Taken in 1959, a photograph of the Billingham South Modern Choir. I am second row far left.
Photograph and details courtesy of Derek Appleton.
Billingham South Modern Choir
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Monthly Archives: April 2016
Thornaby Tool Van Crane at Loughborough
Photographs of the Thornaby Tool Van Crane taken on the Great Central Railway at Loughbrough on 27th August 2009. There was just the crane there, no vans with it. I got a bit of shock that day having worked on site with it during incidents in the North East and the last time I had seen it, it had toppled over at Ryhope Grange I think due to the operator over reaching a loaded HHA coal wagon. I thought it had long gone.
Photographs and details courtesy of Bill Adams.
Leven seen from the Thornaby side, 2006
Viewed from the Thornaby side are two photographs of Leven which I took in April 2006.
Photographs and details courtesy of Derek Brittain.
North End of Stockton High Street
An old view showing the north end of Stockton High Street looking towards the Parish Church.
2016 Vintage Bus Running Day
It was the annual Teesside Vintage Bus Running Day on Sunday, organised and run by the local 500 Group and as ever was based at the Middlesbrough side of the Transporter Bridge. This event is held every April and this year was the sixteenth ‘running day’ and they seem to grow more popular by the year with increases in both public who turn out to ride on the buses, and for free!, as well as an increase in vintage buses which come from all over the north east of England with the majority of them being group or privately owned. Without doubt a labour of love!
Although having its base on the wrong side of the Tees there were still some associations to Stockton including the 500 Groups own Dennis Loline double decker which was built in 1958 and took the public on various rides around the borough including a return to Stockton Town Hall as “the number 11 bus”. There was also a bus well known to me from my youth in Billingham, the number 52 which ran from Stockton High Street to Low Grange in Billingham.
Photographs and details courtesy of David Thompson.
Sheep going to Market
Two men herd the last of their sheep into pens ready to be sold at the cattle market. The market took place on the corner of The Square and Thistle Green every week.
Breakdown Train c1990s
A photograph of Thornabys Breakdown Train taken during the 1990s.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Dickenson.
Billingham Forum Programme for Double Dealer
In recent times Prunella Scales along with her husband Timothy West have often been on our TV screens as they chug along the canal system in a selection of narrow boats. They have visited many parts of Britain and in the last series they were to be found in Sweden. In April 1973 the play the Double Dealer was showing at the Billingham Forum and as you can see it was directed by Prunella Scales. Amongst a large cast was the late Pete Postlethwaite.
Images and details courtesy of Martin Birtle.
Crowds at Stockton Racecourse c1962
Hundreds of people attend the races at Stockton Racecourse in 1962.
Photographs courtesy of Bruce Coleman.
A view from Hume House
Another view taken from the top of Hume House in 1995 showing Harkers Engineering, the Cricketers Arms and Newport Bridge in the distance.
Photograph courtesy of John Corney.
Robinsons, Stockton High Street
A view of Robinsons Department Store – now Debenhams at the north end of Stockton High Street.
Dredger on the Tees
The wash form the steam tugs was believed to wear away the bank side. It was the task of the TNC to maintain the riversides. The TNC turned to dredging the river to allow larger vessels, especially at the coal staithes, to move along the river unaided.
Dredging was used to create more depth to the river and allow ships easier passage. Between 1845 and 1900 upwards of 34 million tons of material had been removed by dredging of the bed of the river.
The Queen, Stockton High Street c1956
A photograph of the Royal Car at the junction of Finkle Street as it proceeds down Stockton High Street towards Thornaby in 1956.
Clevo Flour Mill and the Victoria Bridge
Looking up-stream from Stockton quayside towards the Clevo Flour Mill and the Victoria Bridge c1967.
Advert for Metro Vickers c1959
This is an interesting advert from a 1959 Railways Illustrated magazine, showing how Stockton on Tees, was part of the modernisation plan for British Railways. the Metro Vick, CO-Bo’s, with their unusual wheel arrangement, built in the Bowesfield area, some former railway colleagues related to me that they could remember them brand new waiting for dispatch in the siding at Bowesfield Junction, though the design proved to be a poor one and did not last in service due to poor reliability.
The claim to fame with them was working the CONDOR freight service from Glasgow to London along the West Coast Main Line, which was highly publicised, even an oil painting was produced by Cuno the artist. Sadly they finished their days mostly at Carlise Upperby 12B and Carnfoth 10A, during 1966/68, I in fact saw a couple before they vanished at these depots, shame really.
Image and details courtesy of Bill Adams.