I think this might be all that is left of Stockton Workhouse and School. It was taken in Union Street East, just off Portrack Lane. I also think St James Church was situated just across the road. Could anyone confirm this?
Photograph and details courtesy of Jackie McNaughton.
The opening of St James’s School was in large part down to one remarkable man, the Reverend Thomas Law. He organised a great deal of the funding which led to the school being built.
Mr Law was a clergyman for Stockton-On-Tees for nearly thirty years. He was ordained to the curacy of Stockton on 12 July 1857. He served as curate at the Parish Church for seven years before being appointed as the first vicar of the St. James Parish, Stockton-On-Tees. He single handed raised the greater part of the funds that were needed to erect a church for the parish. St. James’s Church, Stockton-On-Tees was consecrated on 11 May 1868.
The Reverend Law then turned his attention to the educational needs of the parish. He was a member of the first Stockton School Board but took it upon himself to raise funds for a parochial school. St. James’s School was built and eventually opened free of debt in 1875. The school had accommodation for 115 boys and 163 girls. Demand for pupil places was greater though and at one point in its first year the school had 158 boys and 296 girls on the register. The opening of the school led in turn to an increase in children of the parish attending Sunday school. Eventually five hundred children were in attendance.
I have uncovered a lot more information on the reverend Thomas Law. He was a man of great energy who played an active role in helping not just the people of his parish but also the sick and poor throughout the town of Stockton. I’m not a religious person but believe he should be remembered as one of the great contributors to the town. Over time I will be posting additional comments to this page.
The Reverend Thomas Law was universally respected in Stockton. A great part of the information I have about him comes from a large article in an issue of the Stockton Herald, 29 July 1882, which praised him on 25 years of service to Stockton-on-Tees. It gives a lengthy list of his involvement with bodies concerned with the welfare of the local population.
In 1859 he was appointed honorary secretary of the Stockton Relief Fund Committee, a role in which he was re-elected throughout his time residing in the town. The Relief Committee was responsible for giving aid to able bodied men and their families during times of high unemployment. Between 1870 and 1873 he was a member of the newly formed Stockton School Board. He was also asked by Stockton ratepayers to stand as a Poor Law Guardian and was duly elected with the highest number of votes. The Poor Law Guardians were responsible for decisions relating to the Stockton Union Workhouse and the attending paupers.
Even with these responsibilities the reverend still found time to serve as a member of the committees for the Old Cottage Hospital, the new Stockton Hospital (erected in 1876), member of the Board of trustees at the Blue Coat Schools, chairman of the School attendance and School Enquiry Committee, member of the Stockton Dispensary Committee and also trustee of the Stockton Savings Bank.
All of this he did whilst carrying out his role as the vicar of St. James. In 1886 his time in Stockton came to an end when he was offered the rectory of Haughton-Le-Skerne.
I recall talking to a lady who’s mother worked there. She said it was a hospital for men with learning disabilities. She said the men seemed to be well cared for. On sunny days they would be outside in some sort of garden and the local people would give them presents of sweets or cigarettes. They engaged in daily activities and had a weekly film show in the hall. This was good to know as whilst researching my family history, I discovered a great uncle had been placed there and died there in 1959. His death certificate called him an ‘imbecile’. My Grandfather said his brother had died in childhood so he was never spoken of. When I discovered this both my grandparents were dead and my mother was very shocked that her parents had just dismissed him. Very sad, wouldn’t happen today thank goodness.
The photo is of St Ann’s school, the workhouse was behind the school building and fronted onto Portrack Lane opposite St James church. The workhouse was built in 1849/1850. The earlier workhouse was on the corner of Workhouse Street (now Knowles St.) nearly opposite to were the “Sun Inn” is situated.
This is not a photo of St. Ann’s School. I believe St, Ann’s School was built in 1902 at was situated on St. Ann’s Terrace.
Hello Jackie, I lived in Hanlon Street, opposite the hospital( after it was known as the workhouse), my godmother was Mrs McNaughten who lived three doors away from us, I think there were three boys, Alfred and two others, I remember one of them was a jockey.
Sorry I can’t be of any further use on this.
I would be curious to see a picture of Keith Thompson, married to Doreen, both as a child when his father was the Master at the Geriatric Hospital in Portrack, and also as he is now.
You can see a picture of me in 1949, when I was Keith’s forgotten playmate, by dialling into Google ” Portrack Boy Picture Stockton”
I Have lived in London for over 50 years and my visits to Stockton are very infrequent
Look at http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Stockton/. Judging by the shading on the 1913 map, St James School (your photo) was separate from the Stockton Union Workhouse. Incidentally they state 9 acres for the workhouse site. Wrong. more likely 105X41 yard (0.9 acre).
My late father was born in Union Street East in 1926, dad went to that school and to St.James Church.
Looking at maps from various periods I can see the following. In the 1890’s there was St. James’ school on Union Street East. There was also another (unnamed) school at the same time that appeared to be within the workhouse grounds (at the southern end about where the end of Limeoak Way is now). I guess this was the workhouse school. St. James’ Church was on the other side of Portrack Lane, directly opposite the workhouse. By the 1950’s St. James’ school was re-labelled ‘School Dining Hall’. I think that may be where my mam went for her school lunches during the 1940’s.
Your workhouse photo is correct. Situated at the rear of the old Cricketers Arms pub and Harkers engineering company, it was called St. Ann’s workhouse and school.
The original workhouse was in Dovecote street. The one in Portrack was much bigger.
That in Portrack became the Geriatric Hospital after WWII
As I have described elsewhere, I used to have the run of it, in the very early fifties, as I became the friend of “Keith” who was the son of the “Master and Mistress” who ran the hospital.
It was my first introduction to a lower-upper class / high middle class lifestyle. The family had a permanent live-in maid and a car. The only car in Portrack for some years. Keith had loads of toys and got the Eagle comic every week.
At three old pence, the Eagle was too expensive and too educational for the ordinary working class. But I used to read it, more than did Keith. I suppose it was the first indication to me that people who were supposed to be my betters, were not that superior.
The mistress was a rather frumpily dressed woman in her early fifties, and the master dressed in the same manner as Mr Attlee, the Prime Minister of the time, and looked quite similar.
I was tolerated as a playmate for Keith, and not much more. During the day he attended what I would guess was a privately run junior school, where the pupils wore a bright red blazer. Does anyone know what that school was?
Wherever Keith is now, I wonder if he remembers me? I liked him.
If it’s where Tecaz is now in Portrack yes that was a hospital, visited my gran in there.
I’m married to the very same Keith, and still live locally! He was a pupil at Holy Trinity School (purple blazer, not red), still has loads of toys, but is not at all superior! Unfortunately, he can’t seem to place you Fred.
Doreen, many thanks for the info about Keith. I hope he has done well and is obviously happy in life. When I knew him, I don’t think I knew of anyone who had so many toys.
We used to go to go all over the grounds of Portrack Hospital, doing stupid things like climbing up the emergency fire escapes on the outside. I once got him and me to jump off an eleven foot wall.. Into soft garden earth, not hard ground. Even so, we were lucky not to escape with broken ankles, they hurt so much.
It is strange that he has no recollection of me. But does he remember going to the nearby Methodist Chapel on Portrack Lane? That is where we were introduced and with me being designated as a suitable playmate. You can see a picture of me at that age, on Picture Stockton, under the heading “Portrack Boy – St Annes Terrace.
I now live in London, but in July I helped organise an Industrial History Tour on Teesside for the Newcomen Society. Stockton Library will have a copy of the stuff I wrote as background to the tour. I am now retired, of course, but write a column for a technical magazine, under the byline “Fred Starr Recollects”. Some of these are on the internet.
This is the former St James School and has been featured before , see here ;
https://picturestocktonarchive.wordpress.com/2006/05/08/former-st-james-school-portrack-2007/
https://picturestocktonarchive.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/old-school-building-in-portrack/
It is now used as a store by the adjacent bathroom and kitchen fitting company .
Did the workhouse become Portrack Geriatric Hospital? I remember taking vegetables there (in the 1940’s) from our allotment, passing St James school on the way – the school slightly nearer to Portrack Lane.
I always thought the Stockton workhouse was situated at the bottom end of Dovecot Street on the same side has the school used to be as you go under the bridge to the moor. Has anybody more information?
If you search for “Almshouse” on PS you will find the connection to Dovecot St.
https://picturestocktonarchive.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/stockton-almshouse-dovecot-street-2013/
http://heritage.stockton.gov.uk/buildings/stockton-workhouse-2/
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Stockton/
Updated link:
https://heritage.stockton.gov.uk/articles/buildings/the-stockton-workhouse/
Stockton had a number of workhouses. The first recorded being on Bishop Street in 1730. A map of 1855 shows a workhouse in Workhouse Street, now Knowles Street, opposite what is now the Sun Inn. Between 1849/51 the Stockton Union Workhouse was built on Portrack Lane, bordered by Union Street East (to the west) and Barrett Street (to the east). Barrett Street is now under the bus depot compound. The buildings on both sides of what is now Limeoak Way, Portrack, now occupy the site of the Stockton Union Workhouse.