This photograph shows the VE Day celebrations in Bickersteth Street in Stockton.
Photograph and details courtesy of Paul Dunning.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This photograph shows the VE Day celebrations in Bickersteth Street in Stockton.
Photograph and details courtesy of Paul Dunning.
Picture Stockton Archive 
I lived at 71. I’m on this picture, bottom left next to Marjorie Ezard, who lived next door to me. They were the good old days!
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Les, I am Marjorie’s daughter. I saw this photo for the first time on Twitter today and knew my mam grew up in Bickersteth Street. I thought that might be her. I think my Nanna Marie is seated 5 up on the right and maybe Mannie Ezard beside her. Sadly none of them are here now for me to ask.
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Hiya Alison, I am the elder daughter of Les. Sadly, our Dad died just after Christmas 2019 but he never forgot his roots and spoke fondly of his childhood and growing up in and around Bickersteth Street. At his funeral we had to make sure to include where he came from and the tiny terraced house which over the years was home to him and all of his brothers and sisters. The good old days as Dad would say.
from Gail Booth nee Stanley
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i Grew up in number 1 Bickersteth street opposite the goods yard wall near whitehall terrace
in the early 1950s with my dad and my Nanna my Nanna was called Jane Jones Nee fairlamb
my Dad was called Ernest jones he worked for Issac Robsons on Bridge road on the corner of wood street which is now sanky homecare centre i think very fondly of my time in Bickersteth street so much so that by using Metcalf card kits 00 gauge i am recreating it in Model form
with the street lamps my uncle Billy and auntie Dolly lived in number 2
bickersteth street had 3 blocks i ran from whitehall terrace to Bowsfield lane school i believe
yes i loved my time as a child in Bickersteth street the rent on was about 6 shillings a week 30p now and there where owned by Mr Joseph who used to collect the rent on a Friday night
now i live by the sea in Clacton Essex But i have never forgot my roots and i never will when i finish recreating it then i can look at it with pride
my time in Bickersteth street Stockton made me the person i am today and for that i will be forever Thankful compered to todays standaards it was hard But i wouldn.t change a thing
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Oh, David, that is lovely! If my Dad was here he would be welling up and getting all sentimental after reading that. Yes, you and our Dad are proud men and grateful of the way things were then. As you say, it was a different world then.
With Christmas coming up, our Dad used to tell us every Christmas how the local Vicar there made Dad and his brothers a wooden tank because their parents did not have much money for gifts. Dad also told us that when he got his first wage packet he brought it home and gave the full waqes to his Mam and she went out and bought him a pork chop – his very first pork chop all to himself! My sister and I could not believe that when we were little, but now we are in our 50’s we can understand how times were hard.
Our Dad would have not changed a thing either. Fond memories.
Thank you for sharing that with us, just a shame our Dad not here to read it. However, we, his family have and that’s the next best thing. Happy Days, as Dad would say.
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its lovely to read your reply thank you when i get the Model of Bickersteth street finished i will take a picture of it and post it .
back then times may have been hard and the world was a different place But i sometimes wish i could
wind the clock back and relive those days they where far better as kids then we where taught
to have Respect for our Elders and Discipline 2 things that sadly there is a huge lack of today
when they pulled Bickersteth street Down in about 1965 me dad and nanna moved to 97 Tithebarn road Hardwick i have asked stockton library if they have any photos of the bottom of Bickersteth street near whitehall terrace in the picture stockton archives But sadly there is none
i wonder if anyone has got a photo of it it means a lot to me
i remember my Dad Buying me a Red Raleigh RSW 16 and i rode it as far as longly street on the cobbles ouch on christmas day and got a punture Happy Days
if you have ever heard a song called things there is a line in that which is very true
Memories are all we have to cling too
no modern gadgets no cental heating no kitchen to speack of an outside lavvy
no fun when it where thick of snow yeh Happy days
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I remember Bickersteth street as though it was yesterday I lived at number 1 opposite the goods yard wall by Whitehall Terrace in the 1950s till it was pulled down in 1964/65. In many ways I wish it was still there, I miss that time of my life. it was tough but it was good. The tin bath hung on the back yard wall by the coal bunker the outside khazi with a shelf to put candle on. Great days
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