This is a very wide angle shot of the high street, practically all of the East side is visible, even as far as the Victoria buildings and Church.
A recent posting mentioned the Scammel Scarab three wheeled vehicle, one of these is parked at the kerbside, further along is a Wynns heavy haulage wagon, this may also be a Scammel, I am sure somebody will know for certain.
These large heavy haulage vehicles were a fairly common sight in the Teesside area during the 1950s and 1960s, they carried large fabrications into the big industries such as ICI, usually the haulage firms were Pickfords and Sunters.
The number 2 bus ran from Stockton Town Hall to the Transporter Bridge via Norton, Billingham, Haverton Hill and Port Clarence where you could either cross over to Middlesbrough or catch a Hartlepool Corporation bus number 1 which would take you to Seaton Carew.
Photograph and details courtesy of Bruce Coleman.
Picture Stockton Archive 
On its return journey The Number 3 became the number 7 at the Ragpath Lane terminus on Roseworth and went via Junction Road into Norton to Stockton High Street and onto Thornaby. I remember my mother, taking us to Seaton, asking the conductor on the number 2, “Will this bus stop at the Transporter?” to which he replied “Well if it doesn’t there will be a hell of a splash!”
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One of the 3 wheelers was operated by British Road or rail out of KF a parcel depot on Bridge Road. My uncle Ted Harrison drove it. Ted was driving heavy trucks to London during the war.
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Yes, the depot was near St Johns crossing. I had a motor bike and sidecar delivered by rail from Nottingham to there in the late 60s. Lots of BR 3-wheelers were based there.
Colin Allison
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Stockton High Street as it still should be.
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I believe the 2 bus also ran to Yarm at this time and it seems to be displaying YARM on the destination blind. Indeed, I remember getting the 2 to the transporter and then the Hartlepool transport bus to Seaton Carew….quite the adventure in those days.
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Bruce, Wynn’s truck is an Enterprise, never heard of them I hear you say nor has anyone not in Heavy Trucks. They were American Pacific Tractors that would pull a lot of weight, many heavy load moving firms bought them after the war took off all the armour and converted them into tough reliable Haulage carriers along with Diamond “T”‘s, Macks and Ward La France the Canadian Mack, I drove them all as recovery and tank carrying vehicles which would pull a lot more weight than our Scammels and Matadors, some are still running today.
Many of the Enterprise trucks were converted to a Cummins Engine though the 8 speed automatic gear box was often kept.
REME had many types of recovery vehicles from tanks converted to crane vehicles through the Scammel 6×6 to the Antar with its Meteor engine and now M.A.N. In the Middle East we also had Austin Gantry, Ford and Bedfords converted to lift trucks mainly make do and mend types by the Units involved with recovery of all kinds. That included in my Unit a D8 bulldozer and a Churchill Tank not that you went far at 8 MPH.
The Scammel Scarab or Mechanical Horse as we call it had a Bedford Engine and gear box they would get you in and out of the tightest places with ease and quite fun to drive as long as it was not too far.
Frank.
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Frank, I had over twenty years experience of electrical repairs on every kind of commercial, and private vehicles, as well as plant and equipment, the only form of transport I haven’t worked on is aviation, not qualified, my boss was a keen vintage car buff and we did a lot of work on both vintage and veteran cars and wagons, my speciality was cranes, especially Coles, the only driving I did was shunting the vehicles in and out of the workshop.
Really excellent times but I had a particularly bad Winter on site at British Steel in Lackenby so I went back to being an industrial electrician, a lot warmer and drier.
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Bruce, you should have joined REME, we were jack of all trades but soldiers first. We had a lot of American stuff including Radial aircraft engines in some armoured vehicles which were also a wiring nightmare that only got worse with each new model we got.
Diamond “T” trucks with their 6volt lighting and 12 volt starting.
All electric recovery “Ward la France” with Solenoid switches and some of the first Coles Cranes where you operated them from a board strapped to your body, that is when they did not get a mind of their own and disappear down the road.
It was all a quick learning curve for the VM’s though we did have dedicated electricians mainly employed keeping the wine cool in the Officers mess.
Not quite true it was all hands on deck when we had to get equipment moving on the run which was most of the time in Front Line Armoured Regiments.
All good training for ICI much later in my career.
Frank.
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I remember the old 3 wheeled scammel scarab British rail used a lot of them for deliveries from the goods yard on the corner of Whitehall Terrace and I think the Wynns heavy haulage wagon is a scammel, come to think of it all there lorries where scammels. I think they where red with white or gold writing and the number 2 bus, I’m sure is a Leyland PD2 back loader. I went to school on one at Primrose Hill School on Durham Road. I would love to see a picture of a Thames trader 7 ton lorry owned by Issac Robsons on the corner of Bridge Road and Wood Street now Sankey homecare if anyone has a picture of it it was blue and registration number was 7514 up it means a lot has anyone got a photo.
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I lived in the High Street for a short while about 1952/3. I would then be 5/6 years old. Our flat was above the then Maynard’s sweet and tobacconist and best door to the Cinema, now Frank’s Carpets. This view would be a good approximation of the view we had of the High Street.
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Used the bus to Seaton Carew when we got to Port Clarence my mam made us get off the bus quick and run to get in the queue for Seaton.!!
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The No.2 bus also ran to/from High St./Yarm, whilst the No.3 ran to/from Mile House/Hatburn Village.
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