This is a postcard of the parade of shops in Surrey Road on the Albany Estate in Norton. The picture is a perfectly good historical image, I have taken many photos of this type over the years, what intrigued me was why would anybody make a postcard of such an image, Norton has many places of interest and there are quite a number of postcards showing The Green, The Alms Houses, The Jubilee Cross and High Street as well as the Church, why Surrey Road?.
The shops themselves are a typical example of many other such shops on very many housing developments, particularly from the late 1940s onward, where I was brought up on the Junction Estate in Billingham we had a row of four shops very similar to these.
Image and details courtesy of Bruce Coleman.
Picture Stockton Archive 
I suppose it could be a way of showing people what Norton looked like, away from the High street. Typical of the 1930’s. These parades are very common. Some of the council estates from the 1950’s and early 60’s have them, perhaps newsagents within this parade, sold these postcards, paying for their manufacture themselves.
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I think that that is a standard design for shops and I’ve seen similar ones in Billingham and Hartlepool. Probably dates from the 1930/40? although, as you say, why you’d put them on a post card is anyone’s guess. I think that if I was to design a post card of Norton I’d use the duck pond?
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