An interesting old view of Dovecot Street before I knew it. I can only remember Roberts wet fish shop in the premises occupied by Baillies in the picture. On the other side of the street, a Halfords Cycles sign shows the position of a business that lasted at least until around 1955 when my first cycle was bought. This had an adult size frame and temporary wooden blocks fitted to the pedals. Also on the left is number 32 Dovecot Street which was occupied by the Borough Education Office in the 1950/60s.
Photograph and details courtesy of Peter Rigg.
Jack/John Buttery confectioner and my grandad Albert Buttery had the shop in Dovecote Street. It later became Maynards. My mother was Betty Buttery lived in Stockton later became Betty Skipper. Our grandad used to make us toffee apples and candies.
Some details from this photo match up with a 1914 trade directory for Dovecot St.:
W.R.Ewart & Sons, Drapers, #30 Dovecot St. (a sign on the left of this photo)
Joseph Mudd, Hair Dresser #29 (barber’s pole on right?)
Newton Spooner, Pork Butcher, #33 (painted advert on the wall on the right, 2nd property on the right with “Davy’s Yorkshire Polony” sign hanging outside)
…and as mentioned in comments:
Halford Cycle Co. #16
John Buttery, Confectioner #3
We used to stop off at the sweet shop for lttle purple aniseed sweets on the way to Mill Lane Junior School. Always to be told of for having purple teeth and fingers for the rest of the day.
The little sweet shop would be Buttery’s. She was a neighbour and good friend to my mother living in Nortron. Because of this when the sweet rationing was on we would always get more than we were allowed.
Yes I remember Roberts fish shop on the corner and on the other corner facing the Hippodrome was Duncan’s shop which was a sort of help your self store
Before your time and even mine Peter, Possibly 1930’s although the cars by then were more rounded, we had a Ford 8 in 1938 which looked very much like the first production after the war.
I walked up Dovecote Street every day and it looked much as in the picture. Halfords and the Butchers were still there though the sweet shop was gone, probably wartime rationing did for it.
You could well have walked the Street unchanged until the late 1960’s when crowds of people came in for the market which you can see at the top of the picture. It was then the shopping centre for areas as far apart as Bishop Auckland, buses brought folk in from all the Villages around and Stockton was the hub.
Change happens, what we knew and saw daily has now gone, I think forever, my own family do more shopping on line than in Town, with busy lives they do not wish to spend hours going round shops and stalls on the market as my Mother and her friends did. Back then few married women worked outside the home and I saw the change start when the women went into war work, they suddenly had money and a freedom from the house work shopping etc. It still got done though not a 24/7 job as it had once been. Mother taught me to cook as she and Dad were out until five each night, bribed me with pocket money to do the chores though with the old fashioned range you could pop a meal in the oven as we all left for school and work it would slow cook ready for tea time, a hoover round after school prepare some Veg and we would all sit down to eat and talk.
Most weekends I have a house full talking about the old days, their old days were my Modern days they knew nothing of Mums or my old days which is why I took up writing about it, they read and wonder, how did you manage Dad? what no i-pads granddad? no we talked face to face then not even a land line phone, the picture of shocked disbelief is something to see.
You cannot stop progress.
Frank when you say the sweet shop had gone due to rationing did you mean the one in Dovecote just aroung the corner from the High Street. During and after the War during rationing this shop named Buttery’s was open. In a previous message on this sight I mention the lady who owned it. She lived in 6 Ragworth PLace and later moving to Albany Road. She had a daughter Joan and a son called Jack, maybe you knew them. Jack had a house built in Junction Road on the corner with Fife Road.
No Bob, Buttery’s were there for years after the war, they all sold cigarettes and newspapers which would be their main trade. Mother used Buttery’s when in Town because they always had a toffee she loved, I used them and all the other cigarette shops although I never smoked when everyone and their dogs smoked.
Dick Brown gave me money every morning to buy cigarettes for the men working at Browns. Trawling the booths asking for the best cigarettes meant I had to be my sweet sixteen smiling self it cost me the odd dance in the Palais and sometimes a kiss but I got enough fags for the lads. Going round the works selling them to the lads my pals got the best ones though a couple of them wanted the Pasha or Players Weights, some bribed me for the Woodbines or Strong Capstan so when I took the money back to Dick there would be more than he gave me.
Right lad I just want what I gave you, you have earned the rest with a wink, he was supposedly the hard man but I found his soft spot.
It was the sweet shop on the corner of Dovecote Street and Prince Regent Street that I have no memory of though I passed that corner every day.
Miss Foster on Norton Green managed to keep going through the wartime sweet rationing with the papers and cigarettes, we all bought two papers a day weekend papers magazines comics and even knitting patterns keeping up with the news was what we did though the Boys and Girls coming on leave often told a different story, rumours often turned out to be true.