Behind Stockton (stone) bridge is the Cleveland Flour Mills (1871-1960), The North of England Pure Oil Cake company (1869-1903) and the Tees Bone Mill (c1880-1923), Thornaby.
The site of the mills pre 1869 was occupied by W. Turnbull & Co. shipyards. Photograph c1880.
My pals and I played football on the Bomdies as we called that site at the bottom of George Street and Thornaby Rd. It was the nearest open space for the kids in Caledonia, Hibernia, York Streets.
My nana, used to live at 6 , Hall Street from the 30s till demolition . Her name was Sadie Kirkwood. Does anyone remember her & my grandad. Alec Kirkwood . Has anyone got any photos of Hall Street?
Janice, I was born Dec 1941, upstairs in Number 1 Hall Street, a few houses down from your nana. I’ve mentioned on here before that Princess Street and Hall Street, including the Bon Lea, was severely damaged in an air raid, and many homes lost their roofs, doors and windows, Sheldons Sweet Factory and Princess Street, was the other side of this wall which divided Hall Street in two, and made it a small cul-de-sac. The best known man in the area was Bob Tate, who ran the National Club around the corner from Hall Street,then there was a billiard Hall, and the Bon Lea Steelworks just 100 yards away from your nan’s front door.
Hi Janice just seen this post and my family also lived in this street but at no 8,&10, but I am going back to 1881 to 1900’s they name was Liggett also a lot of the family lived at Caledonian Street, Gladstone Street, Reed Street. My grandma told me a story about her aunt Lizzie Stephenson who was killed by a tram next to the Harewood Arms pub but don’t know the year, it would be good to see some pic’s of this area
Frank, just spotted your post today, I knew the air raid was bad because so many were made homeless that night including us, we lived in 1 Hall Street, off Reed Street, Thornaby, it was a cul-de sac with a wall at the end, on the other side of the wall was Princess Street and Sheldon Sweet factory and 75 yards away Pumphreys.. A charity collection was organised in Thornaby for those bombed out, the money collected was kept in the Sadlers Hotel, a pub, someone broke in the pub and stole the lot! My mother didn’t have a shilling in the house and the pay-out was eagerly awaited by many. Opposite the National school in George Street, adjoining it’s junction with Thornaby Road (facing the coal yard) was a large bomb site – was this site anything to do with this German bombing raid or another one?
Bob, the bomb actually hit the bridge at the Thornaby end causing damage to gas and water mains. The first person killed on Teesside was killed by that bomb, he was Harold Ewles from Stockton. The damage was fenced off and left until the war ended before it was repaired, as I crossed the bridge on the “0” bus to my grandparents in North Ormesby, I was always fascinated by that hole and how small it was, put it down to good solid workmanship.
The same night 25-6th August 1940 Thornaby road was closed by a bomb on the corner of that and Mandale road, houses and shops were damaged up to the Five Lamps, more bombs dropped in the river caused damage to Stockton and the flour mill, the Bridge Hotel on the corner escaped damage apart from broken windows. Years later an unexploded bomb was found in the bank of the Thornaby side. On previous nights contrary to the idea people held that the Synthetic as we all called it (ICI) would be spared because of its German roots, it was quite heavily bombed, plants were set on fire and services wrecked, the censorship at the time forbid news being put in the papers but we all knew through the people working there. Some of us still around have memories of those times that will never be erased.
I was born in 1 Henry Street, Thornaby, located between the Bonlea Steel works and Gladstone Street Billiard Hall. Some time in 1942? an enemy bomb landed on an electric sub-station situated near Princess Street, it exploded and the blast was so terrific that every house for about 250 yards in any direction was either destroyed or badly damaged. In our case the windows and doors got blown in and the roof came off. When the air raid siren went off my mother decided that the chances of our house being hit in a raid were so remote that it was worth taking the risk not to wake me, nor prudent to take me with them to the bomb shelters, so they ran to it leaving me behind sound asleep huddled for warmth in a wood drawer cot placed in front of the fire . A short time later an air raid warden ran into this bomb shelter and shouted “Princess Streets and Henry’s Street been hit”, which left my “Dear Old Mam” thinking “what on earth was she was going to tell the Police when they came around as part of the rescue efforts since what she had done was quite a serious offence in those days. Thornaby Fire Brigade officers went inside our house and found me still sleeping and covered in soot from the chimney stack, the fireman said to my mother something like “he’s slept right thought it”, this was the only time I was ever part of the War effort and I fell asleep on the job, I was about 9 months old at the time? The Police were told it was a silly mistake as my mother thought my sister had me, whilst my sister thought my mother was bringing me. The ‘Pinnegar’s lived nearby and were bombed out that night along with many others.
I believe the one-time owner of the ‘Clevo Flour Mills shown above, lived in the house with a ‘tower’ that now forms part of Teesside High School for Girls on The Avenue, Eaglescliffe. Before the era of telephones, he could therefore observe instantly, which ship was at his dock on the riverside. A quick check on Google-Maps, reveals that without doubt he would have had a clear view across what was then open countryside towards his mill, as the River Tees meanders it’s way down to Victoria Bridge
Bob Leeds; you have sharp eyes and are on the ball! You are quite correct. The existing Victoria Bridge was completed on 21 June 1887: it’s centenery was in 1987 and I have a large photo courtesy of local professional photographer Alan Brooks taken at 100 years and 30 minutes!
May I add that I have never seen the stone bridge shown in this photo, so it must have been replaced at sometime by the current Victoria Bridge, this new bridge being the steel framed and cast iron bridge most of have seen and used. This cast iron bridge was scarred by shrapnel fragments from a bomb which dropped near it during WW2.
My namesake uncle Robert (Bob) Wilson, was the manager of the Thornaby Flour mills, he lived at the rear of them in the Brittania Street area of Thornaby, near British Road services depot. These flour mills were about 80 foot high. I once saw a well liked Thornaby character and good pal of mine called “Alfie Frost” climb them using the front drainpipe as an handhold, he climbed on to the roof and went walking around it looking for young pigeons in the nest. Young pigeons cannot fly for about 24 days and are fairly easy to pick up, he tucked them in his shirt and climbed back down again. At that time hundreds of stray pigeons could be seen congregating around the flour mills and they roamed the yard area each day searching for spilled grain to eat.
The date was 11th March 1943. Three people were killed and seventy or more injured, over 500 were made homeless. These were parachute mines, one hit Darlington Street and one the power station cutting all supplies to the local works.
The Britannia Hotel was demolished killing a lady air raid warden and many house wrecked in all the streets around causing blockages to the transport system including the railway. George street school was damaged and out of use for months, many of the factories including Pumphries which I knew (we picked up the waste jam and curd for our pigs), had bad damage but they managed to keep working, a tough lot back then.
One of the planes crashed at Stainton the other escaped, what is not known is that the Home Guard and Army guarding the area with heavy guns and rockets (flaming onions we called them) also lost men and some of the women balloon operators were also injured, in some cases by our own munitions, what went up had to come down.