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.
Picture Stockton Archive 
Does anyone remember catching the United Bus to the Kirk from outside Leslie Browns?
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Lesley Browns was our last call before going home after a full Saturday in the town in the 70s.
Starting with ABC minors club then on to the Baths until our armbands were called out (that after staying in the water for an extra hour).Some sweets at the Swimming Baths shop.
Then to the Library to look for some War books or Football Annuals.
Then on to the Market for some more sweets and pop (for dinner).
Last on our epic Saturdays was Lesley Browns.
It was like Stockton’s mini version of “Disneyland”.
Kids mouths agape in amazement at the vast array of Toys on offer on the shelves.
I would’ve gladly spent the whole day in the shop instead.
How many people were squeezed into that shop? Should have got Norris Mcwhirter down?
Then head slowly home whilst mucking about finding sticks to hit each other with etc., etc.
Just in time for the football results and then “Some Mothers do Ave Em”.
I feel so lucky to have had the freedom I had as a kid to play and roam, unrestricted by
the likes of the nowadays PR Brigade.
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My Grandfather bought me a “Phillips Mechanical Engineers” kit here when I was around 10 or 11 years old….it was a quite amazing take on the more popular Meccano sets of the day…….far more complicated but very rewarding…..nothing like it out there these days.
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Hi did you get any Meccano from there to? Just wondering for a small display I am putting together on Toys and shops in the area
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I used to go to this shop to buy LPs, used to sit in booth and listen to album before buying, bought many an album in the 60s. A great shop.
All the best.
Derek
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I worked at Leslie Brown’s on Saturdays, on the model railway counter in the early 60s. In the run up to Christmas, our counter was heaving and it wasn’t unusual to serve customers spending up to £250 in one go. That equates to £4,367.2 in 2019!! There were some spoilt kids then. I was paid 10 shillings a day for my efforts.
Colin Allison
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I remember buying my first 45rpm single there. It was Rave On by Buddy Holly. Great memories of that store. John Vincent
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I knew Leslie Browns shop well as it was there all my life in Norton and Stockton over fifty years. Life in those years was not easy and not much if any spare money so it was very much look and see! It was a good shop.
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I bought my first record here, Finlays at Billingham had sold out, so had to get the no. 10 bus to Stockton.
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My husband born and bread in Stockton-on-Tees, I can imagine him going into every record shops in Stockton buying his EPs, I have all his EPs in the proper sleeves. And I’ll treasure them as long as I live. R.I.P my darling husband Geoffrey Ayre.
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I remember this so well. When I was in the 6th form at Cleveland School in Eaglescliffe in the early 60’s the girls in our class used to buy a record each week. We would put money together (6/11d) and take it in turns to choose which one we wanted . When we left school we kept the records we had chosen. I still have some of them. The ones I chose were probably Adam Faith. Each week we would go to Leslie Brown’s after school and listen on big earphones to the records we had chosen in the booths in the shop. Good memories and great songs .
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Great memories from much missed shop. used to love there stink bombs.
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Blimey – reminds me of the first 45 I bought in the early/mid 1950’s – Magnolia’s Wedding Day by Chris Barber et al. You could get away with an age of free entertainment so long as you bought something.
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I only ever bought one single from Leslie Browns. The same one again and again and again, which is quite appropriate really because it was a Status Quo single 😂 – it was Wild Side Of Life and every copy had a fault. It jumped all the way through! Bad batch. After 3 tries for a decent copy I got my money back and bought it from Boots and *that* copy jumped too! 😂 I ended up sticking a penny to the top of the needle to give it weight which forced the needle into the grooves. From then on it played ok! The record department was at the front of the shop upstairs. I used to get my guitar strings and plectrums from the counter to the right just inside of the front door where they sold all kinds of musical instruments. When they closed I had to get my strings from Bandland which was a great shop on Nelson Terrace, just round the corner from the Fish Shop (Robertson’s?) on a corner of Dovecot Street.
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Leslie Brown’s, my local toy shop, model shop, and record shop in one. Remember the big train set to the left on the ground floor. Most of all I remember the little (one person only) blue sound proof booths where you could sit and listen to the latest single going around on the turntable! Yeah great days. I bought Grand Funk Railroad’s American Band album there and played it for months.
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A very sad day when they closed! A very iconic shop where every local boy/girl of that era spent many happy hours, including myself. An Aladins cave of toys and music. Nothing has ever replaced it. I wish l still had some of those toys. Ahh, fond memories.
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Bought Rosemary Clooney singing Where Will the Dimple Be? back in 1955 for my younger brother born on my birthday! Never forgiven him for “stealing” my day.
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