Three photographs showing the Dutch Barn houses under construction and a final one of the completed house.
The photographs have ‘Bishopton Court, Fairfield 1945’ written on the reverse but there has been some controversy about the exact location over the years on Picture Stockton… Bishopton Court or Durham Road…?
Picture Stockton Archive 
The original two houses were erected as show houses in Durham Road, east. My grandmother, Mrs Laura Temple, of Tarring Street, took me to see them, probably out of curiosity.
LikeLike
This is a bit later than some of the posts but I lived in Bishopton Court from the age of about 5 until I was 18. We first lived in no 8 and later moved in no 7 when central heating was installed.
My best friends were Norah and Caroline who lived either side of no 8. My brother John and I went to Oxbridge Infant School and later I went to Grangefield and John went to the Secondary Modern. An earlier post mentioned a lot of familiar names but to my great disappointment nobody remembers us!! How sad😡
I have very happy memories of the court, especially bonfire night’s and building snow houses and sports days on the green.
Cheers Irene Rylander (Metcalfe)
LikeLike
Hi Irene, I remember you and your family very well, we lived in no 5 Im sure you’ll remember us I’m Sandra our name was Elmer I had 1 brother Ronnie two sisters Sheila Doreen and myself Sandra. I was born in that also my sister Doreen, we had a fantastic time growing up in Bishopton Court.
LikeLike
I’m interested in any comments on the construction of the walls to the houses on Bishopton Court. The Durham Road ones seem to be brick. However the Bishopton Court ones seem to be in-situ concrete panels. Have any house owners out there tried to make a new door or window opening. Would like to know thickness & make up of the external walls.
LikeLike
My name is Fred Costello and my Parents had the shop in Shannon Crescent during the late 1950’s early 1960’s and i use to hang about with the lads in Bishopton Court and i remember those days well.
Starting from the entrance to the Court and working clockwise, these are some of the names i can remember. Morris and Alan Ambler, Maca McIntyre, Linda Hart, Billy and David Turnbull, i still keep in touch with Billy, Freddie and Kenny Johnson, i occasionally see Freddie in Stockton Market on a Wednesday,Graham White, going through the cut into Fairfield Close was Dave, John, and Greg Hart, Terry, Kenny and Bernie Salmon,Barry, Neil and Howard Stevenson, Lenny Chadfield, moving on to Fairfield road was Robbie and his sister Diane Thompson, i use to play cards with Robbie in his shed in the garden and he had a dog called Moscow.
Either side of the Thompson’s was Steven Whitmarsh and Linda Brown and her brothers, moving back through the cut into the Court was “Bobby” Barrow, the Codd brothers, Barbara Butler, i still live in Fairfield not far from Bishopton Court and Barbara lives round the corner from me, Spike McLean, the Hoyle’s, Trevor Hingley, Terry Till, the Mallaby’s with their Alsatians, Barry and Ian Knox, Keith Redman, Lavery’s shop with Ken and his sister Pam, moving on to Fairfield road was Billy Kemp, Eddie, Alan and Morris Emmerson, Phil “Chippy” Chipchase, and last but not least Rob “Maca” McKenzie. and his older Brother Gordon.I also remember Guy’s farm where Alan Ambler, Trevor Hingly and i use to go.
Alan Guy run the farm and his Father lived in a bungalow behind the Stores Club. Occasionally when Alan went to the Sunderland Football matches on a Saturday he use to borrow his dads Riley car which was quite a car in those days. Alan had two farm hands that i can remember, one was Peter “French’y” French, and when French’y left Ian Midgley replaced him.
I like a few others remember Percy the fish man and his cry of, Anyyyyy Fissssssh and his false leg hanging out of the door as he drove around the court.
These were good old days which i remember well, if any one who i mention in these comments fancy’s replying, it would be nice to hear from them.
LikeLike
Fred, Rob Thompson is my uncle and his sister Diane is my mother. The dog was called “Mosca” – not Moscow…
LikeLike
Is this Diane Thompson a little ginger girl who went to Newtown School in the forties & early fifties? Terry Till, Lenny Chadfield & Greg Hart were all canny footballers, Stevie Whitmarsh had a sister Pat & what about the Middletons Sandra?.
LikeLike
Yes, that is her – apologies for the 4 year delay in replying!
LikeLike
Julian, yes you are right the dog was called Mosca I remember now. The period I am referring to was over fifty years ago and my memory is not what it use to be !!!
LikeLike
Anon, yes, Diane was indeed that little ginger girl!
LikeLike
Fred Costello has a very good memory, I am impressed! My name is Lynda Brown and I lived at 123 Fairfield Road with my numerous brothers and sisters! Sadly my house was not of the Dutch barn construction and was demolished many years ago to make room for new homes. Robert and Diane Thompson lived on one side of me and Raymond and Roland Kell lived at the other side.
I remember the Costellos shop in Shannon Crescent ……. I remember a group of boys who had motor bikes hanging around together ….. Mike Hornsey, Roy Thersby …
I moved away from Fairfield when I was 18 and live in the New Forest now ……
LikeLike
Hello Lynda, I remember your whole family. I also remember you knitting me a jumper which I guess came from a prompt from my mam. Two boys and two girls and a dad who worked in road haulage.
LikeLike
Goodness did I really knit a jumper! I have lost those skills! I remember the surname Salmon and am trying to recall which number you lived in. Apart from my brother Calvert who was killed in Northern Ireland, all my brothers and sisters are alive and well. I am the only one who has moved south ….. The rest are in the north, and one brother lives in Stillington. Were you in Bishopton Close?
LikeLike
Our family lived in Fairfield close, number 14 which was the end house or the first on the right when you walked into the close. I have five brothers Terry Bernard, Michael Kevin and David who you may remember.
LikeLike
Six boys in a family! Amazing. Are they all still living? Do you all live in the Stockton area? Do you remember Judith Tulloch who lived in the first house of The Close on the left as you walked in? And the Barron’s lived in the first house rebound from that in Fairfield Road, then the Kitchens, the Kells and then our tribe. It is a lifetime ago but I remember it so clearly.
It’s a long time since I was in Fairfield. When I was a girl I could cross the road, go through the gap in the hedge and run through the fields to The Valley as we called it. There was a stream at the bottom, full of huge yellow marsh marigolds. The banks were smothered with cowslips. We made dens there ….. So much freedom. I remember a little shop in The Avenue called Speights. Then there was Laverys in the Court. Eventually the Upsall Grove shops opened and Fairfield was built up around us. I was there when I was about 3 or 4 years old until I left for the bright lights when I was 18.
One thing I loved as a child was the no 4 bus into town. How excited we all were in December when we got on the Christmas bus! Behind the drivers seat downstairs was a moving Christmas scene, Santa going down a chimney and suchlike. Oh for the simple pleasures of those days! There was the Saturday morning pictures in Stockton, 6d to go in and money for sweets. Will the Lone Ranger manage to leap over that chasm on his trusty horse? Come back next week and find out! Hark at me reminiscing, shows I am getting old even though I try to pretend I am not!!
LikeLike
You asked about Judith Tulloch who had a brother called Paul who lived at no 1 Fairfield close. I believe they moved to Scarborough. At that time the following people lived in Fairfield close.
No 2, the Stevenson;s, Niel and Barry who worked with their father painting and decorating
No 3, the Davison’s Douggie and Paul. Paul wore callipers from contracting polio.
No 4, the, forgot their surname, they had one son
No 5, the Chadfield’s Lenny, Joan, Richard and Freda
No 6, the Gorge,s, Kath, Margaret and David
No7, the Jeffel’s Don and younger brother ?
No 8, ?
No 9, I think it was the Carlton’s who lived there then
No10 the Wastel’s Brian, Silvia and Derick
No 11 the Wrights, one son can’t remember his name
No12, the Warren’s two girls and a son called Jeff, father was confined to a wheelchair.
No13, the Hart’s, David John, Gregory and Valerie
No 14, the Salmon’s Terry, Kenneth, Bernard, Michael, Kevin and David
I have been away from Teesside for thirty years or more and currently live in the Charnwood forest area south of Loughborough
LikeLike
A few good footballers there Lenny Chatfield, Donna Jeffers & Greg Hart.
LikeLike
You have a great memory! Such a long time ago but obviously these early memories are strongly imprinted in our brains!! Wish I could go back to that time knowing what I know now!!
LikeLike
Lynda, your mother would have been Joan? I remember her very well. A lovely lady and your brother Calvert was nice to me when I was very young – he let me play on his pool table, upstairs at your mother’s house.
LikeLike
I lived in Fairfield Close next door but one to the Chadfields, we then moved into Bishopton court. Don, Annette and Colin Jeffels.
LikeLike
I am the son of Alan Ambler and have been told I have an uncle Morris.
LikeLike
As this is a new topic to new readers of Picture Stockton it is worth reiterating that the roofs are of geodesic construction, which eliminates the need for internal bracing. This form of construction was used by the aircraft designer Barnes Wallace, of Dambuster fame, for the design of the R100 airship and the Vickers Wellington.
It is interesting to hear FW. Hills built the roofs. They were involved in aircraft construction, making parts for aircraft built mainly of wood. Being a go-ahead firm, perhaps they had become aware of geodic design through their contacts.
Some years ago I passed by the houses, up near Fairfield, and noticed that the roofs had begun to sag inwards. There was obviously some weakness in the glue or connections, or perhaps it was just that the timber was not thick enough to support the weight of the tiles..
LikeLike
On enlarging the picture it is found the scaffolding is tube and clip that was a wartime innovation as was the prefabricated buildings that gave birth to the pre fab houses built in Stockton, my friend Reg Pybus had one of those and like many was very reluctant to move out when given a council house.
Pre-war the scaffolding was all timber with wooden poles as uprights all lashed together with rope.
A joiner did mention on here that the roof had to be adjusted on a regular basis which I would assume meant hardening fastening bolts and wedging. They still outlasted many of the house on Hardwick which have been cleared and new housing built so not bad design.
LikeLike
I thought we had put this one to rest on other postings.
Houses were not built during the war unless as repairs or replacement for bombed buildings, they could not get the materials.
As the war ended the forces started to flood back home hopefully to a knew Britain and a new beginning which would include housing for all. Stockton one of the first Councils to build houses pre-war started to look at the type of buildings they could put up with the material available, shortage of everything at that time and the war in the Far East still going on.
Four houses were built by contractors to the Council on the left side of Durham Road going into town Two of the more square type later built on Daventry Avenue and Droitwich, and two of the Dutch barn as we called them later built at Fairfield. They still stand with the Dutch Barn type further back from the road. The day before they were to be inspected the sink units arrived from Sweden an all in one unit, they did not quite fit. Arthur Brown Browns Sheet Metal Works was approached to try and fit them before the inspection so Steve Small the tradesman and myself apprentice took our tools and tried to cut bend and fit stainless steel units so tough it seemed impossible. Steve was never one to back down so we managed bloodied and blistered to fit polish and move out the back as the inspection team moved in the front.
The scars on my hands tell me which houses they were and to cap it all when they started to Build on Roseworth it was a vastly different type, bigger and better built until they had to cut down and we got what we called the MacMillan houses, smaller more compact and not as much garden.
Meanwhile Local builders had resumed building housing estates started and left during the war years and they too had cut down the size of buildings and gardens, the Kendrew houses on Beaconsfield Road and the off roads high light this as against the original houses on Bradbury Road.
LikeLike
Sorry to disagree with some of your correspondents, but the houses are to be found at the top end of Fairfield Road.
They were built by F Hills & Sons Ltd, a manufacturer of doors & windows, whose factory used to be in Norton Road, Stockton (about opposite the Tilery (?) recreation ground.
My late father, Ernest Precious & uncle, Bill Precious were directors of the firm for many years.
LikeLike
You can find these houses on Durham Road as they were in 1949 here:
http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw024092
Also if you look at the posts related to this one you will see there are differences in the design between those on Fairfield Road/Bishopton Court…
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.568221,-1.357131,3a,75y,270.14h,73.93t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sNmF-Kk1qp0c3nwqpTfPUpA!2e0?hl=en
…and these on Durham Road:
https://picturestocktonarchive.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/dutch-barn-houses-durham-road/
As well as the differences mentioned previously these houses on Durham Road have a different chimney design, tiled gable ends and a larger window next to the front door. As mentioned in other comments they were built as part of a trial.
LikeLike
Never saw any on Durham road, but on the left as I walked up Greens Lane.
LikeLike
There are 2 of these houses set back on Durham Road on the right going from Stocton to Mile Hose. These are situated between the Ring Road r/about and the Mile House. In fact the houses in the picture could be them…
LikeLike
I think we’ve learnt in the past that if the gable walls are half rendered, the 1st floor central windows are close together in the same dormer and there are concrete flowerbeds, then we are looking at the houses on Durham Road ( http://binged.it/1sB32bv ). I can see all three so Durham road it must be… well at least not Bishopton Court.
LikeLike
I seem to remember houses like these on Durham Road between Bishopton Ave and the Mile House, on the right hand side looking toward the Mile House.
LikeLike