Many thanks to Peter Edwards for submitting this photo and location of historic boundary marker visible on Mill Lane between Wolviston and Billingham.
It marks the boundary between Stockton Rural District (1894-1974) and Billingham Urban District (1923 – 1968) The first OS mapping to include this boundary is dated 1939.
1939 6” map showing the boundary. The marker is in the western hedge of Mill LaneOverlayed onto modern aerial mapping.
When I saw scaffolding going up on this building I feared the sign, which apparently dated from the opening of the bus station in 1938, might be about to be lost.
Travel by Road to York, Doncaster or London by United. Luxury coach services by day or night.
As of today it seems to have been painted over. If I was the developer I would have painted it back on brand new as a feature !
This piece of grafitti is something I saw mentioned on Facebook getting on for 7 years ago, and I never managed to find it. Then by total chance in lockdown I found it !
It;s getting extremely hard to read as the tree has aged, but says “Polish Forces 194?”
Facebook comments from a resident many years ago said :- there used to be an extensive camp at Dunsdale which was still visible when I was a kid. The Polish army was stationed there and they carved that beech tree.
Saltburn Urban District Council has existed since 1894, while Redcar only became a Borough in 1922, so this marker post must have been placed after that date. Neither have existed since the formation of the ‘County Borough of Teesside’ in 1968.
It may have been required to mark the boundary when the Coast Road was first opened in 1923, although this could be a later marker.
Redcar Working Mens Unionist Club was opened by the Marquess of Zetland on the 11th August 1926. The “KT” indicates he was a member of “The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle”
Also present that day were local MP at the time Sir Park Goff and Mr W. C. Fawcett
This sign is visible on the side of Coopers Chemists in Great Ayton. Its still fairly clear and I read it as :-
Wm Pearson, Builders & Depot for Builders Materials
In the 1901 census there is a William Pearson, 52 Builder Contractor living at Well Cottage. He built the terrace known as Pearson Ville and also the house that became the Worthy Pearsons shop owned by his descendants.
EKCO (Eric Kirkham Cole Limited) produced TVs and Radios from 1924 until 1960 although the brand name lived on into the 1970s. This shop on Parliament Road was once an electrical shop.
2019
The advert was revealed by the removal of a billboard around 2016 when it first appears on Google Streetview, it has visibly deteriorated since that point.
2016 Google Streetview
A complete copy of the same advert existed in Southamption, but this has since been hidden by a new building.
Originally opened in 1861 as the Cleveland Fire and Brick Company. The Commondale Brick & Pipe Works traded from the late 1880s until 1947. Much of the village is built from their products including Ness Terrace.
Ness Terrace, Commondale
On the gable at the railway station end is a buff stone carrying the date 1903 and the letter “N”, perhaps for the name “Ness” if the builder named the Terrace after themselves ?
What is quite remarkable is that there appears to be a photograph of the plaque actually being made, seen below from the East Cleveland Image Archive.
Image courtesy of the East Cleveland Image Archive / Pem Holliday Collection.
The plaque funded by the Police Memorial Trust was recently unveiled to commemorate PC William Henderson, who died on 14 April 1893 when he was shot at close range by a man he was trying to disarm while trying to take into custody.
Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough – Saturday 15 April 1893