The tram is packed out and specially decorated for the opening day of the Electric tramway, this being the 16th July 1898. Believed to be the first electric tram to reach Norton Green on the opening day of the new electric system. The Hamiltonian Inn is on the right, the licensee at the time was Ralph Storey. (Could this be the present day Unicorn Hotel).? I imagine this would have been a special day for these passengers.
Image and details courtesy of Derek Buttle.
Picture Stockton Archive 
As I have reported on another tram photo my father took me by tram from the High Street to North Ormesby. This was in the last year – 1931 when I was late 3 year old or possibly just 4. I can still picture the trams running in the High Street and going up to the top deck.
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A detailed account of the inaugural journey can be read in the Evening Gazette for 16 July 1898. The first tram left the Imperial Tramways depot in Bridge Road, Stockton at 7.30am and proceeded through Thornaby and Middlesbrough to North Ormesby. On the return journey, on reaching the middle of Victoria Bridge, the Mayor of Stockton (Alderman A G Rudd) assumed the controls and drove the tram along the High Street and as far as Norton Green. Before commencing the return journey, the car with its part of local dignitaries was photographed by Messrs A. and G. Taylor of Stockton. It looks as if we are talking about the photograph that was taken by the Taylors.
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No Derek, the building next to the paper shop, at the zebra crossing was the Hambletonian pub.
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Thanks Greg nice to know…
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The Hambletonian Inn was on the same block as the Blacksmiths across from Norton Duck Pond. The trams ran up the change line from Stockton, the driver moved the pick up arm from one end to the other and then changing the points ran back towards Stockton. The inn closed and it became Miss Fosters Paper and sweet shop before the war, she was there many years.
The Unicorn is where it always was on the corner before the Green and still there today.
I have no memory of trams running and the first real memory was standing at the front of the bus watching men take up the tram lines and blocks although there were still some lines down many years later.
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