Bolckow & Vaughan Graves Pre-restoration

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Stewart Park & Marton Heritage Group (in partnership with Middlesbrough Freemasons, Marton Community Councils, St. Cuthberts Church, and the residents of Marton ) are trying to obtain grants to raise funds to restore the graves of two of Middlesbrough’s most important founding fathers: H.W.F.Bolckow and John Vaughan, along with those graves of other notable people who shaped this area into what it has become today. Also restoring the churchyard into a site fitting the historical importance that it surely is. Bolckow & Vaughan were the two men who started the iron and steel industry in Middlesbrough, which brought the growth and prosperity to Middlesbrough and also the area of Teesside. They were both Mayors of Middlesbrough and Henry Bolckow became the town’s first M.P.


The Vaughan family vault.

The Bolckow family plot.

You can see in the pictures above, particularly the Vaughans’ vault, that they have been neglected and are in need of renovation.

The Stewart Park and Marton History Group was a small local history group that now, no longer meets . It had a website that was in the process of being updated with local history when the group disbanded and these are the pages that survived.
The lasting legacy of the group is the graves of Bolckow and Vaughan in Marton Churchyard, a project the group started and fund raised for and it eventually came to be, through the work of Middlesbrough Environment City.

4 thoughts on “Bolckow & Vaughan Graves Pre-restoration

  1. I have been looking for information relating to my relative Ekiizabeth Wilson Webster on her marriage certificate gave her address as Marton Hall in 1890. Her father Robert Webster lived in Silverdale North of Lancaster Lancashire. I assume she was a servant at the hall ?
    David Martin. Ex Lancashire now Wellington New Zealand

    • I have a copy of a photo of a you servant which may be the relative you refer to named Mary Elizabeth 1890 – let me know if you want a copy.

      • Jim I have just found this site and believed my 2 great grandad John major green worked for bolcow and Vaughan, he worked until he was a 100 and only retired due to failing eyesight. Would there be any where listed names and possible pictures of employers. Thanks in advance

  2. As a small child my grandmother stood in front of the statue of Henry Balckow and told me that is my father. Back then l didn’t pay much attention, but always wondered if it were true. My mother believed it was but never tried to discover the truth, she new my grandmother would have found it very upsetting. Now at the age of 56 yrs old l decided to trace my family tree. My great grandmother Isabella Outhwaite born in 1875 worked in the Balckow house as a chamber maid. It is said she became pregnant by Henry Balckow and was dismissed. She gave birth to my grandmother Hilda Outhwaite in the work house on the 18th October 1894. My grandmother lived in the work house and had a very poor and sad life there. It hurts me to think how cruel life was to her, and what a good life Henry Balckow had if it is true that he was her father. My grandmother was a dear kind soul who would not have hurt anyone, and she never once showed any bitterness towards her early start in life. Her only words were how her mother Isabella had suffered.

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