Middlesbrough Remembered
The Streets
The House
"Cooper" Common
Excuse me but where is Middlesbrough?
Walk from North Ormesby
Sources and Resources
Only a Short Time in History
Memories of Parliament Road
Welford Street
Football on the Roof
St Patrick's Church
The Tees (Newport) Bridge
Don't Mention the War?
Laws Street Block
Dorman Museum
Albert Park and 'Owld 'Enry
An Ayresome Childhood
Street Games
The Shops
St Paul's School
Victoria St/Greta St Now
Newport School
The 'New' Newport School
Archibald Schools
Newport Bombing 15 April 1942
Closing of St Paul's School
Ayresome School
More Memories of Parliament Rd.
Round and About King George Street
Cinemas
Tees Poem
Middlesbrough Welsh
Memories of Duncombe Street
Honeymans of Cannon Street
Marilyn's Memories
Sun Sea & Sand
Fox Heads Page 1
Why DOGGY Town??
Fox Heads Page 2
Memories of St Paul's
A Mohawk in Middlesbrough
Remembering Craven Street
Marsh Road School
Pauline's Memories
Luftwaffe Over Middlesbrough
First World War Shell Explodes in Middlesbrough
Queries:Can You Help?
St Columba's Parish in the Sixties
More Street Games
Memories Baxter Street
Judith's Middlesbrough Childhood
Pine Street
Links for Newport, Middlesbrough
Guestbook
Mail Form
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Hanson Street
Fred Maughan
I was born in Hanson Street in the late 1920s . Hanson St was the middle one of the three streets which ran from King George Street to Samuelson St. (In the 1930s the houses on the west side of Samuelson St. were knocked down to make way for the Tees Bridge Approach) |  |
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Laws Street Bomb
We were bombed out when Laws St was hit on the night of April 15/16, 1942 and had to go and live with one of our Aunties. My young brother Albert ended up in Holgate Hospital with a shard of glass in his back. I can’t remember hearing the warning siren that night because we were in bed when the bombs fell.* I could not even guess which bomb fell first because they all seemed to merge into one crashing noise. I know one of the bombs dropped on the ‘Rec’ i.e. the Recreation Ground at the entrance next to Carlow Street. For years a round patch of grass always showed up through the tarmac of the path where the bomb had hit. Incidentally right opposite there, was what was known as Jubilee Gardens, a little haven of plants, trees and exotic bushes. These were ruthlessly torn up to plant vegetables in the ‘Dig for Victory’ Campaign.
(*One bomb hit near Carlow St. One hit Mills St/Orwell, and one hit the corner of Laws St & Booth St. There was one fatality in Carlow Street, several in Mills/Orwell and more in Laws St& Booth. In terms of fatalities it was Mbro’s most severe raid )
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Training Ground
For a long time the bombed out ruins of Cooper/Laws Street were an adventure playground for us kids. It was also a training ground for the Home Guard , who often practised street fighting. I remember a few times when it was the Army versus the Home Guard. If ever you asked who won, the Home Guard always said they had and the Army said they had! |
Schooldays
I went to school at Newport Rd Schools. One of the teachers had a tiny Morris car. Some of the pupils pushed this in through the doors at the back of the ‘Pav’.(i.e.The Pavillion Cinema)* This left the poor man a nervous wreck. When the War started all the schools closed down for a while (hooray!!) but after a while it was decided the children should attend a designated house as a temporary schoolroom. My brother and I were told to attend a lesson at a house in Orwell Street. It was mornings one week and afternoons the next. We never bothered going so I guess the tutor was getting paid whether we went or not. I don’t know whose house it was but I think later the front room in that same house was also used as a polling station during elections. Thinking of Orwell St I started work at Longstaff and Hinchcliffe’s Pie Factory which was in Mills St immediately behind the Orwell St Chapel.
*now the Arena Nightclub
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The Common
There was an open space from the bold on] Tees Bridge Approach Road to 'low' Cooper Street on the north side of Cannon St. To us the part from the Tees Bridge Approach to the Pigeon Park in the middle was known as ‘Bunty’s Field’ This was owned by a family who had a little sweet shop on King George Street, a certain Ms Burns. This field was surrounded by a corroding fence of corrugated sheets. I remember, residing in this field, was an old horse of indeterminate age. It may be this old nag was called ‘Bunty’. I don’t actually know this for sure. On the other side of the Common running along the west side of low Cooper St were some stables for horses and yards for storing carts.
Many of us in the area knew this open space as 'Cooper Common' (Vic) |  |
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A Favourite Play Place
| There were steps up to the bridge approach road just on the corner of Bunty’s field and next to this staircase was an electricity power house. We often used to play on this. Bigger kids could clamber directly up on to its roof but you could also climb up the outside of the metal staircase and get on to its roof that way.( I think when I was older someone fell off this and cracked his skull so after that they put something on the roof to stop the kids getting on it) |  |
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House Shops
| The area around King George Street was a very busy, thriving trading district. It wasn’t just the shops on Newport Rd. There were many ‘house shops’. |  |
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1. Fish Shop. Corner Cannon & Samuelson Street
2. Burrows Pickle Factory 21 Samuelson St
3. Second Hand Clothes Shop in Booth Street
4. Fish Shop corner Samuelson St & Hanson St
5. Deveral’s Shop: corner King George St & Hanson St
6. Pies & Peas sold from house shop in Elizabeth Street
7. Moffet’s House shop: Bennet St
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