An interesting view of Finkle Street looking down to the river and beyond. We aren’t sure of the date.
The scene on other side of the river has changed dramatically. Are those cattle pens at the bottom of the street?
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
I get the feeling that Stockton will constantly be being re-developed. I say this because I always see something new being built in the Stockton area. Nothing is ever what it once was. I guess we just have to roll with it. I just wish i could remember what some of the places used to look like.
OH dear!! If only I’d kept going,to the next pic!……ho-hum.Now I know!!!!
re the market stalls – I was about to say the same as Frank,the view across the river is Heads foundry, a nice picture of Finkle Street
The answer to Ashmore’s demise is simple. Their machinery was WW1 taken from Germany and falling to bits. They made little attempt to update it while competitors forged ahead into the era of automation. Meanwhile the directors were happy to take large pensions and cross their fingers. I have only indirect knowledge of Heads but searches for my family history indicate much the same cause.
I don’t think you can class HW’s as such. I can say we laid lots of foundations for machinary. New work shops were built and they started a Research & Development (R&D) Dept. They did nuclear for Power Plants and started a new office up in Yarm at the Friarage. The Stampings division moved from Thornaby to Seaton Carew. All this in the time I was there from 1953-62.
I originally posted this pic before the site re vamp, it was given to me by a family member, I think its from 67/68
Hello Peter, I couldn’t find this photograph on the new site so I re-posted it – I apologise for not acknowledging your contribution – I thought it was one of ours…….
This area was my play ground when young along with my mate Rob Hodgson, I remember the derelict sites in Finkle Street, we used to dare each other to run through the alley and passed the empty Green Dragon Inn, very spooky back then, it was
like a time machine to the past, glad the area was saved, not like the rest of Stockton .
Yes indeed Geoff we had great times there, and I’m glad its been saved.
I always remember how Paul did the daring but never dared to go in himself.
On the opposite side of the river is Head Wrightsons. The building with the skylights in is the Davy McKee offices with the R&D Dept below it. In the photograph days I would think under the offices was then tn Aluminium Dept. In front of these buildings scattered around on the waste land were patterns which were used in the foundry for the mouldings.
Those are the stalls for Stockton Market at the bottom of the Street so probably just before the knock down and rebuild. Before that the Stalls were kept near Thistle Green and there was a scrap yard where the stalls are now usually piled high with scrap metal which was loaded on boats and sent abroad A couple of cranes would also be breaking the sky line. Head Wrightsons over the River and Ashmore’s at Parkfield once the largest engineering firms in the district, long gone with our young people who were guaranteed jobs now serving coffee and burgers, what happened?
My Dad worked in Heads as a fitter and turner most of his working life, I well recall visiting Dad at his workplace during school hols, not quite something that would be allowed now.
He was also one of the St Johns medics.
Max.
Great photo, it brings back happy memories of my childhood, we used the slope to slide down in the snow, and the winding alleyways always seemed full of ghosts.