Middlesbrough - North Riding

Drill Hall, Grange road west
Bright street
Drill Hall, Abingdon road (between 5 and 25)
Grove Hill road

Northumbrian (North Riding) R.G.A. Heavy Battery Territorial Force
No. 16 Company Tees Section Coast Battalion Royal Engineers
Electric Light Company of the North Riding Territorial Force, Fortress Royal Engineers
Tees Division Volunteer Submarine Miners (Royal Engineers)
A and B Companies of the 4th Territorial force Battalion Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own (Yorkshire Regiment)
D Squadron Yorkshire Hussars (Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own)

Kelly’s 1913 directory informs us that, ‘The Northumbrian (North Riding) R.G.A. Heavy Battery Territorial Force [originally 1st North Yorks Artillery Volunteers] has one battery of q.f. 4.7 guns and ammunition column; two guns A, B and D subsection at Middlesborough, one gun C sub-section at Thornaby; the head quarters are at the Drill hall, Grange road west, a plain building of white brick, erected in 1880, at a cost of £1,100, and available for drilling about 1,000 men. In 1910 the premises were extended, and now include a riding school and stables.

‘The head quarters of the No. 16 Company Tees Section Coast Battalion Royal Engineers, in Bright street, erected in 1886, are of red brick, and include spacious drill sheds erected in 1892; instruction is here given also to the Electric Light Company of the North Riding Territorial Force, Fortress Royal Engineers, whose head quarters are in the same building.’

‘Instruction is given here also to the Tees Division Volunteer Submarine Miners (Royal Engineers) whose head-quarters are in the same building.’

Kelly also lists A and B Companies of the 4th Territorial force Battalion Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own (Yorkshire Regiment) with ‘head quarters & armoury, Abingdon road’, and mentions D Squadron Yorkshire Hussars (Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own) having head quarters in Grove Hill road.

‘The 1st Volunteer Battalion Durham Light Infantry has 3 companies G. H., and L. and a cycle section stationed here. The head quarters being in Abingdon Road.’

Kelly, 1881, places the drill hall between numbers 5 and 25 Abingdon road.

The Grange road west address is confirmed by Bulmer’s Directory, 1890, as the location of the North Riding Yorkshire Artillery Volunteers.

We have found a reference to the drill hall on Grange Road West as being extant (in use as Jobcentre Plus) and would be grateful for confirmation.
Photograph not available
© All material is copyright - refer to the Terms of Use

the first attempt at content

The Drill Hall Project - Charting a neglected legacy