Grangetown in Times Past
GRANGETOWN or 'CARDBOARD CITY'
as our friends from Slaggy Island called us - presumably after the building of the numerous prefabs after the second world war - actually began a little earlier than 1881; but the erection of the notorious eight streets of Bessemer, Vaughan, Stapylton, Laing; Holden, Wood, Vickers, Cheetham, ( almost sounding like a rhyme from Trumpton ) which held thousands of ironworkers originally travelling from all parts of the country and beyond, was begun in this year.
I was actually born in Laing Street, went to school in Cheetham Street and lived in Holden Street until I was 10. My parents were born in Vaughan Street and my father's grandparents who died very young, lived in Bessemer Street practically on top of the fumes themselves.
So my great interest has always been in the lives of the workers and their families especially in the early days. I've heard great stories from family members and some have even written some for radio...all of them humorous with a touch of pathos.
But the discovery of old family photographs in those early days, of proud, intelligent faces staring out from the past, has always inspired a curiosity that searches for more information about these hard times, when our small town community was first blended together into a strange mixture of humanity much like the process which all workers were subject to, under their first masters of industry Bolckow and Vaughan. J.O'Neill
Area Maps 1861
Here on this map of 1861 you can spot the early beginnings of the tremendous changes about to take place at the site of Eston Iron Works as Bolckow and Vaughan's experiments with blast furnaces and iron and steel production gathers pace. So successful are they, that the towns of South Bank formerly a small hamlet named Tees Tilery and Grangetown - a new town entirely built in an area near Eston Grange and Low Farm - will rapidly develop into sister towns that will shape the future for generations to come and the future wealth for entrepeneurs and captains of industry for over a hundred years.
The Eston Branch Railway we see in red, is a small line coming from the Eston Hills Mines a few miles south. Immigrants from depleted tin mines in Cornwall and Wales flocked to be the first to use their skills in Eston and Irish emigrants whose main crop of potatoes failed in the blight causing the famine of 1847, migrated from a starving country - so helping to create a volume of population needing urgent attention by the authorities. It also created some social problems which were dealt with surprisingly quickly but time and space or lack of it, encouraged typhoid and TB to sometimes wreak a dreadful toll on families in the area.
The Eston Branch Railway we see in red, is a small line coming from the Eston Hills Mines a few miles south. Immigrants from depleted tin mines in Cornwall and Wales flocked to be the first to use their skills in Eston and Irish emigrants whose main crop of potatoes failed in the blight causing the famine of 1847, migrated from a starving country - so helping to create a volume of population needing urgent attention by the authorities. It also created some social problems which were dealt with surprisingly quickly but time and space or lack of it, encouraged typhoid and TB to sometimes wreak a dreadful toll on families in the area.
Trucks filled with Iron Ore from Eston Hills
Blast Furnaces - which received the ore
Blastfurnace Workers c 1890
4th from the left on the front row is Grangetown workman Jeremiah Coughlan born in 1860.
A John Coughlan aged 47 is recorded as living in Grange Town in a cottage in 1881 - before the eight streets were built - and was a Keeper of the Blastfurnace when he lived in Bessemer Street ten years later. Perhaps he is Jeremiah's father.
A John Coughlan aged 47 is recorded as living in Grange Town in a cottage in 1881 - before the eight streets were built - and was a Keeper of the Blastfurnace when he lived in Bessemer Street ten years later. Perhaps he is Jeremiah's father.
Evening Gazette 1 February 1872
POLICE REGULATIONS IN ESTON AND NORMANBY
Sir, - I have occasionally to visit the above places on business and from what I have witnessed and been subjected to, I wonder whether the police regulations extend to those remote quarters of the globe. It is only a few weeks since I was passing through one of the public streets when, without the slightest provocation, I was suddenly accosted by a great ruffianly fellow who, with a lot more, were standing together in the vicinity of one of the public-houses. Putting himself in full pugilistic form, he threatened, to use his own expression, to knock my b ----y head off. Thinking discretion the better part of valour, I walked on, leaving him alone in his glory, muttering words unsuited to ears polite.
Since then I have repeatedly seen groups of men collected together in the principal streets of both Eston and Normanby, whose chief diversion consisted in insulting every passer by, both male and female. I again happened to be in the above places on Saturday and Sunday last, and having witnessed the aforementioned scenes, I thought I would see a little more of the habits of the people.
I accordingly visited a few of the public inns for the purpose of satisfying myself as to whether the police regulations were more strictly enforced there, but the sight I there met with surpassed anything ever found in Bedlam.
The first place I visited, I saw some score or more men, half of whom were in the most beastly state of intoxication, muttering the most fearsome blasphemy. I consoled myself with the thought that such a state of things would be confined to six days of the week but guess my surprise when I found the same sort of things existing on Sunday, and if anything to a worse degree.
How, sir, I ask why is such a state of things permitted in the face of existing laws and why are bands of men thus allowed to congregate together to annoy and insult every respectable passer by? Hoping the importance of the subject is sufficient apology for the length of my letter. –
Believe me, yours faithfully,
Order.-------------------
POLICE REGULATIONS IN ESTON AND NORMANBY
Sir, - I have occasionally to visit the above places on business and from what I have witnessed and been subjected to, I wonder whether the police regulations extend to those remote quarters of the globe. It is only a few weeks since I was passing through one of the public streets when, without the slightest provocation, I was suddenly accosted by a great ruffianly fellow who, with a lot more, were standing together in the vicinity of one of the public-houses. Putting himself in full pugilistic form, he threatened, to use his own expression, to knock my b ----y head off. Thinking discretion the better part of valour, I walked on, leaving him alone in his glory, muttering words unsuited to ears polite.
Since then I have repeatedly seen groups of men collected together in the principal streets of both Eston and Normanby, whose chief diversion consisted in insulting every passer by, both male and female. I again happened to be in the above places on Saturday and Sunday last, and having witnessed the aforementioned scenes, I thought I would see a little more of the habits of the people.
I accordingly visited a few of the public inns for the purpose of satisfying myself as to whether the police regulations were more strictly enforced there, but the sight I there met with surpassed anything ever found in Bedlam.
The first place I visited, I saw some score or more men, half of whom were in the most beastly state of intoxication, muttering the most fearsome blasphemy. I consoled myself with the thought that such a state of things would be confined to six days of the week but guess my surprise when I found the same sort of things existing on Sunday, and if anything to a worse degree.
How, sir, I ask why is such a state of things permitted in the face of existing laws and why are bands of men thus allowed to congregate together to annoy and insult every respectable passer by? Hoping the importance of the subject is sufficient apology for the length of my letter. –
Believe me, yours faithfully,
Order.-------------------
Directory of 1890 - courtesy of Colin Hinson of Genuki pages
GRANGETOWN is another rapidly increasing place in the township, but included for parliamentary purposes in the borough of Middlesbrough. Almost the entire population is employed in and about the extensive works of Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Limited.
Here are the offices of the Eston District Local Board, erected in 1885-6, from the designs of Mr. T. W. Stainthorpe, C.E., the district surveyor.
The Mechanics' Institute is a handsome red brick building with stone dressings, situated at the east corner of the spacious market square. The site was presented by Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., and the entire cost of the building (£1,200) has been generously borne by James Eadie, Esq., who has likewise undertaken to defray the whole expense of furnishing and fitting up the interior.
The church of St. Matthew is a temporary iron structure attached to the parish church, and served by the Rev. R. Bee, who is the curate in charge.
The Catholics have a school chapel in Bolckow road; but contemplate the erection of a suitable edifice on the adjoining plot of land, which has been secured for the purpose.
The Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists have also chapels here.
The Board Schools form a plain but useful block of buildings, with accommodation for 900 scholars. Mr. John Moss, master; Miss Duncan, mistress; Miss Alexander, infants' mistress.
GRANGETOWN
Post, Money Order Office, and Savings Bank, 2 Whitworth road. Samuel France, postmaster. Deliveries - 6-20 a.m. and 5-55 p.m. Despatches - 11-10 a.m., 5-40 p.m., and 8-10 p.m.
Miscellany of trades
Allsop Ralph, watchmaker, 5 Whitworth road
Angers Robert, shoemaker, 29 Whitworth road
Avon Francis, confectioner, 18 Whitworth road
Bee Rev. Robert, curate, 12 Whitworth road
Bilton John, hairdresser, 25 Whitworth road
Bland Anthony, shopkeeper, 59 Whitworth rd
Brown Robert, shopkeeper and general dealer, 46 Whitworth road
Carr Joseph, butcher, 42 Whitworth road
Daniels Benjamin, fruiterer, 21 Whitworth rd
Durbin Joseph, fruiterer, 28 Whitworth road
Easby Joseph & Thomas, paperhangers and house decorators, 41 Whitworth road
Ellis John Wm., shoemaker, 22 Whitworth rd
Ephgrave Joseph, grocer, tea dealer, &c., 24 Whitworth road
Eston Local Board Office, Bolckow and Whitworth roads
France Samuel, postmaster, 2 Whitworth road
Glen John, M.B., physician, 1 Whitworth road
Grangetown Working Men's Institute, 31 Whitworth road
Green Charles, car proprietor, 54 Stapylton st
Hall Joseph, grocer, 40 Whitworth road
Hardisty John, newsagent, 17 Whitworth road
Johns Edward, greengrocer, 19 Whitworth road
Kay Gavin, confectioner, 27 Whitworth road
Kemp William, earthenware dealer, 82 Whitworth road
Kendra Thomas James, pawnbroker, 88 Whitworth road
Leaf William, general dealer, 48 Whitworth rd
Lowes Ralph, general draper, 33 Whitworth rd
Mackay Dnl., Grangetown Hotel, Whitworth rd
Maxwell Christopher, pork butcher, 15 Whitworth road
Mechanics' Institute, Market square
Middlesbrough Co-operative Society (No. 7 branch), 4 Whitworth road
Nicholson Michael, draper, 30 Whitworth road
Nolan Rev, Jas. J. (Catholic), 7 Whitworth rd
O'Riordan Timothy, M.D,, 21 Whitworth road
Peacock Matthew, china and hardware dealer, 23 Whitworth road
Pickrell John, butcher, 20 Whitworth road
Powell Miss Eliza, dressmaker and milliner, 10 Whitworth road
Raine Philip, grocer and tea dealer, 47 Whitworth road
Robinson James, shoemaker, 26 Whitworth rd
Sanderson William, butcher, 34 Whitworth rd
Smith Edward, shopkeeper, 51 Whitworth road
Smith William, pork butcher, 39 Whitworth rd
Starr-Bowkett Building Society, 3 Whitworth rd
Swales John, grocer, 49 Whitworth road
Sykes Joseph, shoemaker, 36 Whitworth road
Tarbit George, grocer, 43 Whitworth road
Turner Albert, butcher, 44 Whitworth road
Volunteer Fire Brigade Station, Local Board offices, Whitworth road ; Robert. Green, captain; Samuel Piggales, secretary
Weddle Wm., chemist and druggist, 52 Whitworth road
Wells Thomas, baker, 16 Whitworth road
Wilkinson Hugh, draper, 45 Whitworth road
Wilson John, provision dealer, 35 Whitworth rd
Woffenden Wm. & Son, grocers and provision merchants, 14 Whitworth road
Scan, OCR and html by Colin Hinson. Checking and correction by Peter Nelson.
[Last updated at 09.42 on Saturday, 07 December 2002, by Colin Hinson. ©1999]
Genuki Pages
GRANGETOWN is another rapidly increasing place in the township, but included for parliamentary purposes in the borough of Middlesbrough. Almost the entire population is employed in and about the extensive works of Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Limited.
Here are the offices of the Eston District Local Board, erected in 1885-6, from the designs of Mr. T. W. Stainthorpe, C.E., the district surveyor.
The Mechanics' Institute is a handsome red brick building with stone dressings, situated at the east corner of the spacious market square. The site was presented by Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., and the entire cost of the building (£1,200) has been generously borne by James Eadie, Esq., who has likewise undertaken to defray the whole expense of furnishing and fitting up the interior.
The church of St. Matthew is a temporary iron structure attached to the parish church, and served by the Rev. R. Bee, who is the curate in charge.
The Catholics have a school chapel in Bolckow road; but contemplate the erection of a suitable edifice on the adjoining plot of land, which has been secured for the purpose.
The Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists have also chapels here.
The Board Schools form a plain but useful block of buildings, with accommodation for 900 scholars. Mr. John Moss, master; Miss Duncan, mistress; Miss Alexander, infants' mistress.
GRANGETOWN
Post, Money Order Office, and Savings Bank, 2 Whitworth road. Samuel France, postmaster. Deliveries - 6-20 a.m. and 5-55 p.m. Despatches - 11-10 a.m., 5-40 p.m., and 8-10 p.m.
Miscellany of trades
Allsop Ralph, watchmaker, 5 Whitworth road
Angers Robert, shoemaker, 29 Whitworth road
Avon Francis, confectioner, 18 Whitworth road
Bee Rev. Robert, curate, 12 Whitworth road
Bilton John, hairdresser, 25 Whitworth road
Bland Anthony, shopkeeper, 59 Whitworth rd
Brown Robert, shopkeeper and general dealer, 46 Whitworth road
Carr Joseph, butcher, 42 Whitworth road
Daniels Benjamin, fruiterer, 21 Whitworth rd
Durbin Joseph, fruiterer, 28 Whitworth road
Easby Joseph & Thomas, paperhangers and house decorators, 41 Whitworth road
Ellis John Wm., shoemaker, 22 Whitworth rd
Ephgrave Joseph, grocer, tea dealer, &c., 24 Whitworth road
Eston Local Board Office, Bolckow and Whitworth roads
France Samuel, postmaster, 2 Whitworth road
Glen John, M.B., physician, 1 Whitworth road
Grangetown Working Men's Institute, 31 Whitworth road
Green Charles, car proprietor, 54 Stapylton st
Hall Joseph, grocer, 40 Whitworth road
Hardisty John, newsagent, 17 Whitworth road
Johns Edward, greengrocer, 19 Whitworth road
Kay Gavin, confectioner, 27 Whitworth road
Kemp William, earthenware dealer, 82 Whitworth road
Kendra Thomas James, pawnbroker, 88 Whitworth road
Leaf William, general dealer, 48 Whitworth rd
Lowes Ralph, general draper, 33 Whitworth rd
Mackay Dnl., Grangetown Hotel, Whitworth rd
Maxwell Christopher, pork butcher, 15 Whitworth road
Mechanics' Institute, Market square
Middlesbrough Co-operative Society (No. 7 branch), 4 Whitworth road
Nicholson Michael, draper, 30 Whitworth road
Nolan Rev, Jas. J. (Catholic), 7 Whitworth rd
O'Riordan Timothy, M.D,, 21 Whitworth road
Peacock Matthew, china and hardware dealer, 23 Whitworth road
Pickrell John, butcher, 20 Whitworth road
Powell Miss Eliza, dressmaker and milliner, 10 Whitworth road
Raine Philip, grocer and tea dealer, 47 Whitworth road
Robinson James, shoemaker, 26 Whitworth rd
Sanderson William, butcher, 34 Whitworth rd
Smith Edward, shopkeeper, 51 Whitworth road
Smith William, pork butcher, 39 Whitworth rd
Starr-Bowkett Building Society, 3 Whitworth rd
Swales John, grocer, 49 Whitworth road
Sykes Joseph, shoemaker, 36 Whitworth road
Tarbit George, grocer, 43 Whitworth road
Turner Albert, butcher, 44 Whitworth road
Volunteer Fire Brigade Station, Local Board offices, Whitworth road ; Robert. Green, captain; Samuel Piggales, secretary
Weddle Wm., chemist and druggist, 52 Whitworth road
Wells Thomas, baker, 16 Whitworth road
Wilkinson Hugh, draper, 45 Whitworth road
Wilson John, provision dealer, 35 Whitworth rd
Woffenden Wm. & Son, grocers and provision merchants, 14 Whitworth road
Scan, OCR and html by Colin Hinson. Checking and correction by Peter Nelson.
[Last updated at 09.42 on Saturday, 07 December 2002, by Colin Hinson. ©1999]
Genuki Pages