A photograph of the Mayor of Stockton, Thomas Wilkinson, the Town Clerk and two other dignitaries as they arrive outside Stockton Parish Church for the Unveiling Ceremony of the War Memorial. 31st May, 1923.
I wonder if any Picture Stockton visitors know anything of this little ditty. Being brought up in the Garbutt Street area I was asked a good number of years ago if I had heard of it, I had not. It was then I contacted the local Remember When, they in turn asked readers to contact me if they could supply any information regarding the Two Stockton Mashers. After a week or so I received a phone call from a Thornaby gent who told me he knew of the song and without hesitation proceeded to sing it to me over the phone. He was good enough to write it out and post it on to me, so here it is…
Image and details courtesy of John Robson.
This photograph was taken on 29 October 1966 and the technical details for all those railway buffs… It’s a 43057 heading a freight from Tees Yard towards Stockton.
Photograph and details courtesy of Garth McLean.
A view of the old Co-op building on the corner of Wellington Street and Prince Regent Street, Stockton.
A planing and moulding machine and on the right an automatic loader at F. Hills & Sons Ltd.
St Peters church on Thornaby Green, receiving a new roof c1950.
Photograph and details courtesy of Keith Readman.
An amazing view of Stockton High Street. Crowds line the street, hang out from windows and stand on rooftops as the Royal car approaches the Town Hall during the Queens visit in 1956.
Sorry I don’t know the date but it was taken after the east side redevelopment. Can anyone hazard a guess?
Photograph and details courtesy of John Emmerson.
These photographs show St Peters Choir in 1945.
Photographs and details courtesy of Peter Wilkinson.
These images show Leslie Browns packaging for old 45’s. The first shows the paper bag and the second is a single (45) sleeve with a Leslie Brown sticker on it. Come on and share your memories of Leslie Browns!
Images and details courtesy of Martin Spires.
This is a photograph of guys from Head’s heavy and light machine shops on their annual trip to Blackpool probably around 1968/69.
The trips were organised by Peter McGann, who is probably taking the photo, unfortunately I can only name the younger ones but I am sure Len Nicholson with his fantastic memory will be able to fill in the missing names.
Seated on the floor left to right is Stevie Whitmarsh, Dave Pitt, Gordon Grant, behind them (l to r) me (Brian Parker) and Tommy Proctor I don’t know the third guy who I think was a mate of Tommy’s and didn’t work at Heads.
The trips were a good mixture of ages with constant laughter, banter, ribbing and practical jokes and I felt privileged to be part of them.
Photograph and details courtesy of Brian Parker.
Photographs taken in 2019 of the Central Avenue football ground, the home for many years of Billingham Synthonia. As you see the advertising hoarding and the gates are still standing, but no trace of the cantilever stand. When this stand was built in 1957 it was the longest stand of its type in the country. The pitch is a mass of weeds and sadly the goal posts are still standing waiting for a game which will never be played…
Photographs and details courtesy of Martin Birtle.
This photograph shows the Furness Football Team in 1932 with Dicky Baker holding the ball. I believe Dicky was killed during his twenties driving his motorbike out of the bottom of Chapel Lane. He was a friend of my father, Sid Turner. My mother often spoke of him and kept this photo all her life.
Photograph and details courtesy of Jeff Turner.
This is the Billingham I remember from my teenage years, it was a great place to grow up in, the council was very forward looking and live music in the Town Centre was one of many things they did to enliven the town.
The five piece band, the drummer is hidden in the middle, could be The Johnny Taylor Five, they were often to be seen performing in the Town Centre. I don’t know if the crowd were there to see the band or were already there and taking advantage of the live entertainment.
One of the things that sticks in my mind about Billingham Town Centre was the fact that you would always meet somebody you knew or somebody you didn’t know who would speak to you, always friendly, Billingham people.
Brown Brothers & Taylor was one of the first shops to open in the Town Centre, this was in the mid 1950s, Finlays was a favourite place for youngsters as they had a record department where the young ladies behind the counter would play records of your choice, as in Leslie Browns in Stockton there were a couple of listening booths where we would get crammed in and listen to records by the likes of Guy Mitchell, Lonnie Donegan, Adam Faith and many others, the staff were very good as they knew full well that we had no money with which to buy records and most of us didn’t even have a gramaphone, this is what we called them before record player became the usual name, on which to play them.
At this time Billingham had fish ponds and aviaries in the Town Centre, not acceptable nowadays but an interesting feature at the time. A very lively place.
Photograph and details courtesy of Bruce Coleman.
Firemen outside Eaglescliffe Fire Station in June 1944. Names we know are E.Pickles, Mackey, G. Dale and A. Muff. Anyone else you can put a name to?