St John’s House

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Related to the recent pictures of the new Hub on Stockton High Street, I thought I’d send an image of an advert for the auction of the building when it was known as St. John’s House (1st June 1898).

It makes interesting reading and illustrates, along with the 1895 map, how grand a property it once was. Also noticed that the road alongside the house was called St John’s Road.

Images and details courtesy of Jonathan May.

9 thoughts on “St John’s House”

  1. At some point the name St John’s Road was changed to become part of Wellington Street.
    On the opposite side to St John’s House M & S had their store and next to them was the Co-op emporium. I’m guessing that what was once part of the rear garden to St John’s House was purchased for the purpose of building the Baptist Tabernacle which opened in 1902 or thereabouts.

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  2. Jonathan, thank you for posting such an interesting advert. Look at the extent of those greenhouses, and all heated as well! I wonder if the occupant had been a keen gardener of exotic plants? And there was a poultry run by the coach house. Almost self-sufficient in food, a touch of the Victorian “Good Life”?

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    • Cliff, if the good life Victorian lasted until the 1950’s then that is the life my family lived.
      A walled garden, Dad a gardener supreme had fruit trees on every wall, sun warmed Victoria plums a taste to savour, the garden produced a good deal of our food plus the small holding side with pigs geese ducks hens at one time horses even a goat, then we lived the dream as did so many people around us.
      Dad built his lean to green house against the South Facing wall and a stove outside with pipes running through it, he had salad crops in winter his tomato’s lasted well into Autumn. With potato’s kept in what we called pies lasting until spring, Carrots in sand, winter greens and then spring greens we never went short right through the war.
      Even the local Bobby turned a blind eye to my misdemeanours when given a few slices of home cured bacon and a couple of fresh eggs, a lot of what was called Black Market though we called it fair exchange went on, I never went short of real butter, I would rather eat dry bread than have the taste of that wartime Margarine in my mouth.
      Yes we had the Co-op and other food shops, people in street houses could not do what we did though a few had hens in the yards. Many Norton people around us made full use of the garden as a food source, they had to, it definitely was not a Victorian thing.
      Frank.

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      • Frank, that sounds like good healthy food, not the shrink wrapped plastic packed food that is almost out of date before it hits the shelves of the shops.

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    • Just to put the sale of the property into context. No.147 High Street had been the home to William M Watson and family since the mid-1870s. He was a wholesale and retail draper, born in 1845. He appears to have had his 6 children educated at home, hence the schoolroom, and a governess is listed in the census record.
      Mr Watson died in early 1898. Hence it was his widow, Mrs Watson, who was selling the premises.

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  3. I have had a frustrating morning sorting out my collection of DVDs that I have made over many years and discovered that about 30 will not play on my VHS/DVD Player. Obviously I would not have kept them if I could not view the contents. I feel the public have been led up the garden path with such things as Blueray and other recording discs.
    These discs have taken many hours of editing and preparing only to see it wasted. Is there an answer to this problem?.

    Now to Stockton matters, I am a native of Teesside born in Norton when the Trams were introduced and seen many changes in public transport. Stockton and Middlesbrough always had a good fleet of Buses, Norton O ran nearly every five minutes Ashville Avenue about every 20 mins: and I used these services every day to Holy Trinity School in Yarm Lane, Stockton. One great pleasure was after school going to The Cinema in Stockton High Street to see a Will Hay or George Formby film. To cheer myself up I have just watched Will Hay in “Ask a Policeman”, yes it did cheer me up, but did you know Will Hay was a Stockton Lad?
    J. NORMAN KIDD

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    • Norman
      I went on one of the Globe Theatre ‘behind the scenes’ visits in June and was told that Will Hay lived in a street behind or very close to the Globe?
      I’m not sure about your DVD problem but perhaps our resident Digital Services Assistant may be able to offer some advice?

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