Stockton prepares the Town Hall for a royal visit in June 1956.
Photograph courtesy of Eric Collins.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Stockton prepares the Town Hall for a royal visit in June 1956.
Photograph courtesy of Eric Collins.
This article about the Queen when she visited Stockton in 1956 brought back memories for one of our contributors to the site Gran Cooper, who very likely saw the Queen under the same circumstances I did outside the Stockton Forge works of Head Wrightsons in Tilery in 1956. Grans next meeting was when Gran was given the task of introducing the Queen , the Duke of Edinbrough, and the King of Norway King Olav, to all the Manager of the Site working for Gran who was the Construction Manager for in the Sullom Voe Oil Terminal in the Shetlands, which was the largest project in the World at that time in 1982.Gran also met the Queen and Duke of Edinbrough when the European Transonic Wind Tunnel in Cologne was opened in 1990..Another example of a local boy reaching the top on his chosen profession through hard work and ability, Gran was an ex Stockton Secondary Grammar School boy, from the Nelson Terrace School, and an apprentice Boilermaker (Template Maker ) Like myself who benefited from an excellent apprenticeship at Head Wrightsons .Gran and I both joined the large International Company Rio Tinto about 1968 and followed our careers in Project Management although in different fields, Gran in Construction Management, Myself in Project Controls.Gran now lives in Bristol and will be 80 years of age on July 19th HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAN . ..
I think this was the visit that the Royal Car passed along the road outside the Head Wrightsons Stockton Forge Works in Tilery. I along with most of the workers from the Forge lined the Street that day. I do not know if we were given time off But I was in the last month of my Apprenticeship before going into the Royal Engineers for two years National Service. I remember that when the Queen went past she was so close I could just about touch her, and thought what a lovely looking young Lady she was. I had a similar experience In Melbourne thirty odd years later, while standing at a tram stop this car appeared with one police outrider and just cruised up to the tram stop, with no particular concern for security, no one lining the street just me at the tram stop and the Queen and Duke in their car. I looked her in he eye and she just smiled and must have realised how surprised I was seeing her there, a lovely lady even after all those years.
Yes Ben I had the same experience as you with the beauty of the Queen, It must have been on the same day that you saw her because I was outside my place of work in Spencer Street, Melbourne when I saw her. The Queen’s car was returning from the races when I saw her, the car was so close you could almost touch her and I got a lovely smile. Some thing that one never forgets.