A view of Hills Door Factory possibly taken from Tilery Road…
Photograph taken in November 1976 by Len Toulson. Courtesy of Neal Toulson.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A view of Hills Door Factory possibly taken from Tilery Road…
Photograph taken in November 1976 by Len Toulson. Courtesy of Neal Toulson.
I lived very close to the Hills factory – in Tilery – for much of my childhood. I remember that place well, but sad to read of its demise.
This photo was indeed taken in Talbot Street.
Great images of Hills and the surrounding area starting here:
http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw052008
I worked at Hills if Stockton part time probably from 1963 to 1966, working as progress chaser. I remember the boss called Len, one of the best door manufacturers in the UK, I often wonder why it no longer exists. Alistair Begg
Alistair, it is what is called asset stripping. A firm called Premdor from Canada wanted to be part of the UK market and Hills was their target as we were the best in Europe for specialised doors. Hills had a bigger unit at Barnsley making only stock doors. They decided that the Stockton site should be closed taking the specialised doors division to Barnsley. Everyone at Stockton were made redundant in 1997. They never had the know how in making the specialised doors and no one at Stockton wanted to transfer there. There were 4 staff who started up at the manufacture of these doors and Premdor used them for quite a while.
My uncle Billy Porter used to work at Hills
My Mother Olive Trattles worked at Hills door factory in the mid 1950s. She went to apply for a sweeping up job, but instead was trained up to be a door inspector, she worked with a man called Wesley Scholes, She said they had to check for flaws in all types of doors from, church doors prison doors, to shop doors.
My uncle Billy Porter used to work at Hills
This is taken from Talbot Street, we can see the Church Hall at the left far side of the road and Hills offices are opposite this street.