Street seems too many. A relative’s car was ‘mothballed’ virtually for the duration of World War 2, the engine was just turned over occasionally. The coaches in the foreground also look quite busy, possibly holiday travel as people seem to have suit cases, so again maybe late 1930s…
I agree with Fred Starr that there seem to be too many private cars on view for this to be a wartime photo. I’m no expert on when the different makes of cars and buses were produced – can anyone out there help please? The double decker bus in the background looks remarkably like the one my family used to travel on in the 1950’s to get to my grandparents house in Raby Road. A wonderful photo, whenever it was taken, and I particularly like the coaches lined up in the foreground, and the man sweeping the street to the right with another man in a suit apparently looking at him working!
Thank You for posting this photo, whilst it’s the year I was born, it bears more resemblence to the high street I Iove and care to remember than the one we currently have.
JWL
Seems a bit doubtful that this was 1944. Petrol rationing eliminated all but essential motoring. Possbly late thirties or late forties.