Newport/Cannon Street area

I remember it like that.

Shocking that people were living like that - not just there but other areas of Teesside too
 
The lad had an eye for a picture, did he go on to work in that field or photography?

This was just before it was all cleared which is why it looks so bad only a few people left and a lot of houses bricked up. I remember houses like those in Stockton when I was a kid where mates lived and they were always spotless and there would be no rubbish in the back lanes. Of course, when people leave the houses stand empty and you get scenes like that.
 
Bleak, like seeing news reports from the Donbas.

My mam’s family had moved out from cannon st to grove hill about 10 years before this video
 
The year I was born. My mam was brought up on Cannon street and after marriage moved to a new up and coming estate called Acklam .
 
My parents had a house in Hartford street i the town centre, bizarrely over the road from my first rental house without me knowing when I took it.

She used to tell me about how you'd go to the bog in the garden, and the bloke next door used to ask if he can have some of her toilet roll as his mrs makes him use newspaper pages. Can't even imagine using an outdoor bog in winter
 
ThatFragranceGuy said:
My parents had a house in Hartford street i the town centre, bizarrely over the road from my first rental house without me knowing when I took it.

She used to tell me about how you'd go to the bog in the garden, and the bloke next door used to ask if he can have some of her toilet roll as his mrs makes him use newspaper pages. Can't even imagine using an outdoor bog in winter
Click to expand...
'Steam' everywhere & freezing cold seat, slow lowering onto it or squat :-D
 
In the film you are seeing it just before the houses were to be pulled down - obviously its neglected at that time.

The idea then was to pull down houses that were 100 years old, some with no bathroom etc and move the people to a brand new house with bathroom, central heating etc on estates on the edge of th town near open spaces and woods etc - Hemlington, Coulby Newham etc.

Nowadays there is very little social housing being built to move to.
 
My dad grew up in that area in the 30's before his family moved to Meath Street

Strange to think that the kids in that film are only now in their mid to late 50's - I was 3 when it was filmed - but it looks like it could have been shot in the 40's!
 
I was born into this in 1950 (just down from the Palmerston) and it was a lot less bleak than people might imagine. OK, going down to the bog in a freezing damp back yard was no fun, and having a few pans of hot water in a tin bath once a week was hardly relaxing, but you had nothing better to compare it to with and no TV (or adverts) to constantly remind you how the better off were living. Everybody looked out for everybody else and you could still leave the house key hanging on a string. If anybody stole from their own they were dealt with by the community without recourse to the police. What I'm probably trying to say is that we might be all better off materially, but we've lost a hell of a lot in the process.

EDIT The Palmerston was on Newport Road directly opposite the Infirmary.

15391181_10211729087321345_8195305649354731737_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top