16 thoughts on “Fussik Bridge, Norton c2005”

  1. A bomb was dropped very close to this bridge one Saturday night during the War. I can remember going to see it on the Sunday morning having walked form Oxbridge. A couple of houses were bombed nearby on the Blue Hall Easte. Possible fatalities.

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    • Just happened to see this post Clive. I remember the night the bombs dropped. I was at home with my parents and we ducked under the kitchen table as we new it was close. I can’t remember now the name of the family that lost their lives but do remember the Grandmother was on the couch sleeping and was killed by the concussion. The daughter of the family was at the movies on Norton Avenue at the time. I believe it was the same night that incendiary bombs dropped on the roof of a friend, Eileen Baileys house. She lived across from the Blue Hall Estates. I also walked to see the Crater on the side of the railway embankment.

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      • Dorothy, The family were called Boundy; Mother Margaret and boys Alan, Martin, Edwin, William and George. Also killed at number 160 Norton Avenue was Ada Allen.
        At 116 Norton Avenue Emma porter was killed. Seven houses in Norton Avenue, four houses in Ancaster Road plus three Bungalows on Darlington Back Lane were damaged or destroyed some of the bodies never recovered, the date 15th August 1941.
        19th August 1941 Bombs including a Mine dropped on Benson Street and Pine Street with some killed and many injured. Houses were damaged in both streets and some damage to the Norton Board School.
        It was something we who lived through it never forgot.
        Frank.

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    • I don’t know for sure, but is it too much of a coincidence that the “Fossick and Hackworth” company were associated with this railway. Their works, building locomotives and carriages, were at the Stockton end of this stretch of railway (on Norton Road, later Blairs then Hills). One of the company founders, George Fossick, lived at Mount Pleasant, just a stone’s throw from the railway, the works and the bridge. In 1844 they obtained a contract for haulage of the Stockton and Hartlepool Railway and the Clarence Railway and they retained this until 1855
      (https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Fossick_and_Hackworth)

      Could “Fussik” be a derived from “Fossick”, combined with the local nickname for the bridge Fuzzy/Fuzzie?

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      • Jonathan,
        My understanding is that the first Fossick and Hackworth works was a former flour mill on a site north of the Norton Road works, roughly where Stockton shed (51E) was situated. This is explained, and there is a picture of the works, in George Turner-Smith’s book about Thomas Hackworth, published in 2015.

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  4. Care needed here in the days before the Stockton Ring Road was built c1965. As can be seen bridge very narrow, had a few narrow escapes on my bike. There were around three under bridges originally on the stretch of railway line up to Norton Junction, originally probably for farm access. One was replaced on the site of the present ‘blue bridge’, the other, further up, was also filled in, some time before 2005.

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  6. I don’t know how many time’s I walked under this bridge when Ragworth was first built, I used to go and see my lovely aunty Lizzie (Evans) she lived at 56 Doncaster Crescent, how many kids all grown up today remember going into her house to watch TV, no one was turned away.
    All the best.
    Derek

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  7. I remember Fussik Bridge very well in my youth. What exactly does “filled in” mean? I hope the bridge has not been lost, it must have been Listed. Perhaps Robert can tell me?

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        • Could be my relatives were part of the team who built this bridge and other work in the area. They originated from Aycliffe Village near Darlington and moved into Norton in the later 1700’s. They were classed as masons (probably as today’s Bricklayers). They came working on the railway building stations, bridges and other bricklaying jobs. In fact my ggg/grandfather was killed by a train up near to the old Norton Junction.

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