There are several pictures of the Brunswick Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School building (1824) (32-34 William Street) on Picture Stockton:
Methodist Sunday School, Stockton
Sunday School on William Street. c1985

but I hadn’t seen any of the inside. These photographs show the 1st floor Sunday School room as it was in the late 1970’s.

It’s surprising that this large room was part of this anonymous looking building, but of course it was linked with the large Brunswick Methodist Chapel that was next door.
The Brunswick Methodist Chapel c1984
32 – 34 William Street/Brunswick Court

Decline had obviously started to set in at the time of the photographs, with peeling paint, a leaky roof and broken furniture strewn about the room. From the outside, it looks like the original ceiling is now hidden by a modern suspended ceiling, and the room has more than likely been split up into smaller spaces.

Photograph and details courtesy of Jonathan May.

The Synagogue on Hartington Road in Stockton opened 1906 and closed 1970. It later became The Wesleyan Church Of The Nazarene and after that a Christian Science Church.

Image and details courtesy of Anon.

A postcard showing The Stoney Bank, Egglescliffe that leads from St John’s Church to Yarm Road, just outside Yarm. The open landscape differs a lot from when this postcard was produced to how it looks now lined with shrubs and trees.

Thank you to Dave, the Pot & Glass Pub landlord for allowing me to copy his postcard. Image and details courtesy of Peter Southgate.

This postcard of the Parish Church and Cenotaph I think to have been taken sometime in the 1930s or possibly slightly later. There are no obvious signs of the tramway in the picture, but of course they may be out of shot, the trams closed in 1931.

The dress lengths are generally a good indicator of dates but mens clothing doesn’t change too much with time. The buildings along Church Row/Church Road are clearly visible. The fruit and potato merchant is also reasonably clear. I think the advertising hoarding has Bachelors Peas on it.

The thing that most interests me is the “K1” telephone box in front of the fruiterers. These were of concrete construction and were first introduced in 1927, they were later replaced by the “K2” kiosk in the 1930s. The “K1” was pre-cast and bolted together on site, there are many photos of this model of kiosk but this is the only one I have seen with “Public Telephone” on it. Generally the word “Telephone” is all that is on the kiosk.

The “K2” was the first of the well known red phone boxes that have been a feature of British life for many years, they had small Georgian style windows, the “K6” was the last of the series with the one large and two small window panes, the one everybody knows. I should think this would have been one of the earliest public telephones in Stockton, if not the first.

The shot of the Church and Cenotaph as well as the interested bystanders makes this a very nice piece of social history.

Image and details courtesy of Bruce Coleman.

Two different looking postcards of the Parish Church. The night shot looked as if it may be a drawing but could the original have been a photograph? There are some people to the right in front of the church wall, it must have been a long exposure because if you look carefully you can see one of the people have moved leaving a blurred image…

A black and white sketch of St. Mary’s Church in Norton created by local artist Tony Hutchinson.

Image courtesy of Ben Brown.

A view of the gateway leading up towards St Cuthbert’s Church, Redmarshall.

This shot of the Central Methodist Hall shows the builders just as building work was completed. I was married in this church in 1968 and at that time there were a set of gates and an iron fence to the right of the main building, the annex to the right was the church hall, if you were to walk past the hall you would be in Chiltons Avenue with two prefab classrooms belonging to the South Modern School.

Continuing across Belasis Avenue and along Chiltons Avenue you would bring you to ICI’s West Gate, Chiltons Avenue continued through the ICI works and reappeared at the East Gate. The imaginatively named New Road was built as a replacement for Chiltons Avenue. The church in no longer there, in fact there is very little or nothing left of the original East Row.

Image and details courtesy of Bruce Coleman.

The Church of St Cuthbert in Redmarshall dates from the late 12th century and is now a Grade I listed building.

Photographs taken 13/06/1988