Three photographs of Basselton Lane, Thornaby at its junction with Thornaby Village Green. The photographs were taken on 18th April 1934 by Philip Brown, Borough Engineer.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Three photographs of Basselton Lane, Thornaby at its junction with Thornaby Village Green. The photographs were taken on 18th April 1934 by Philip Brown, Borough Engineer.
I was always under the impression that the so called prisoner of war camp was only used for the local Italian population who where interned there until the end of the war !!!
Basselton Lane led south, from the old Thornaby village green, toward Basselton Wood on the banks of the Tees, near to which there was a old quarry. Up until this development in the 1930’s, Thornaby had remained for centuries as a small, remote, sporadic collection of cottages scattered around the green and Saxon church ( St Peter ad Vinicula), with other similar homes on what we now regard as Thornaby Road.
In the background of the photograph, can be seen a largish older house which I cannot seem to find any name, or ‘working’ purpose for, i.e say a farmhouse. However, despite it’s small size and remoteness, Thornaby possessed two pubs, from at least the early 19th C. ‘The Oddfellows Arms and ‘The Jolly Farmers’ which I believe are still in-situ today.
It’s interesting to note that famous explorer and navigator Captain James Cook’s mother (Grace Pace) was baptised at the tiny church on Thornaby Green in 1702. Unlike her seafaring son, Grace after marrying Mr Cook from Berwick in 1725, only travelled first as far as Marton and then Great Ayton, where she was buried in 1765, at All Saints churchyard, along with five of James Cook’s infant siblings.
The large old building in the background is Thornaby Hall on Thornaby road, it was the home of the Crosthwaite family (who owned Crosthwaites foundry). When the Air Ministry purchased the land for the aerodrome in the late 1920’s the RAF used it as the Officers Mess.
These are three lovely Garden of England photographs. I was admiring how well dressed the two Council Officals are, and having seen how well dressed these men are; I confess that I regret that an American tailor named Jacob Davis ever invented ‘waist coveralls’, with riveted seam pockets to sell to farmers, miners and outdoor workers, which a certain Levi Strauss purchased from him to resell, a man who renamed them ‘Levi Jeans’, the sourge of all good tailers everywhere, including Mr Winpenny, tailor, Stockton High Street.
But as always I digress, I meant to ask does anyone remember or have better knowledge of the German prisoner of war camp situated in Basselton Lane, Thornaby, I know I visited it when it was occupied by squatters after the war, and recall wild rabbits sitting in the grass there, and before the prisoners were returned to Germany they were given the freedom of the town, most of them used to go to the pictures regularly in 1945/1946 (the Queens Picture House in Mandale Road) and sit together in the back rows. One prisoner once give me a bag of ‘cough drops’ because they were uneatable, he had probably bought these because ordinary sweets were unavaiable due to sugar rationing. .