Norton is a market town in the

Borough of Stockton-on-Tees The Borough of Stockton-on-Tees is a unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the counties of County Durham and North Yorkshire, England. The borough had a population of 191,600 in 2011. The main settlemen ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It stands on higher ground to the south, further away from the

River Tees The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has be ...

than Stockton town centre. They are small areas west of the area called

Roseworth Roseworth is an area of Norton in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is ...

and Ragworth. Billingham Beck is to the area's east, the beck flows south-east to join the river.

Wolviston Wolviston is a village and civil parish within the borough of Stockton-on-Tees and the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 877. It is situated in the north of Billingham. The ...

and Wynyard are the nearest places to the north. They are three wards with the area's name. Combined the two former 2011 wards had a population of 20,829. *6,286 for *7,843 for *6,700 for The area's centre dates back to at least the

Anglo-Saxon period Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of ...

. It was the centre of an

ancient parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...

that once included the

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the communi ...

of Stockton, which became its own ancient parish in 1713 which was three years after Stockton was granted a

market charter A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

. It became a part of Teesside County Borough in 1968, which was abolished in 1974, it has not been parished since.

History

In 1982, the chance discovery of human bones by school children playing on a rope swing near the Mill Lane area of the town, led to the unearthing of an Anglo-Saxon

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

cemetery. Excavations in 1984 revealed 120 burials (117

inhumations Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

and 3

cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a Cadaver, dead body through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India ...

s) in graves that contained assorted personal items such as spears, belt buckles and brooches. The remains and objects collected suggest the site was dated to around AD 540–610. To the south end of High Street, the Victoria Jubilee Memorial Cross stands where the market place was once situated. The red sandstone Anglian style cross commemorates Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Further along, and on the opposite side of the High Street are the Fox

almshouses An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

, also founded in 1897 at the bequest of local brewer John Henry Fox.

Geography

The_Green,_Norton,_County_Durham,_England

At the north end of Norton centre there is a large

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

with a duckpond, surrounded by mostly Georgian houses and cottages. The ancient parish church of St. Mary the Virgin stands on the west side of the village Green. Norton's wide and tree-lined

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

had a number of shops,

hairdressers A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A Hairdresser may also be re ...

boutiques A boutique () is a small shop that deals in fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is French for "shop", which derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (''apothēkē'') "storehouse". The term ''boutique'' and also ''d ...

, cafés, a library,

photographic studio A photographic studio is often a business owned and represented by one or more photographers, possibly accompanied by assistants and pupils, who create and sell their own and sometimes others’ photographs. Since the early years of the 20th ce ...

and a traditional fish & chips shop, as well as a mixture of 18th century and 19th century

townhouses A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

, cottages and modern

apartments An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are man ...

. Away from the village lie the housing estates of Albany, Glebe, Crooksbarn and Norton Grange (originally Blue Hall).

St Mary's Church

St Mary the Virgin, the ancient parish church that stands on the village green, is the only cruciform Anglo-Saxon church in northern England. Its

crossing tower A crossing, in ecclesiastical architecture, is the junction of the four arms of a cruciform (cross-shaped) church. In a typically oriented church (especially of Romanesque and Gothic styles), the crossing gives access to the nave on the west, ...

with eight triangular head windows has a

battlement A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

ed top of later date, and there is a 14th-century

effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

of a knight in

chainmail Chain mail (properly called mail or maille but usually called chain mail or chainmail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common military use between the 3rd century BC and ...

. Residing under the church floor there is claimed to be an escape tunnel used by the Saxons and priests when in danger, though it is more probably a drainage culvert. The tunnel leads under the church floor and Norton Green, eventually surfacing in the Albany housing estate. The church floor was recently renovated and Saxon remains and artefacts were discovered in the tunnel entrance. St Mary's was until the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

a Catholic Church – which is true of all English churches pre-dating the Reformation. The grave of John Walker, the inventor of friction matches, is located in the churchyard. Norton's Catholic population now worship at St Joseph's in Darlington Lane. The church opened in 1933 and is part of the St Hilda Partnership within the Hexham and Newcastle Diocese.

Red House School

Located in the town is

Red House School Red House School is a co-educational independent school in Norton, Stockton-on-Tees, in the north-east of England. Nursery, Reception and Year 1 are located in a purpose-built unit, whilst Years 2, 3 and 4 are in a Georgian Vicarage. The Pr ...

, an independent school established in 1929. Adjacent to St. Mary's Church is Red House Nursery & Infant School, which combines state of the art modern buildings with classrooms in the former Old Vicarage. On the opposite side of the village green resides Red House Preparatory and Main School. In May 2012, the school announced its intention to relocate to nearby Wynyard Park stating that it had outgrown its existing site in Norton. This, however, did not occur as the school decided to improve the existing site.

Public houses, cafés and restaurants

Harland Place, Norton village, County Durham

Norton is home to several pubs: Norton Tavern, The Moline Cross (known as Norton Cricket Club by locals), The Centenary, The Unicorn (known as The Top House by locals), The George and Dragon, The Highland Laddie, The Malleable Social Club, Connections, Red Lion, Norton Working Men's Club (aka The Village Club), The Head of Steam, Hydes Bar, Alitheos and Canteen and Cocktails. The village also has several restaurants and cafés including Scrann, Levan, Cafe Maison, The Norton Cafe, The Open Jar, Jolsha, Options, 12 Harland Place, Cafe Lilli, Cafe Maison and Bahn Mi.

Sport

The Norton (Teesside) 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. During the past few decades further land was acquired and now as well as being home to Norton Cricket Club (which play in the NYSD cricket premier league), it provides facilities for a number of other sports, including:

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

, tennis,

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

five-a-side football Five-a-side football is a version of minifootball, in which each team fields five players (four outfield players and a goalkeeper). Other differences from football include a smaller pitch, smaller goals, and a reduced game duration. Matches are ...

, archery and boxfit. The complex is also home to the Billingham Synthonia Football Club and is now again home to Norton & Stockton Ancients Football Club, reinstated in 2019 having folded 3 years previously in 2016.

Notable events

6 August 1856,

John Warner and Sons John Warner and Sons was a metalworks and bellfoundry based in various locations in the UK, established in 1739 and dissolved in 1949. Previous businesses A company was founded by Jacob Warner, a Quaker, in 1739 and originally produced water pu ...

cast the first bell for

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The officia ...

, but it cracked beyond repair while being tested at

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

. Another bell was later recast at the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells a ...

in London. 14 July 1977,

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

passed through Norton by car, in front of spectators during her Silver Jubilee royal visit to the region. 11 November 2006, ''

Dragon's Den ''Dragons' Den'' is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it is k ...

'' businessman

Duncan Bannatyne Duncan Walker Bannatyne, (born 2 February 1949) is a Scottish entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author. His business interests include hotels, health clubs, spas, media, TV, and property. He is most famous for his appearance as a business a ...

(who owned a house on the High Street at the time, later moving to nearby Wynyard Park) was married at St Mary's Church in Norton. Celebrities at the ceremony included

Anna Ryder Richardson Anna Caroline Ryder Richardson (born 29 January 1964) is a British interior designer and television presenter. She is known for being a designer on the BBC shows '' Changing Rooms'' and the subject of ''Chaos at the Zoo'', which documents he ...

Cherie Lunghi Cherie Mary Lunghi (born 4 April 1952) is an English film, television, and theatre actress, known for her roles in many British TV dramas. Her international fame stems from her role as Guinevere in the 1981 film ''Excalibur''. Her long list of ...

, Gary McCausland, Dragons' Den presenter

Evan Davis Evan Harold Davis (born 8 April 1962) is an English economist, journalist, and presenter for the BBC. He has presented ''Dragons' Den'' since 2005. In October 2001, Davis took over from Peter Jay as the BBC's economics editor. He left this p ...

and fellow Dragons

Theo Paphitis Theodoros "Theo" Paphitis ( el, Θεόδωρος Παφίτης; born 24 September 1959) is a Greek-Cypriot British retail magnate and entrepreneur. He is best known for his appearances on the BBC business programme ''Dragons' Den'' and as former ...

Richard Farleigh Richard Bruce Farleigh (born ''Richard Buckland Smith'', 9 November 1960) is an Australian private investor and reality television personality. He is currently a member of the ''Business Review Weekly'' Rich 200 list, a list of the 200 wealth ...

, Simon Woodroffe and

Deborah Meaden Deborah Sonia Meaden (born 11 February 1959) is a British businesswoman and TV personality who ran a multimillion-pound family holiday business, before completing a management buyout. She is best known for her appearances as a 'Dragon' on the ...

Image gallery

Norton Village Green - June 2012.JPG, Village Green File:Fox almshouses, Norton village, County Durham.jpg, Fox Almshouses File:Victoria Diamond Jubilee Memorial Cross, Norton, Stockton on Tees.jpg, 1897 Jubilee Memorial Cross File:Norton Road Methodist Church - geograph.org.uk - 657668.jpg, Methodist Church

Notable people from Norton

Geoff Deehan Geoff Deehan is a film and television producer who has worked on projects such as '' The Heist'' and ''Equinox''. He is also the creator and producer of the ''Plane Crash'' Documentary on Channel Four. Early life Geoff Deehan was born on 14 Jun ...

– television and film producer *

Thomas Jefferson Hogg Thomas Jefferson Hogg (24 May 1792 – 27 August 1862) was a British barrister and writer best known for his friendship with the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Hogg was raised in County Durham, but spent most of his life in London. ...

– barrister and writer * Stevie Lynn – professional wrestler * Christopher Middleton – navigator *

Gary Pallister Gary Andrew Pallister (born 30 June 1965) is an English former professional footballer and sports television pundit. As a player, he was a defender from 1984 to 2001 and is most noted for his nine-year spell at Manchester United from 1989 unt ...

– professional footballer with Middlesbrough, Manchester United, and England *

Franc Roddam Francis George "Franc" Roddam (born 29 April 1946) is an English film director, businessman, screenwriter, television producer and publisher, best known as the creator of ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' and the director of ''Quadrophenia'' (1979). He is ...

– film director *Dean Stobbart – creator of the

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

cartoon channel 442oons *Rear-Admiral

Polycarpus Taylor Rear admiral (Royal Navy), Rear-Admiral Polycarpus Taylor (1706/07 – 23 January 1781) was a Royal Navy officer of the eighteenth century, most notable for his service commanding ships in the West Indies during the War of the Austrian Success ...

* David Townsend – Test cricketer * Peter Townsend – cricketer * John Walker (1781–1859) – inventor of the

friction match A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

, buried in the grounds of St Mary's Church, Norton

References

External links

{{authority control Areas of Stockton-on-Tees