These inserts into the kerb appear to me to be wartime additions to aid traffic at night but that’s a guess… Perhaps some of the older members can enlighten me?
The kerb stones can be found on the corner between what are now known as Beaconsfield Road and The Green.
Photograph and details courtesy of Derek Graham.
I remember seeing these but never really thought about the significance of the circular parts. Mr Mee, I wonder could you tell me if my father (Ken Sheraton) played marbles with you there? In the 1970s we as a family viewed the house there next to the ‘Friends Meeting House’ when it came up for sale, perhaps partly due to my father’s fondness for his childhood memories of playing with you and other friends there. There were issues with the house; 1) the drive wasn’t wide enough for our too-wide yellow Cortina, 2) the massive tree in the front garden was protected and couldn’t be felled 3) worries about root damage to foundations so we didn’t buy it but friends Karen and Paul (who used to run the shop on The Green which will always be known to me as “Pattersons”) bought that house…. and eventually went on to buy our house at Curlew Lane on nearby Crooksbarn from the family after my father’s passing! I wonder if you can also tell me roughly the year my father moved to Cottersloe Road from Billingham in the 1930s? Something I never asked him. So pleased to see you still contributing to the site. 🙂
Sarah yes Ken was one of us along with Ray Pig, Ian Downs, Bill Watson, John Dent, John Dietz, Bruce Edwards and even the girls, June and Elsy Robinson, Jean Dent, Christine Pollard and so many others.
Bradburry Road was the first built after Kendrew built the houses in Mill Lane followed by Cottersloe and Letch, Roseberry Road at the top of Bradbury was not finished until after the war as was Beaconsfield and the roads off it.
From 1936 on, those houses filled with young families we all seemed to be of an age and went to the Norton Board School until the 11+ when we split to various high schools though still got together after school.
I have definite memories of Ken from around 1938 so it could have been 37-38 when they moved in. We most of us passed the 11+ though in the main our parents could afford the uniforms and kit needed, so many could not and the children did not make it into higher education. Ken and I were usually together because between us we got into the worst scrapes and caused chaos. I mentioned in a post last week of throwing a dog and cat into Mr Sowerby’s hall way, he lived on the green, Ken was in on that and probably put us up to it, he was full of mischief.
We all of us did everything together, the local church hall dances for youth clubs the Cadet and Scout dances at William Newton to a live band and graduation to the big town dances meeting on the green walking into town, meeting up after the dance and the bus to the Avenue fish shop walking up the High Street eating them, the girls Dads would be waiting on the green for us, no hanky panky allowed.
They were happy times boys and girls all mates together then at 18 we seemed to split, I went in the army and when I got back on leave after years abroad most had married or moved away. I would meet up with Ken in the Top House when on leave and we would put the world right over a few too many pints. Those lads and lasses still live in my memory, at times when writing some long forgotten fact or face comes to mind I stop and smile they were fun days War and Austerity never dampened our spirits.
Yes still writing Sarah, it is nearly a year now since the big cancer operation, the wonderful Surgeons at North Tees got it and I was back on my feet in no time but the family now want me to put memories on paper for them to read in the future. I understand your need to know, so many children never know what their parents early life was like.
Regards Frank.
Thanks Mr Mee! I remember we visited Ray Pigg once upon a time when I was a child. ‘Bruce Edwards’ wasn’t anything to do with the tobacconist nearly opposite Norton Board was he? 1937 or 38 seems right. My Dad would have been 8 or 9. I love hearing how my Dad was full of mischief as a child. Makes me smile. I particularly liked your tale of making explosions. Haha! I didn’t know you’d had a cancer scare – so pleased you’re fine now. I got my Dad to fill in a book called “All About Me” and presented it back to me all filled in for my birthday, which he did. It’s treasured now. Thanks again. 🙂
The tobacconist was Jack Edward’s the Barbers Mother, he had his shop next door. Jack lived in a house at the bottom of Tanners Bank just before you reached the bottom of Beaconsfield Street.
Bruce Edwards was the son of Mr Edwards who was to become Head master of the William Newton School when it opened just before the war.
I lost touch with Ray Pigg and Bruce when I went in the army, as I did with so many of the old Norton gang, by the time I came home from abroad they had moved on, some went in the forces later after completing College or apprenticeships others had married and left the area. One old girl friend joined the WRENS and married a Sailor living in the South for 50 years then returned home as we all do to Norton, I met her in the Vets as we both got treatment for pets, it was instant recognition and we covered some of the old times.
My memories of Ken are of a happy go lucky lad who made life suit his own requirements most do it the other way round. We were lucky in our upbringing with the freedom to roam, pity that todays children do not have such freedom they have lost a lot.
I think Jack Edwards was a relative of my aunt Gwen Williams (nee Phillpot) and (recently deceased) Gwen must have known Headmaster Mr Edwards as she went to William Newton School (she was born in 1933). It is so true what you say about my Dad making life suit his own requirements. He retired in his 50s after negotiating himself an unbelievably good financial deal for it which we still smile about. We *were* free to roam as children – me walking alongside a main road to enjoy playing in Rickerby Park in Carlisle – my father getting on a train with other children but with no parents present to Seaton Carew for the day! 🙂
Frank, Jack Edwards lived in Pine Street or in that immediate area.
Derek, that was the only section of the roads that had kerbs, Kendrew building the four houses facing the Green in 1935-6 had to put in access to the two houses next to the Small Chapel or I should say add to it, I remember kerbs though no paving. Never did realise they were different and as there was no traffic down there apart from Dad sometimes running his truck down the short bank to start it really no need for any.
At the time there was a path unpaved across from Mill Lane to Beaconsfield Street then down a cart track over a field to the top of Beaconsfield Street. We lads played marbles on it with our three mottes and got into trouble from the people who walked the path.
The other tracks down the Green had no paves they were gravel, there were seats down each side of the green with a couple of paves in front. The Circular seat round the Elm across the road from the Blacksmith’s had paves under it and the short section on that side had a tar surface from the Top House to the Church, no kerbs as it went up bank with a grassy section one side down to the road leading to Station Road.
The Pavements went in on the Green well after the war, we had a section of pavement in Mill Lane up to our house number 5 then nothing until you came to the Crooksbarn estate.
We never really thought we were missing anything as we roller skated on the traffic free roads, cycled, top and whip plus all games in season. The green was our playground we did not need hard paves to scar knees and elbows, we did that well enough falling out of trees down the Old Mill.
Those roads around the green have had several makeovers in my time those paves look old though could well have been second hand from elsewhere, I am not sure of the answer and most that would are no longer here.
Yes, I seem to recall having seen at one time, this ‘radius’ type concrete-kerbstone with glass reflectors set into it’s vertical face. I can’t say that it was relative to WWII (most night-time ‘invisible’ objects were simply painted white) it may just have been an ‘updated model’ by the casting company.
I remember kerb stones like these having red reflective inserts which could have been to aid traffic at night by reflecting any light from a car indicating that this is a corner. I will ask my mother (who is 95) and let you know accordingly.
I was born in 1951, and I remember these Kerb stones when I was young, they had reflectors in the holes, so they would reflect the light when your headlights shone on them. I don’t know why they were there, but I think it must have been to aid traffic at night, or during the blackouts in wartime.
Ray – traffic during the war had metal lamp shields over the head lamps that gave a faint glow in front of the vehicle, mudguards back and front had white painted area’s to aid people seeing them.
That part of the green had no traffic although the section of road past Norton Hall was two way traffic if there was any. Petrol rationing made sure all private traffic was locked away for the war, we had a car and a ration for it as Dad was in the Haulage business it never went far on the odd occasion it did it would be during daylight.
We played on the green every daylight hour we could and never saw a car, the odd coal wagon maybe and most people used the bus it ran every five minutes so why use a car.
We read in the papers that more people were being killed and injured in road accidents at night than in bombing raids, that was in the City’s of course though Stockton had its spate of accidents as well.
Norton Green was almost a traffic free zone as I remember it in wartime. It could well have been a people free zone had they ever lit those smokescreen furnaces dotted around the Green luckily for us they were never used.
If Kendrews were made to do it they were 2nd hand kerbs that had been removed from some highway. I can’t see this as being a hazard.