A view of Norton House near Norton Green. The house was the home of the Hogg family, built c1720 and demolished c1934.
Image and details courtesy of Derek Buttle.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A view of Norton House near Norton Green. The house was the home of the Hogg family, built c1720 and demolished c1934.
Image and details courtesy of Derek Buttle.
One of my first vivid memories was this house being demolished. Kendrew had already built the houses in Mill Lane, he offered Dad one with a garage large enough for the truck £500, Dad refused because 5 Mill Lane had a large wall enclosed garden large enough for animals and fowl.
The new kids on the block all played on Norton Green quite safe in those days so with Pat Middlemas, Sheila and Gerald Carbro, Colin Campbell and the Pearsons we watched the house being torn down. There was a Steam Roller with a winch, workmen tied a cable around a wall and the Steam Roller chugged away as the cable tightened and down came another section. Weekends we would play in the ruins as it seemed to take forever to completely demolish. The building sight was open to all so as the houses were built then progressed down Bradbury Road and the roads off we had our own adventure playground right up to building stopping during the war. New friends moved in to those houses. Ian Downs, John Dent, Billy Watson, Bulmers, June and Elsie Robinson, John Dietz, Ray Pig. Dennis Payne, Christine Pollard. Along with children from the village, Dennis Goldsbrough, The Carrigans, so many more.
We had a freedom which is missing for the youngsters today being able to take a pack of sandwiches a bottle of water and vanish down the Mill to the Beck and beyond, Cowboy Valley along the Willow Garth being a favourite place to picnic watching the trains go by.
My Grandchildren still do all those things though under constant observation from family members, that is the difference, we were allowed to roam.