Does anyone, boys or girls, have memories to share of the strict school uniform at Grangefield? I remember, for the girls, having both indoor and outdoor shoes. Skirts had to touch the ground when kneeling down. Very different from the school uniform of today.
Details courtesy of Patricia Rendall nee Lyon. Photo kindly given by Mike Baker.
School Rules and Customs From Grangefield School in the 1950’s.
I have seen on this site the ‘boys’ rules but I think the girls rules are even more draconian. In Section One Rule H ‘No girl may ride a cycle in the school Grounds’ is bizarre but my favourite has to be Section 2 Line F ‘Girls may not eat in the street to and from school’.
I was born on the Cowpen Estate in Billingham just after the War, in January 1949 my parents and I moved to our new Council house on the Junction Estate, this was located just off the bottom of this image. I was too young to remember any of this but within a few years I was wandering around the area where most of the buildings are in this image. At that time the whole area from the Kennedy Garden flats at the bottom of the image to beyond the La Ronde near to the top and everything to the right of the image was open country.
In 1953 the first part of the new town centre was opened, prior to that the North End field was a huge playground, Billingham North End football team had their pitch there, the travelling fair pitched there every year in the 1950s.
Over the years the Town Centre grew until it looked as it does in this image by around 1970.
Some of the structures have since disappeared, the three level Kingsway car park that bridged the road, The La Ronde nightclub, the Stockton and Billingham Technical College, the Billingham Arms among them.
The Council Offices have been demolished and rebuilt and Dawson House has been built since this picture was taken.
The buildings include Kennedy Garden Flats, The Billingham Trade Union Club, The Forum, the Billingham Arms, the Stockton and Billingham Technical College, the Community Centre, the Bowling Alley, parts of Pentland Avenue and Malvern Road and the Causeway, also shown is the John Whitehead Park. Everything apart from Pentland Avenue and Malvern Road was built in my time in Billingham.
I left Billingham in 1976 and rarely visit the town but it is still a great part of me, it is where I made lifelong friends, received an excellent education and enjoyed the freedoms we had to roam wherever we wanted and stayed outdoors until the street lights came on, many people of my generation will remember doing all of these things with fondness.
This photograph includes my father, Geoff Parkin (5th from left back row). Hand written on the reverse is Carlton Cricket Club 1954, Wynyard Park. Does anyone recognise anyone? Does Carlton Cricket Club still exist?
This is a photograph of my Auntie Joan Carr (as she was then), she is on the far right in the dark suit. She was Head Toy Buyer at Blacketts store in Stockton. The photograph was probably taken late 1940’s to early 1950’s. Joan was born in 1925, married Maurice Mines in 1950 and they emigrated to Canada in 1952 where she died in 2013
It would be really nice if anyone recognises couple in the middle and the three children with them.
Demolition of Anson House and Hudson House in Thornaby Town Centre began earlier this summer, to way for new housing. Photographs taken June/July 2022.
My Grandfather Syd Parkin is in this photograph. I believe he may have been in the Durham Light Infantry, 16th battalion serving in North Africa, Italy and Greece. Anyone recognise the Cap Badges as they don’t look like DLI?
A photograph showing the 1st Norton-on-Tees Boys Brigade Life Boys section, early to mid 1950s outside Norton Methodist Church Hall. Anyone you recognise?
Photograph via late Robert Boardman, courtesy of Alan Boardman.
These two images show the Thornaby branch of the Stockton Co-operative Society. I think the interior shot is earlier than the exterior. The information I received with the exterior image says it was taken before the War, second presumably and it was next to the Town Hall. Does anybody remember this shop?
This photograph taken circa early 1950’s shows my father, Geoff Parkin (3rd from left, back row). I believe the photograph might have been taken during a Cycling Club outing. Does anyone recognise any of the people in the photograph?
This photograph was taken in 1944 to be sent to my Father who was serving in the RAF. We were living in Cornwall Crescent in Billingham at the time. Standing at the back is my eldest sister Margaret (Margo), front left is my brother David, next is my mother Emma then me (Freda), with my elder sister Pat on the right. My father Sid was in the RAF in the 1920s and re-enlisted at the start of the Second World War, he was in his mid 40s when demobbed in 1945. My Brother David was well known in Billingham, he ran “Leeks” DIY shop in Mill Lane for many years. Does anyone remember the shop? I live in Australia now and David lives in Stockton.
Photograph and details courtesy of Freda McCorkell (Leek).
This photograph was taken from the rear garden of 125 Fairfield Road, which gives an interesting view of Bishopton Court from c1950. The little boy in the model car is my uncle, Rob Thompson.
Photograph and details courtesy of Julian Rafferty.
This is a programme for a production of Babes In The Wood On Ice staged by European Sports Promotions Limited at the Globe Theatre, Stockton in 1953. The stars were Alice Farrar as Maid Marion and Jimmy Carter as Robin Hood.
