This photograph was taken c1990 of the slipway at Head Wrightsons. The view is from the north bank of the River Tees.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This photograph was taken c1990 of the slipway at Head Wrightsons. The view is from the north bank of the River Tees.
I can’t see that this was a slipway at Head Wrightsons. The two that were there were ex Craig Taylors and this would show the slipway launching the ships across the river. The other being the ex Richardson Ducks which launched down river. Next to it was a dry dock which was filled in during my time at HW’s ending in 1962. I worked on this slipway and I can’t see any liking to when I worked there.
I agree with you Bob. This is not the slipway at Head Wrightsons which was behind the joiners shop. I left HW in about 1980 after twenty odd years service.
I played on this site often as a child, in the foreground over the river was huge rows of enormous concrete anti-tank fortifications placed there in case the Germans invaded Britain during WW2, suggesting that the War Department must have considered Stockton a prime target and second to London in the Nazi Invasion plans (an upstream river assault from the Teesmouth followed by ice cream in Paleschis ice cream parlour at the Five Lamps) the white stone seen on the ground is from the huge 500 000 ton steel furnace slag tips that stood on this land owned by the Vestey family who owned the country-wide Dewhurst the Butchers chain of butchers shops, which was disbanded in 1995. They owned Cork Insulation and Asbestos Limited whose premises stood on this huge site, At the extreme rear of this photograph you can see on the left the chimneys of Middesbrough Corporations Waste incinerator, and to the right I think it’s the “The Torch” that still stood, to the right of the ‘Torch’ is Thornaby station, and the top of Trafalgar Street.
In this photo there appears to be a WW2 Pill Box, but it cannot be, I know this site well and there was never a Pill Box on it, unless it had been covered in slag and the redevelopment work had uncovered it?