A photograph of the Eaglescliffe Hotel on Yarm Road, 2012.
Photograph courtesy of John Robson.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A photograph of the Eaglescliffe Hotel on Yarm Road, 2012.
Photograph courtesy of John Robson.
I remember going there with my father in the 40s ratting with terriers in the yard at the back. I am still terrified of rats.
On 15 October 1881 an inquest was held at the Eaglescliffe Hotel, into the death of six men at the Eaglescliffe Ironfoundry. Henry Smith jun., Thomas Young, James McKay, John Jeffery, Thomas Watson and William Watson White were killed when part of the foundry collapsed during a severe gale.
William Watson White was only fourteen.He was employed as a patternmakers apprentice at messrs Smith and Stokers Eaglescliffe ironworks.He lived with his family in Alma Street,Stockton.Thomas Young was the timekeeper.He was thirty nine and left a widow and two daughters,aged between three and a half and
five years.They lived in Derby Street,Stockton.James McKay was a blacksmith at the foundry.He was thirty six and left a widow and six children, aged from six months to fourteen years.They lived in Hampton Road,Stockton.
In the days before the welfare state it must have been even more devastating to lose a father,who may probably have been the only wage earner in the family.I wonder how these families managed to get by and what deprivation they faced.
Hi Mike, those houses were still lived in when I first worked there in 1958 and there was still a rail link into the site,
The” Cliffe ” looks a lot smarter than when I used to call in for a pint or two on my way in to work at the Iron Foundry just behind it back in 1972/3. It was common practice back then to pop in prior to work. Certainly frowned on now. It was sad to see all the Head Wrightson businesses go down apart from HW Stampings which was still trading under the Davy Ashmore name last time I visited Seaton Carew in around 2006. I had some great times working around the various sites and had some very good friends at the time. I now live in Buckinghamshire so the past is now a distant memory but still remarkably fresh.
Hi Dave, The Foundry behind was originally owned by SMITH and THOMPSON. Henry Smith was my Great Great Grandfather the firm, then joined by F W STOKER was known as SMITH and STOKER. Taken over by Head Wrightson in 1897. The street to the right of the pub was Northall Street it contained a few terrace houses and was the road access to the foundry…See other references to Henry Smith, Cleveland House, Eaglescliffe Iron Foundry on this site.