These photographs were taken when I was a pupil at Holy Trinity School and are on a school trip to Bamburgh. It seems quite a long way to go for a school trip especially as there were no motorways then and few dual carriageways. I am sure we all enjoyed ourselves and it looks as though the sun was shining. I wonder where these pupils are now – Martin Pennock, Derek Yarrow, Geoff Brown and Peter Mash.

Photographs and details courtesy of Garth McLean.

Joseph Parrott b.1846 was an amateur artist and several of his local studies are in Picture Stockton. Parrott appears to have lived in Wellington Street and been a hairdresser. Interior portraits of 19th century living rooms are rare and this is rich in detail allowing us to identify the various busts and other items to record Parrott’s tastes and interests.

Photograph and details courtesy of Derek Smith.

The following is a photograph of another 4th year class – same year, 1974 and yet as I’m writing this I noticed it’s all boys – we changed to Sheraton Comprehensive from Hardwick Secondary Modern for boys 1973/74 term. On closer inspection some the the faces look familiar and also appear to be slightly younger versions of boys in my class photo. Which makes me think this must likely have been 3rd seniors c1972/73. Not sure of many names so leave that for others to name, if they can!

Photograph and details courtesy of Andrew Beevers.

This photograph is dated June 1970 but there’s no indication of the photographer. It shows the Robber Band from a production of ‘The Snow Queen’, a children’s musical based on the Hans Christian Andersen story and using music by Grieg.

It was one of a series of end-of-year shows by the junior school put on by Miss Jones, the music teacher, with input from across the junior school – for example, I remember making flower hats for the flower garden scene by forming papier mache over balloons, then cutting the bottom up so ‘petals’ could be bent up. And we also made the robbers’ weapons – such as the knife being brandished by the girl on the left. The room is the same main hall at Queen Victoria High School as in the 1967 assembly picture but facing the other way.

Photograph and details courtesy of Roz Sherris.

The Talbot cellar bar taken in 1979 left to right Terry Westwood, Jeff Cooke and William Sutcliffe. It had a great jukebox in those days. We listened to Dylan Positively 4th Street and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. Great times or am I looking through rose tinted beer glasses!?

Photograph and details courtesy of Terry Westwood.

A photograph of Class 4B – Sheraton Comprehensive 1974 (previously Hardwick Secondary Modern). I can remember most names…

Back row (L-R): ??, Kenny Alison, Me (Andrew Beevers), Lee Gatenby, Barry Hall, ??, Ian Hodgeson, ??.

Middle row (L-R): Virginia Bruce, Sandra Cockerill, ??, Andrew ?, Paul Cleasby, Robin Fletcher, David Costello, June Able.

Front Row (L-R): Julia Wilkinson, Karen Derbyshire, Pamela Broadbent, Lyn Broadbent, Mr Storey, Lyn Brown, Karen Denning, Julie Armstrong, Kay Blakemore.

Photograph and details courtesy of Andrew Beevers.

A photograph of Mr Al Hart with the June apprentice intake in Billingham. One week later we were all in overalls and hairnets filing blocks of metal. I am in the back row fourth in from the right. Have fun picking out anyone you know!

Photograph and details courtesy of Barry Larkin.

A photograph of the Stockton Stage Society Dancers during the early 1970s. Is there anyone you recognise?

Photograph and details courtesy of Julie Hugall.

A photograph of pupils in Standards 5, 6, and 7 at Richard Hind School taken around 1918. My mother Doris Dickson is 3rd from the right in the second row.

Photograph and details courtesy of David Wren.

Wolviston Scouts and Guides at a social event in Wolviston Parish Hall c1962. How many do you recognise?

That’s me middle row on the left. Fred Hunter. I am a instrumentation technician. Can anyone put names to faces?

Photograph and details courtesy of Fred Hunter.

The ladies keep-fit class gather around a piano for a sing song in Port Clarence c1950.

One Saturday morning in the early summer of 1965, I practised Qigong ( 氣功 ) at Trinity Green near Bowesfield Lane, Stockton-on-Tees. Qigong is a branch of Chinese Gong Fu (Kung Fu). It uses breathing adjustment, physical activity adjustment and consciousness adjustment as exercise methods to achieve physical fitness, physical and mental health, disease resistance and longevity. The unique movement of my exercise curiously attracted several kids playing on the Green. They might have not seen exercise like this before, as Bruce Lee’s Gong Fu heat in the 70s had yet to be created. After I finished my exercise, I invited the kids to take a group photo as a memento of our acquaintance. I think these kids would be nearly 70 years old now and I wonder whether they still remember the foreign Gong Fu man!

Photograph and details courtesy of Kwok Wong.

My late uncle by marriage, Charles McCorkell, always known as Chuck, was a member of the 1st Billingham Boys Brigade from about the age of eight. I have been sent photos of his time in the Boys Brigade by my aunt, Freda nee Leek. The small group photo was taken at Wynyard in 1949, the lad elevated at the back is Brian Kemp, the five lads in the middle are Eddie Wood, Chuck McCorkell, Gordon Brown, Des Good and Peter Yardley, the lad at the front is Frank Barnes.

The large group is a bit more difficult to place names, the information on the back of the photo is as follows. Back Row (L to R): ??, ??, ??, ??, ??, ??, Charlie Paterson, ??, ??. Standing (L to R): ??, ??, ??, Alec Brown, Des Good, Chuck McCorkell, ??, ??, George Whitehouse, Roy Jenkins, Frank Barnes. Sitting (L to R): ??, Eddie Wood, ??, George ?, Maurice Taylor, Barry Stonehouse, Patrick Walsh, Ken Stewart, ??, Stan Calvert. Front Row (L to R): ??, ??, ??, Fred Palmer, Jackie Melville, Ken ?, Harry Whitehouse, Philip Kelsey, ??. As you can see the two back rows are a bit jumbled but the other two are straight forward.

The Brigade met in the Methodist Central Hall on Billingham Green. My aunt tells me that she dated Eddie Wood a couple of times when she was about 17 years of age, that would be around about 1954, I believe he was living in York Crescent at the time. Freda lived in Cornwall Crescent. Chuck was a keen sportsman playing both football and cricket for a number of teams, Freda played netball as Captain for the school as well as a team member for both ICI and NEEB.

Photographs and details courtesy of Bruce Coleman.