Billingham, ICI Office Building c1960 (ref. B315012) | This impressive building, constructed in 1958, was the headquarters of ICI's Agricultural Division until the early 1990s, serving a major international fertiliser business. It won a number of architectural awards. This must be an early photograph, because cars had later to be parked behind the building in the famous 'toast rack' construction on the right of this view, which is not yet built. Sad to say, the building is now unoccupied and semi-derelict. |  Add your own Memory
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Billingham, ICI Office Building c1965 (ref. B315056) | This is a later photograph, with the futuristic-looking covered car park visible on the right - a car can just be seen there, giving an idea of its scale. Several hundred headquarters staff worked in this building, with the Division Board members' offices being on the seventh floor. The front entrance to the building has already been re-designed! | Add your own Memory
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Billingham, Bowling Green c1965 (ref. B315033) | Here we have a clear, open view across the John Whitehead Park to the Stockton and Billingham Technical College in the distance, with the community centre just visible on the extreme left. The park was opened in 1953. The Billingham town shopping centre lies immediately behind the photographer. Recently the college operations have been moved to a new site by the River Tees, and these extensive buildings have been demolished. | Add your own Memory
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Billingham, Shopping Centre c1967 (ref. B315046) | Billingham Town Centre was developed in the 1950s and 1960s, paid for largely by the local rates from the massive ICI factory in the neighbourhood, which employed almost 20,000 people at that time. The town centre design was quite visionary, and attracted several of the big retailers. As the years have passed, it has suffered from the loss of high employment in the area, and little re-development. | Add your own Memory
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Billingham, the Statue c1970 (ref. B315074) | The founders of the modern Billingham Town Centre felt the need to introduce features which helped to take away the starkness of the new surroundings. This modern sculpture, in front of the art gallery, is very realistic in style, and serves to remind the passer-by of the importance of the family group within the structure of our present-day society. The Queen unveiled this statue in December 1967. | Add your own Memory
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Billingham, the Town Centre c1970 (ref. B315072) | This view was taken further down the shopping precinct. In the distance are high-rise flats. Towards the right we can see part of the Billingham Forum Theatre, and nearer is the round glass-enclosed staircase to the art gallery. Trees and shrubs are used to break up the hard lines of the modern architecture. The weather canopies and the water feature have since been removed. | Add your own Memory
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Brotton, the Avenue c1955 (ref. B317003) | Brotton is another settlement with an ancient history; it was also seriously influenced by the ironstone industry at a later date. Kilton Castle, seat of the de Thweng family, lies in the immediate neighbourhood. The population of Brotton grew from 330 in 1861 to 2672 in 1871 as a result of the discovery of local ironstone. This quiet scene shows the main Whitby to Guisborough road running past leafy gardens. The parish church is hidden near the car on the right-hand side of the road. | Add your own Memory
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Brotton, High Street c1955 (ref. B317008) | We are looking eastwards from the end of Brotton High Street, and the chimneys of the Skinningrove iron and steel works can be seen in the distance. At the far end of the left-hand row of houses we can just see the gable end of the Cottage Hospital, built in 1874 by Bell Brothers for the casualties inevitably arising from the local ironstone mining operations. The post office stands next to the letter box (left). | Add your own Memory
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Grangetown, the Bowling Green c1955 (ref. G88006) | Lying close to the gardens in picture T121004, the bowling green is another representation of rest and recreation in an area surrounded by heavy industry. The photographer has managed to avoid the industrial backdrop on this occasion. Sad to say, this area is not as well maintained at the present time. | Add your own Memory
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Grangetown, Tennis Courts c1960 (ref. G88009) | The bowling pavilion on the right, and some of the local housing is in the background. We are reminded of the importance which local authorities placed upon the provision of recreational facilities after the Second World War. | Add your own Memory
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Grangetown, Paddling Pool c1960 (ref. G88013) | A rather less likely facility in the same park area is the children's playground, which includes an attractive paddling pool. Water has always had a fascination for the young. Industrial chimneys can be seen in the background on the left. | Add your own Memory
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Grangetown, Golf Course and Cleveland Hills c1960 (ref. G88044) | This peaceful scene was taken just off the Middlesbrough to Redcar trunk road, with the buildings of the former Stapylton School in the background on the right. The Cleveland Hills in the background represent the northern edge of the North Yorkshire Moors area. | Add your own Memory
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Grangetown, Broadway c1955 (ref. G88015) | How amazing to see such a lack of road traffic by comparison with today! The Broadway is in practice a section of the main trunk road between Middlesbrough and Redcar. Grangetown developed around the old Grange Farm, when a local iron works was established here by Bolckow and Vaughan in the early 1850s. | Add your own Memory
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Grangetown, Birchington Avenue c1955 (ref. G88002) | This major avenue crosses the Broadway at Grangetown, and illustrates the high quality housing originally provided for the local steel industry. Also evident are the overhead wires of the trolley bus system which served this part of Teesside from 1919 to 1971, provided by the Teesside Railless Traction Company. | Add your own Memory
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Grangetown, Bolckow Road c1960 (ref. G88019) | Bolckow Road was the busy commercial centre of the Grangetown community, as we can see here from the wide selection of local shops and the parish church of St Matthew in the centre. The road off to the left in the foreground is Birchington Avenue. Sad to say, the scene here today is one of decline in this community. | Add your own Memory
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Greatham, High Street c1955 (ref. G89011) | As well as the Smiths Arms again visible in the centre distance, we can also see two more public houses here - the Hope and Anchor, the long white building on the right, and the Bull and Dog immediately beyond it! Note the Cerebos sign on the pub wall - the salt factory lay just outside the village; salt making was an ancient industry round here. Salt production ceased in 1970, but other products kept the factory going until the last year or so, when it was finally closed. | Add your own Memory
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Greatham, the Grove c1955 (ref. G89009) | An example of immediately post-war council housing, this street is now leafy and well-established, and largely in private ownership. It has a large circular grassed area at the head of the cul-de-sac in the distance. These houses would originally provide accommodation for workers at the local Cerebos factory and at the nearby steel works, for example. | Add your own Memory
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Greatham, Front Street c1955 (ref. G89005) | On the left are the boundary walls of the Hospital of God at Greatham, founded in 1273 – this was not a hospital in the modern sense, but accommodation for the elderly and the poor, the earliest present buildings dating from a re-construction in 1803. On the right is the former Greatham Church School, founded in 1834, re-built in 1878, and enlarged in 1928. It now serves as the community centre. | Add your own Memory
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Greatham, the Green c1955 (ref. G89007) | The quaint old building to the right of centre still serves as the village post office and shop today. It is quite small, but it is elaborately decorated on its front outer wall. The village green is now fenced and council-owned. The road is heading towards the old Cerebos salt factory on the outskirts of the village. | Add your own Memory
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Greatham, Sappers Corner c1955 (ref. G89003) | The ancient settlement of Greatham lies halfway between Wolviston and Hartlepool. The large building on the right, at the entrance to the village, has always been known as Sappers Corner. Tommy Blumer built it for his fleet of buses, which was later taken over by the United Bus Company. He had been a sapper in the army in the First World War - hence the name. At this date it appears to be a petrol filling station, but it has had several other uses. | Add your own Memory
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