Two impressionistic oil paintings of Stockton High Street Present and Past.
Courtesy of Graham Wright.
Stockton High Street Present and Past
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Two impressionistic oil paintings of Stockton High Street Present and Past.
Courtesy of Graham Wright.
Picture Stockton Archive 
During the past 12 months upto January 2021 I have completed about 30 oil paintings all based on Stockton on Tees themes. Buildings and street scenes past and present, I have fond memories of Stockton on Tees my hometown since I was born in 1950. I travelled around the world due to my work but now retired and due to Lockdown I have returned to my art and painting. I built a studio shed in my back garden and I am in it nearly every day. I might even have a exhibition when things hopefully get back to normal. Thank you for your appreciation and warm comments of my paintings.
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I took the O bus from Norton to Stockton to attend Holy Trinity on Yarm Lane. I love the High Street and really enjoyed the paintings. After I took the 11+ in 1951 we moved south of the river and only visited Stockton to see family. When I was a college student I worked on the M’bro buses and on United: it was really helpful to know the local names of all the stops such as the Green, the Priory, Five Lamps, Blandford’s Corner, Bishopton Lane etc. I live in California now but still visit Norton and Stockton when I’m home.
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Hi Frank
Lovely paintings! Do you know where the originals are?
(I never did have a knickerbocker glory in Rossi’s despite determination to save up for one. They cost 2/6 in the early 60s. We lived in Billingham, in Longford Close, one of the new houses built in 1954 near the junction of Rievaulx & Marsh House Avenues. Mr Rossi himself came round with the ice-cream van. I was fascinated by his gold tooth. He always asked if we wanted raspberry on our cornets. They were delicious but once my mother, sister & I all got a bad bout of diarrhoea at the same time. As my dad had been at work he hadn’t had any ice-cream and was ok so we knew what’d caused it.)
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Hello Patricia sorry I have no knowledge of the originals though I do have some Paintings of Norton.
I met my wife at the Maison De Dance and wondered what she really thought of me until the first Saturday Date when she took me into Paccito’s and bought a Knickerbocker Glory with two spoons, the start of over 60 years of magic.
Looking back comparing the hygiene today with those back then it is a wonder anyone lived, no fridges food often kept in open containers, sawdust on the floor, a big slab of hard cheese on the counter you told them how much you wanted, though melted in front of the open fire onto toast was delicious.
The butchers shops decorated on the out side with every kind of game and the meat inside on open slabs, that box of broken biscuits we dived into to pick the best bits? how many hands went in there I wonder. We must have been immune to most things in the days without the drugs we have today. some friends never did make it to 18 it was accepted that would happen and now reaching for my 92 year come February they are still sticking needles in me.
My Father was born in Wallsend Mother in North Ormesby I was the Robson in Stockton and though I now have children Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren living in Canada America France and having travelled my self I always came back to Stockton, I call it the Salmon instinct I came home and stayed.
Frank.
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Graham
Is that a watsons fuel wagon in the foreground perhaps?
Craig
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Yes, Lol Watson would have been a young man in those days, I still remember him carrying bags of coal. Nutty slack…lol
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Yes, most probably driven by a young Lol Watson delivering nutty slack around the streets of Stockton and then back to the yard next to the Newtown Club on Durham Road.
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I heard Lol passed recently, I remember the yard next to the Newtown Club….I used to walk passed it most nights on my way to the Talbot when I was younger…I too travelled quite extensively with my work but never lost my affection for the north east, I am also sitting out lockdown in my garden shed in kirklevington….restoring vintage Bang and Olufsen audio equipment to pass the time……take care
Craig
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Good to hear from you Craig, Its been a long time. we should meet up one day. I live near the Fox Covert .
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Yes we must…..it has been a long time, green dragon yard some 25yrs or so ago as I recall. I’m just down the road from the fox, roundabout opposite the shell garage, used to go in there from time to time when chris had it…..mostly drank in the george however, we should have a drink when this is all over and catch up ;¬)
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Stockton old and New , the paintings may be impressions but to me they are my lifetime in Stockton in two prints. The Empire where i saw films and on occasion live shows, Sloans where I learned to play Billiards the hard way, and the Rossi’s Ice Cream Parlour Mother took me for my ice cream treat for carrying her shopping whilst she had what she called her posh coffee.
The School bus each weekday for four years passing along into Yarm Lane and on to the Richard Hind and home to Norton in the evening. The Market Stalls Wednesday and Saturday stretching from Bridge Road to Bishopton Lane, and the High Street packed with people night and day because we had plenty of Picture and Dance Halls, Pubs and Hotels. On the other corner Barry’s where I got my New Hercules Bike for Christmas 1939, the Parents knowing things were going to be hard giving us kids the best presents ever.
Still doing the bus run into town when i left school for an Apprenticeship at an engineering works, home then back to the Dance, you could dance somewhere nearly every night including Sunday at the Ace dance club A busy and lets say it exciting time to be in or around Stockton.
Things change, there may be a little Nostalgia for this times but we have to move on it came to me when I had my last meal and bought some goods in the Emporium I always called Robinson’s as they closed down. A trip around the Town hardly seeing anyone else, a look at what had once been the Quays and Shipyards now a pristine fresh water lake, all changed.
My last visit was Saturday gone for my Corvid Vaccine, organised to a “T” I never got out of the car as smiling Nurses in -3 degrees of frost did the business and sent us on our way. The sun was shining as we passed along the ring road rimed with frost the trees and shrubs making me smile at what once had been.
I have seen Stockton in all its phases and would not live anywhere else, the more modern of this pictures will pass into time as our Grandchildren put their own mark on the Town and why not it is theirs now, we had our time.
Frank.
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nicely put Frank lots of very similar memories all the best keep well and stay safe
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Hi Frank, Always great to read your comments, Glad you are fit and well, and have had your Covid jab. It was difficult to imagine that any changes yet to come could be as big as those that you’ve seen, but with the pending demolition of the Castle Centre, with town centre shopping never going to be what it was, and the unknown future impact of Covid-19… there are no doubt some big changes ahead.
Regards
Jonathan
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A lovely summary, well remembered and enjoyed reading it. Thanks.
Stuart Leed
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