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Published: December 16th 2019
Billingham
...... old ICI plant A lot has changed on Teesside in the last three decades. The steel river no longer sees much steel these days and most of what it does, probably arrives on a HGV from Scunthorpe. The plant on the edge of the Tees at Redcar is now mothballed and closed forever and only a few specialist parts of the business remain. Football has changed too. The Ayresome Park gang became the Awesome Park gang and a generation grew up using the words, “The Riverside” and “Stadium”. Big name players came and went, adding to their wealth and skill set by acquiring the ability to throw a dart and refer to their Other Half as “our lass”. There was a buzz about on matchdays back then, but nothing much was stirring for the arrival of Charlton Athletic today as I drove past on the A66. Lennie Lawrence was possibly the only person to be excited about the fixture. He swapped the confines of SE7 for Linthorpe Road. Empty red seats are now the order of the day. Lots of them! The other big player in industrial terms was always Imperial Chemical Industries or ICI, as it was known. The aftermath of the First
World War gave rise to a diversification from the explosives business and huge expansion followed in the 1950s and 1960s. The populations from elsewhere all headed to the new promised land – Teesside. The huge, sprawling plants at Wilton and Billingham are now broken up and a host of smaller firms have acquired the individual units. The two originally employed thousands – all well paid. The streets were paved with gold. Well not literally, but there was enough money to have a good standard of living. The final salary pension schemes still prop up the area to a degree, as the grey pound is invested. I arrived in Billingham on the north side of the Tees. My focus today was the only football club named after an agricultural fertiliser – Billingham Sythonia. The club had strong links with ICI literally across the road and the name of the football club was derived from a contraction of the product, synthetic ammonia. A history dating back to 1923, the club were synonymous with ICI and their decline partially comes about from losing the close links with the industrial giant across the way.
A few cooling towers still dominate this part of
St Mary's Church, Norton
Grave of John Walker - inventor of the friction match Billingham. The old ICI headquarters building is now a pile of rubble, but the big social club on Belasis Avenue is still very much there. The sign now refers to it as the Sythonia Suites. I parked up by Central Avenue, home to the club from 1958 to 2017. The original home was at nearby Belasis Lane, which ironically saw the first floodlit game in the North East. The Synners defeated an RAF team 8-2 in 1952 in front of over 3,000. The financial assistance of ICI and the large workforce to form a supporter base prompted the move to Central Avenue in 1958. The new ground opened on 6
th September with a 2-2 draw with former amateur giants Bishop Auckland. The crowd of 4,200 remains a record attendance for the venue. The cantilever main stand holding over 2,000 people was the largest in the whole country at the time and prompted England to hold a “B” international athletics meeting there. The set up was so good that Middlesbrough held there reserve fixtures there up to 2011. Times have changed. The club left the venue in April 2017 after upgrading works were deemed necessary. The initial plan was to move
Norton
Duck pond and Village Green to Norton for just 2 years. The best laid plans sometimes never quite materialise.
The sign outside still says CLS Stadium and the wrought iron gates are still in place. The lettering still shows BSFC prominently. Alas, there isn’t much left. I walk through the gap where the turnstiles once were. The largest cantilever stand is totally demolished. A pile of bricks and rubble is all that remains. The goal posts still stand, ghost like in the vain hope that some action might unfold in front of them. The pitch is in the process of being returned to nature. Weeds sprout and grow high on what was once a fairly decent playing surface. The pitch that once hosted the likes of a young Brian Clough and other Boro stalwarts – Bernie Slaven, Terry Cochrane, Craig Hignett - in their twilight years, isn’t likely to see anybody in the near future. The 2 year plan to return looks remote.
I headed the couple of miles over to Norton, where the Synners now ply their trade in exile. Norton was once a pretty village and important market centre. The Market cross remains at its centre. The current red sandstone version
Billingham Sythonia FC
..... the now demolished CLS Sports Stadium is technically known as the Victoria Jubilee Memorial Cross commemorating her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. It was once an important church parish too, that ironically included the area of Stockton on Tees. It has long since been consumed into the urban area of the latter and in a reversal of roles, Norton became part of the borough of Stockton in 1913. There is something of a semi cosmopolitan feel about the place. It isn't Yarm, but heading in the right direction. The High Street displays more than its fair share of impressive Georgian properties intermingled with the coffee shop society that now occupies many premises. Coffee is big in Norton. There are plenty of pubs too and even a newish Wetherspoons. The Fox Almhouses stand nearby – erected in 1897 as a legacy from local brewer, John Henry Fox. Mr Fox apparently didn't want his brewery to be his legacy and gave the instructions in his will to discontinue the business and demolish the premises.
I came across a blue plaque to a Doctor George Mcgonigle on a fine white house. He was a big cheese in the Stockton Health Board and did many studies into the links between
health and poverty. It seems that they were largely ignored at the time, but have since been recognised as pioneering work. The Stockton public in the depression of the the 1920s and 1930s were his study material. A University of Durham lecture theatre is now named after him and whilst he probably had no time for wasting the limited family budget on alcohol, he has a pub named after him too in Stockton High Street. I wandered further to the north end, where it opens out on to a large village green complete with duck pond. A further selection of fine Georgian residences circles the Green.
St Mary the Virgin, the ancient parish church that stands on the edge of the village green. I sought the assistance of a lady who had been doing the flowers in the church to find the grave of a certain John Walker. He is not a particularly well known name, but made an influential discovery. He was the inventor of friction matches, but omitted to patent his work. The gravestone located in the churchyard isn't the original. It has apparently been whisked away to the nearby Preston Park Museum. The church is probably
Norton
Duck pond and Village Green more famous for being the scene of the wedding of Dragons Den star, Duncan Ballantyne, in 2006. Big Dunc was apparently in residence at nearby Wynyard at the time.
As well as Mr Walker, Norton has another claim to fame. A local foundry, John Warner & Son, cast the first bell for Big Ben in 1856. Alas it cracked when being tested in London and the second order didn't come their way.
The Norton Sports Complex is situated on Station Road and dates back to 1847, when it was the home of Norton Cricket Club. At the Club's Centenary Dinner in 1947, the members decided to buy the ground (and a further twelve acres surrounding it) with a view to developing it into one of the finest sports complexes in the north of England. The Wembley of the North never materialised, but the plot of land is still significant and home to cricket, squash, bowls and Stockton Rugby Club. Billingham Sythonia have picked up where the Norton & Stockton Ancients Football Club left off. They were longstanding,members of the Northern League, but folded in 2016. There logo is still on the billboard outside. A sign is also quick
to highlight this is the "temporary" home of the Billingham club. The last time I saw them play, the former engine room of the Boro midfield was at the managerial helm. I think he is still Owner, Chairman and Director of Football, but Jamie Pollock has stood down from first team coaching to prioritise the off field future of the club. The demolition of the old ground suggests there is work to do, but you can only wish them luck. The concept of playing in exile only works for so long, as the supporter base dissipates and the financial situation becomes worse. The attendance today was a meagre 65. Jamie might be busy with the off field work, but the playing side looked in good hands. A decent group of young players gave their visitors from Cumbria a good runaround and restricted a team that has a few goals in it usually to no meaningful efforts on goal in the 90 minutes. A red card for a brutal tackle didn't help the Carlisle cause. The 2 wingers were the pick of the Billingham bunch and were a handful all afternoon. We can only hope Billingham are restored to their own
town. At least the goalposts are still in situ back at Central Avenue.
Appendix 1 Northern League Division 2 Billingham Sythonia FC 3 Carlisle City 0 Date: Saturday 7 December 2019 @ 1500 Hours
Venue: Norton Sports Complex, Station Road, Norton, Stockton on Tees
Attendance: 65
Scorers: 1-0 Earl (Bilingham Sythonia) 2-0 Bruton (Billingham Sythonia), 3-0 Pritchard (Billingham Sythonia)
Billingham Sythonia: Orton, Salmon, Garton, O'Connor (Smith), Joseph, Carling, Wilson (Pritchard), Boyle, Earl, Dickinson, Bruton (Bligh) ,
Carlisle City: Newton, Vipond, Johnston, Allison, Kirkup, Seggie (Studholme), Palmer (Armstrong), Simpson, McCartney, Shiel, (Graham), Fahling
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Tot: 0.243s; Tpl: 0.046s; cc: 13; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0639s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht
Thanks for sharin & Merry xmas!!