Victoria Boat Club ‘Tees Water Sports Club’ on the banks of the River Tees. Is this Portrack in the background? c1960s.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Victoria Boat Club ‘Tees Water Sports Club’ on the banks of the River Tees. Is this Portrack in the background? c1960s.
I played here dozens of times including when the Tees was polluted by a chemical spill and dead fish were floating by – by the dozen. We caught some, took them home and put them in basins (why who knows why- they all died)
Ref: The photo: Where was it? this photo was taken from the Stockton side of the Tees, by someone stood near the old boat club, Sea Scouts?, situated 800 yards from the former Stockton Bus Sheds (now a builders merchants) in Boathouse Lane.
To find the boat club: Walk down Boathouse Lane, take the first left, keep walking towards the river following a well worn path and you’re there. Once there you can see over the river Thornaby Place and further on Sun Street were the Thornaby Council Yard used to be (dogs destroyed 10/.-) Thornaby Place had Auto Electrics on the corner, it did have a long row of terraced houses but they’ve all gone, Hadrian caravans were there and gradually the whole area was developed. I’d date this photo 1967?.
Martin S has the answer. The Thornaby side of the Tees, just south of the Victoria Bridge had a boat building yard for at least 70 years, pre 1960. The area to the front of the picture is a vehicle car repair & scrap yard (I can not recall the name, but it is on another close up picture of the same area). The large buildings in the distance must, in my opinion, be parts on Head Wrightson. In about 1960 the boatyard was sold and I presume it was then it became solely dedicated to rowing / boating club use. The building must be very close to were the Bishop of Durham’s toll bridge once stood and I wonder if the club’s user’s have ever seen any old wooden piles at low tide.
I will be posting a copy of the James Dodds & Brown 1960 for sale notice. There was a family interest at the time but it fell through.
This is a photo of the boat club at the Thornaby side of Victoria bridge off Thornaby Place
The railway bridge was on Thornaby Road and the row of terrace houses in the background
was on Darlington Street.
It’s definitely NOT Portrack in the background. The Malleable works would have obscured the view from the Tees of any houses in Portrack. The most likely location is near the bridges over the railway at Thornaby Station.
It has to be the area where Hadrian Caravans were at one time.
This looks like that iron bridge is Thornaby station to me, its still there
This is probably down by Thornaby Place near Mandale estate. One clue is the railway bridge and in the far distance, is the outline of Thornaby Town Hall.
I don’t think it’s Portrack. If we could read the name on the gable end, it would be easier to determine the location. the bridge on the left is a puzzle and the terrace housing behind.
Is this Boat Club the Rowing Club? My memory of that club and its regattas from the 1940s is that the clubhouse was along the lane past the Stockton Corporation depot on Bridge Road just before the Victoria bridge over to Thornaby.
The Boat Club referred to is I believe the present day Tees Motor Boat Club. – the low building near the river edge is their clubroom. The photo looks to be taken from the Stockton side of Victoria Bridge towards Thornaby Place. The houses in the background stood on what is now known as Mandale Triangle (originally North Street, Hibernia Street, York Street etc. Some of these names still in use. The rowing club, originally Tees Amateur Boating Club, were founded in 1864 from which date their boathouse was off Boathouse Lane on the Stockton side approx 200 metres north of the railway bridges. In 2001, and now called Tees Rowing Club, they moved to the new River Tees Watersports Centre. Two more before and after views of Thornaby Place can be found on the Trip up the Tees pages of Tees rowing Club’s website at http://www.teesrowingclub.co.uk