Two views of “Old Portrack” taken from the NCAP Scottish Library collection. They date from May 1949. Portrack stayed much the same until the mid-fifties when demolition began.
All that remains is part of St Annes Terrace and the more modern buildings of what, in my time, was called Portrack Primary. They run at about 30 degrees from the left hand corner of the lower picture. The taller buildings, which are at right angles to these, were demolished in the eighties, but there is a colour picture on Picture Stockton. These housed the infants, aged 5 to 7. The modern buildings covered the ages 8 to 11, when we would do our 11 plus.
The buildings surrounding the smaller playground belonged to the nursery classes and the school dinner canteen. They were temporary wartime structures, I believe and have now gone. The school dinners were appalling, but we nursery children were forced to eat it.

Details courtesy of Fred Starr.

This aerial shot of Haverton Hill shows the Furness Estate quite clearly, particularly interesting is the view of ‘The Hostel’ near to the Circle on Belasis Avenue, I believe this was built to house shipyard workers just after the First World War, I remember it being used to house Hungarian refugees after the uprising in the 1950s and it later housed light industrial units including a soft drinks company called ‘Jonco’.

It is difficult to date the photograph but there are very few cars on the roads, the bus is probably one of Stockton Corporations Leyland PD2 models which were in production from the 1930s, I used to travel by bus fairly frequently through Haverton Hill in the 1950s and I don’t ever remember the route going down Marlborough Road, I do have a photo of a bus shelter on Marlborough Road in the 1950s so maybe my memory is not up to scratch.

Marlborough Road continues away to the left towards the Furness Sports Field, at the bottom right of the photo where Marlborough Road and Collingwood Road meet you can see the roof of the Methodist Chapel, next door to the left is a flat roofed building, this was always known as ‘The Welfare’, it was where we collected our concentrated orange juice, malt, National Dried Milk and the dreaded Cod Liver Oil.

Belasis Avenue continues off to the bottom right of the photo and passes the old fire station on its left then Charltons Pond on its right then Billingham South Modern School on its right and Billingham Stores (Co-op) and the Picture House at Mill Lane end, the bus actually travelled along Greenwood Road and met Belasis Avenue at the bottom of the bridge.

At the top right of the photograph the curve of the railway line heading towards Port Clarence and the Transporter area can be seen, just before the curve a single track line branches off to the left and crosses Hope Street and continues along to the clay pit and Saltholme Farm, as children we spent many happy hours playing around this area.

I remember my father mentioning a Cinema somewhere in the area of Tees Street and The Hostel, if anybody can pinpoint it for me I shall be most grateful.

Photograph and details courtesy of Bruce Coleman.

Two aerial photographs showing the Tees Barrage and Teesside Park. Date unknown.

Photographs by John W Chesney, courtesy of Joyce Chesney.

An aerial view over Grangefield Grammar School, Stockton c1960.

Courtesy of Gillian Brookes nee Hugall.

Hardwick Hall can be seen in the background and in the foreground is the now demolished Hardwick Junior School and Piper Knowle Road. A small housing estate now stands on the old school site.

Photograph and details courtesy of Peter Jordison

An aerial view over ICI Billingham.

Courtesy of Ken Brookes.

A great aerial view over Holy Trinity Church, Stockton. What else can you see?

Aerial view of Billingham, maybe taken during the late 1950s, early 1960s?

A view of Thornaby Town Hall, Mandale Road and the old MFI building from across the river.

Another view taken from the top of Hume House in 1995 showing Harkers Engineering, the Cricketers Arms and Newport Bridge in the distance.

Photograph courtesy of John Corney.

Views from Hume House c1995.

Photographs courtesy of John Corney.