Stockton market c1950s. The Wednesday market has been regularly held since 1310, there is even some indications that it was in existence in 1200. In the 1950s there were over 250 stalls in the open market as well as 76 stalls in the covered market.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
The market was a place of wonder, you could buy pets from a stall next to the Shambles near the tripe stalls, my favourite was the Nebo sweet stall which was outside the Royal Oak next to the stall that sold farming, gardening and hardwear. My favourite was Nebo Creams which were pink or white and a bit fizzy. Winter in the market was always great, with all the pressurised gas lamps on the stalls hissing and the smell of paraffin in the air, they also had a winter ice skating scene in a glass case set up for Christmas close to the shambles. We always used to get some pikelets from the man with his barrow, he stood at the end of Wellington Street. As a treat we would be taken to Sparks Cafe which was above their shop, it had and still has a large Georgian bow window upstairs, all the staff were dressed in black with white aprons and hats. Happy days!
I can remember the market at Stockton, I lived up the hill at the time (hill 60), number 12 Howard Crescent, Haverton hill, the ICI houses. My dad Johnnie May used to work for the ICI at the time and my mam Mary Rayner used to take 7 of us over the transporter on market day, it was quite frightening going over the transporter, I really don’t know how my mam managed with her shopping and 7 of us! My sister Mavis Christine, my twin sisters Sandra and Florence, my brother John and my sister Marion, myself and my brother Allan, we went to Haverton Hill juniors and infants school. Marion, Allan and John went to Billingham Campus as did Sandra and Florence. Mavis, (she called herself Christine), I think went to Davey hall and Stevenson Hall campus. We moved from Haverton Hill in 1966 to Jarrow Tyneside, as my dad started working on the river Tyne. We were heartbroken to leave all of our friends behind, we never saw them again. Sad!
My first ever job, on Saturdays when I was 14 in 1958 was at Marsh’s biscuit stall on the market. I helped load the tins of biscuits onto a van at the warehouse and unload them at the stall, plus whatever else they wanted me to do. Can’t remember where the warehouse was, but I think it was somewhere in the town close to the market. I was pretty useless of course, and I didn’t last very long, but I remember that it was donkey work and Mr. Marsh or whoever was managing the stall at the time, was a bit of a slave driver. I also can’t remember how much I was paid, but I think at was about 7/6 for the day.
I remember Mr Marsh and his staff well, I was told he came from Leeds and was the Market StallHolders Representative with the Council. Does anyone know more about him and his history? My mother was one of his “Children of a Lesser God customers’ who loved Mr Marsh’s big bags of ‘broken biscuits, she could not pass his stall without buying some. As a child I was unaware that there was a stigma attached to buying broken biscuits and thought nothing about asking for them in a loud voice, “two bags of broken biscuits please”, it was good news if they were all digestives or shortbreads”, and bad news if they were all creams or rich tea. My mother once asked me to go back and change them for shortbreads! which I was reluctant to do.
I had my first pair of Red tap shoes from Stockton market costing 5 shillings, my older sisters were 6 shillings as hers were a larger size. Thursday was half day and Middlesbrough was half day Wednesday which was very convenient.Happy days, sad to see it’s all gone now.
Yes a beltin market place. Dad always got his tripe, brain and cod roe, while Mam got a couple of 1/4 of sweets from Maynards. A thriving market town which is now barely a shadow of it’s former self.
Around the time of this photograph was taken, as a child between age 7 to 10, this was for me ‘The greatest show on earth;’ During the school summer holidays, my mother would bring me all the way from East Middlesbrough on the ‘O’ bus to Stockton Market every other Wednesday. The incredibly loud cries from the fruit n’ veg stalls, the clever, even ingeniously witty ‘patter’ of the fancy goods n’ pot stall salesmen, the bales of dress fabric and curtain materials so deftly ‘tossed’ over a brass tipped measuring-stick, for ladies to inspect the pattern and textures.The strong smells of the fish and meat stalls, combined with the constant jostling of bodies and the varying aromas of tobacco smoke, as the ‘punters’ paraded in close formation, up and down the narrow central ‘strip’ of the `High St, all completely fascinated me. The cast iron ‘step-on’ scales of the man who’d check your weight, would hold me especially transfixed, as he delicately slid the brass balance up and down whilst his ‘victim’, usually a large lady, looked nervously on!. Like most kids, even today, I was always hungry, so my mother would buy a pound of broken-biscuits from Marsh’s stall. Once home, I couldn’t wait to see if the odd, highly-prized, ‘Gypsy cream’ had perhaps found it’s way into the blue and white paper-bag. When my mother had finished shopping, we’d have a cup of tea somewhere and then stand in one of the winding queues to get on the ‘O’ bus for the long ride home, back to Middlesbrough. Certainly, it always seemed a much more slower journey going home, than it was coming to Stockton.
And another thing, why was it always ‘sunny’ back then`?.
Could I be right in saying that the man with the scales would estimate your weight before you went onto the scales?
The man with the scales never needed a pair of scales, he had weighed so many thousands of clients, 100,000 maybe, that he could guess your weight to within 2lbs. At one time he had a small cardboard sign which said “Let Me Guess Your Weight” but stopped this because people thought if he was wrong it was free! A curious question, how on earth did he get his scales to his market pitch, and what ever happened to his famous raincoat, and the box he sat on for year?
I was also in your age group at the time of the photo. Thank you for your comments as I had forgotten about Marsh’s broken biscuit stall. We always paid it a visit and it was great to have this memory rekindled. The material stalls were my favourites as I started making my own clothes from the age of 12/13 and I used to love spending time choosing the materials to make copies of clothes I had seen on pop stars. Despite leaving Stockton when I went to university at 18, I have always been really proud of my home town and its High Street, being the widest in western Europe – so I was told.
Stockton market was particularly helpful in providing excellent quality food, and in particular vegetables,meat, fish and not forgetting tripe, all from local providers. This provided food for people on low wages and was most helpful to them in trying to exist on poor pay. I think Stockton Corporation also deserve a mention for cleanliness and speed in clearing all the rubbish away after the market. The market also brought people into town from the outlaying countryside which provided more employment and kept the rates down, I don’t remember many boarded up and empty shops like we have today.
A great photo of a long gone Stockton High Street and Market that was something to look forward to on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Do you recall THURSDAY was half day closing everybody went to Middlesbrough shopping.
The Market as I remember it before leaving hometown Stockton in 1957. Crowds at those stalls one of which was Marsh’s biscuit stall. First stop after getting the meat, sausages etcetera from Mr Stott in the Shambles when shopping as a boy with my mother.