Photographs of Billingham Branch Bridge, south west face and north east face. Billingham, August 1984.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Photographs of Billingham Branch Bridge, south west face and north east face. Billingham, August 1984.
Right Gordon I will stick to talking about Norton, I have a lot going on at the moment.
West Gate and West Gate Canteen plus the old offices were on Chiltons Avenue, East Gate and main entrance for trucks was Haverton Hill Road. North Gate was on Belasis Avenue as was the Apprentice School, golf Club and the bridge. There was also a South Gate on New Road from Oil Works we would use to get to Castle works. You went into Oil works through a manned gate from the main site. There were also many exits and entrances through the metal fences around the site where people taking short cuts would take bolts out of the palings and use them as rat runs. I kept a squad on permanent fence repair and we welded the nuts, they still managed to get them off though.
History is memory of those who took part, time is running out for many of those people now so we make mistakes which are corrected by others and that is how it should be, in future years readers will be able to get a true picture of what Stockton and its surrounds were really like and how the people lived worked and played, so we must write it all down and at times be corrected.
Sorry FrankIi was not questioning your memory, more mine. I enjoy reading your trips down memory lane especially about Norton, as I spent a great deal of my childhood in Norton and consider it my hometown. I used to deliver orders for Binches on a bike with a basket on the front and the fields all round Norton were our playground, I have fond memories of the cassel works gate when I worked for a while in the h m d plant my girlfriend now my wife of 50 years used to meet me there, keep the lovely memories coming Frank and keep well.
Just as the Belasis Bridge was Frank Mee’s goodbye to work, the Billingham Branch bridge was my walking home treat from the Dorman Long Central Labs at Newport Bridge.
From the big Central Labs building, I used to walk about 50 yards and then go up the steel steps onto the A1038 ( which may have been the A19 in those days). I then used to walk across the Newport Bridge, across the Billingham Branch bridge and the past the remains of the antiaircraft mens huts, that my Uncle Huey McGlade and his family used to squat in after WWII.
I would then turn left through the North Tees Trading Estate, and if there was a Number 1 bus catch it, into Portrack. More usually it was another long walk, with nothing to see, until I got to the Malleable and British Titan Products, but Lustrum Beck, the railway, a farm house on Portrack Lane, the Council Rubbish Dump, and green fields. The lane is now one continuous set of B&Q types stores I understand.
We can now put this one to bed, the picture shows the Bridge which is on the A1032 Newport bridge approach road. I was wrong, it was not old timers disease but mixing memories.
I stood on both Bridges today 4th April 2013 for the record, with Camera and Notebook at the ready, that nagging feeling having woke me around three this morning.
The side wall of the bridge pictured is brick with capped columns either end of the wall, the bridge is square about, the Rail if it was ever there went through straight.
The Bridge on the Belasis Avenue had support frames above the road surface and steel walls, it also was aslant across the road as the rails went under at an angle.
Both bridges had memories, the Newport road bridge was after a long walk from being very young from Norton Green up South Road, then a cart track across Lamberts Farm to where the roundabout is now at Portrack then the last bit over the New Bridge as we called it, when I reached that bridge I knew the Bus was only minutes away and a rest for my weary legs, it was etched into my memory over the years as Mother a keen walker made me do it as we went to North Ormesby to my Grans. All good practice for when the Army made me do long marches.
The bridge on Belasis Road was my starting and finishing work bridge as I entered and left by the East Gate the thing being I loved what I did so no regrets with that one.
My apologies for being a doubting poster, the picture brought back the wrong memories one bad, at the time and one, well it was part of my life.
Talking bridges the New port bridge must have been the same principle I used to build an emergency bridge in a hurry. I got the lads on putting a camber into two large girders then cross tied them together, plated the top and handrailed it, the whole thing was lifted into position and fixed as a very tempory fixture, it was still up ten years later.
I always thought that the east gate was the one on the Haverton Hill Road near Sweethills and the gate at Belasis was the west gate not sure what they called the main gate at the top of Roscoe Road.
…on second thoughts, west gate was the one at the top of Chilterns Avenue east gate on Haverton Hill Road and the one near Belasis bridge was the north gate at least in my time it was.
I sent in a picture in 23rd January 2005 of the bridge.Picture Stockton then published a map in which a mistake was made with the location. This is what I then wrote in:
The location map is not quite correct. The actual position of this important bridge is on the A1032, about 500 metres north of the Newport Bridge.It is not part of the A19, which was opened in the mid seventies.The position of the bridge can easily be discerned on Google maps. The bridge runs over a disused railway track, which runs as loop around the boundary of the industrial estate, south of Portrack Lane. This too can be discerned on the Google map.
HERE IS MY ORIGINAL NOTE
This bridge was built over the railway which ran from the main line, north of Stockton, into the southern part of the ICI works. This five span bridge is highly sigificant in the history of bridge construction. It was the first all-welded steel bridge built in the UK, when up to that time all bridges were were put together by riveting. The bridge is mentioned in Volume 7 in the prestigious “A History of Technology”, by Trevor Williams. It is described as a five span portal frame bridge, 66 metres long,and built in 1926. The design is extremely attactive, being composed of plates which are cut into a series of sweeping curves. And unlike later constructions it did not “slavishly follow the form common to riveting practice”. Unlike other large welded structures of the time the bridge did not fail because of brittle fracture. It should be highlighted as an industrial monument. The size of the bridge suggests that there may have been plans for a road to run along the rail track. Does anyone know anything about this?
I think we are getting our bridges confused here, perhaps a case of ‘A Bridge Too far’ as a famous general once said!
There is no doubt that the photographs show the bridge on the approach road to the Newport Bridge. The other bridge mentioned by Frank above which stands on Belasis Avenue has girder work and A-frames on either side of it which the bridge in the photographs does not have. I’m off to lie down in a darkened room now!
You made me doubt David, the Newport Bridge Approach road has a similar style I believe although the road to the old incinerator went down and under it, the incinerator is long gone the road still there although blocked off I believe. No sign of a road in the pictures.
Hi Frank, you are thinking of the bridge that is right next to the Newport Bridge, a road does go under that one. This bridge is a bit further back towards Stockton, just the other side of the old incinerator access road, the photos are looking in the wrong directions to show it. http://goo.gl/maps/z0iRU
Another case of old timers I’m afraid, I stand corrected and when I enlarged it I can see clearly the location so sorry for that, and Frank I know the bridge you mean and I have photos of the level crossing it replaced at Belasis Lane Box which you may probably remember.
As regards all that has gone Frank, I am the same with the amount of rail and it’s infrastructure that has gone both on the railway side and the amount of rail and traffic that used to come and go into ICI in the south and east grids and into north tees power, when I pass in the car I can see the ghosts of what once was and will never be again, I know progress, if that is what it is, must be but I just remember those good times of having loads of good mates to work alongside of doing a worthwhile job and the feeling of satisfaction that went with it.
This remarkable bridge which was the first welded steel bridge built in Britain and one of the first in the world, is a historic structure dating from 1934. It is briefly referred to in Volume 7 of the History of Technolgy, edited by Trevor Williams. The bridge has an extrremely modern look, being of the five span portal frame type, and now that the railway is no longer in use, and there is a walkway underneath, it can be viewed quite safely. The bridge was built of open hearth steel from the furnances of Dorman Long, who also were wholy reposponsible for the design and construction. Other welded structures of this vintage failed by brittle fracture, being made of Bessemer steel.
Is this the bridge on the approach road to Newport Bridge from the Stockton side? It’s quite wide so I guess there were plenty of railway lines below it. It’s amazing just how much of the rail infrastructure has disappeared.
It’s the bridge on the Haverton Hill road just before Haverton South signal box, quite close to the two big cooling towers, near ICI’s east gate. I have posted photos of the lines that actually ran under this bridge on this site and also showing Haverton South box.
Gordon, this is the bridge on Belasis Avenue heading towards Port Clarence. The ICI Apprentice School was next to it and ICI East gate just before you came to the bridge on the other side of the road, with ICI Golf Club on the other side of the bridge. The bridge is wide mainly because the railway passes under it at an angle needing more room, it then opened out into shunting lines.
I was always interested in the modern look of the bridge seeing it from approach, going over it and often under it. It was part of my life each day, you got nearly to the bridge and turned into work and as you left you had the inside the works view of the bridge, you could not really ignore it.
I still at times wander across it towards Seaton and look at the waste ground that was once highly productive workshops and plant, think of the men who worked for me and yes I remember their names can still see I suppose much younger people than they or I am now, if they are still around that is.
ICI had at times a bad name or or great name depending on if you lived in Haverton Hill or the Green area of Norton and out of the prevailing winds, they brought prosperity to many in a time of want, helped during the war, got many of us a start on the slippery slope of employment and gave many more a better retirement than most, they are sadly missed.
No, I’m pretty sure you are wrong Gordon, this is the bridge described above by Jonathan and is on the approach to the Newport Bridge .
You can clearly see the ‘ICI’ Nitram tower in the background of the first photograph and the tall building to the left was part of the Nitram packing sheds and has since been demolished and also in the rear of the second photograph you can just make out the A19 fly-over in the background .