I would LOVE to see this made into a whole hour long documentary programme Matt! We are thinking of making one about Basildon aka "Bas Vegas" My mate in Writtle even knows some pretty convincing Jeremy Kyle contestants, come and visit Sunny Essex!
NORTON GREEN, BILLINGHAM, DARLINGTON, MIDDLESBROUGH, NEWCASTLE, STOCKTON, YORK & YARM - NEIGHBOURS AND LOCAL HISTORY IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND Most people living in the North of England think they know their neighbours and local history but how would you know your neighbour worked for MI6? Most who knew the Fairclough family didn’t have a clue that from the seventies Bill Fairclough was a secret agent (MI6 codename JJ) working for various intelligence agencies. What’s more they had no idea he was following in his parents’ footsteps. Bill's parents met during the Second World War when his father, ostensibly working for Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), worked secretly on creating bombs to wipe out the Nazi's industrial hinterland. They married in Yarm in 1941. After the war in Europe ended in May 1945, Dr Richard Alan Fairclough continued to work for British Intelligence (MI1). Not long after retiring from ICI in the seventies, Richard Fairclough opened and ran an antiquarian book shop business in Yarm until his death in 1987. The book shop was a bit of an enigma as it was also a haunt for spooks. When not gated at St Peter’s School, York Bill Fairclough spent most of his childhood and early teens in the North East of England. As a child in the fifties he was educated at Red House School in Norton. He lived in Billingham and then in a vast white house (once the home of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley) in Norton Green overlooking the duck pond. In Bill’s teens, the Faircloughs lived in Middleton St George and later in Yarm. He also lived in flats he rented near nightclubs he helped run during the late sixties and early seventies in Portrack, Stockton-on-Tees and Jesmond in Newcastle upon Tyne. Conveniently for him they were near the offices of the firm of Chartered Accountants he worked for in Middlesbrough and Newcastle upon Tyne. So if you lived, worked or visited any of these places you may well have unwittingly encountered this “spooky” family, been their neighbours or inhabited the houses they lived in. A quick web-search will even disclose some of the addresses where they lived. Mind you, if you live in any of them now, best sweep them for bugs! Details of where the Faircloughs lived and worked are given in most of Bill Fairclough’s bios on the web such as can be found at everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/bill-fairclough. If you were as fascinated as we were, you can also read the raw fact based thriller Beyond Enkription, the first stand-alone novel to be released in The Burlington Files series (theburlingtonfiles.org/#/reviews). It’s a memorable and distinctively different noir espionage thriller based on his and his family’s experiences in 1974.
Gorgeous place
I was there in '85 for the folks festival (represented Canada). Brings back lots of memories! Thanks!
I watch this weekly
I would LOVE to see this made into a whole hour long documentary programme Matt! We are thinking of making one about Basildon aka "Bas Vegas" My mate in Writtle even knows some pretty convincing Jeremy Kyle contestants, come and visit Sunny Essex!
Can't believe it's ten years since the original and also my personal favourite GET A CLAIM IN
Why do I only know about this now? This is everything!
Top quality!
Love it!
classic, absolute classic. love it
Truly inspiring
"I've just bought these 4 knoppers from Aldi"
nice one.. made me a bit homesick....
"What made it special" Me: -cough- Granger games.
Absolutely! R.I.P. GG!
often described as the las vegas of teeside 😭😭
do a video about Hardwick and roseworth
He wouldn't get out alive.
It feels weird seeing my town in a vid on YT, gotta tell ya it ain't exactly paradise, but it's home
NORTON GREEN, BILLINGHAM, DARLINGTON, MIDDLESBROUGH, NEWCASTLE, STOCKTON, YORK & YARM - NEIGHBOURS AND LOCAL HISTORY IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND
Most people living in the North of England think they know their neighbours and local history but how would you know your neighbour worked for MI6? Most who knew the Fairclough family didn’t have a clue that from the seventies Bill Fairclough was a secret agent (MI6 codename JJ) working for various intelligence agencies. What’s more they had no idea he was following in his parents’ footsteps.
Bill's parents met during the Second World War when his father, ostensibly working for Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), worked secretly on creating bombs to wipe out the Nazi's industrial hinterland. They married in Yarm in 1941. After the war in Europe ended in May 1945, Dr Richard Alan Fairclough continued to work for British Intelligence (MI1).
Not long after retiring from ICI in the seventies, Richard Fairclough opened and ran an antiquarian book shop business in Yarm until his death in 1987. The book shop was a bit of an enigma as it was also a haunt for spooks.
When not gated at St Peter’s School, York Bill Fairclough spent most of his childhood and early teens in the North East of England. As a child in the fifties he was educated at Red House School in Norton. He lived in Billingham and then in a vast white house (once the home of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley) in Norton Green overlooking the duck pond. In Bill’s teens, the Faircloughs lived in Middleton St George and later in Yarm. He also lived in flats he rented near nightclubs he helped run during the late sixties and early seventies in Portrack, Stockton-on-Tees and Jesmond in Newcastle upon Tyne. Conveniently for him they were near the offices of the firm of Chartered Accountants he worked for in Middlesbrough and Newcastle upon Tyne.
So if you lived, worked or visited any of these places you may well have unwittingly encountered this “spooky” family, been their neighbours or inhabited the houses they lived in. A quick web-search will even disclose some of the addresses where they lived. Mind you, if you live in any of them now, best sweep them for bugs!
Details of where the Faircloughs lived and worked are given in most of Bill Fairclough’s bios on the web such as can be found at everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/bill-fairclough. If you were as fascinated as we were, you can also read the raw fact based thriller Beyond Enkription, the first stand-alone novel to be released in The Burlington Files series (theburlingtonfiles.org/#/reviews). It’s a memorable and distinctively different noir espionage thriller based on his and his family’s experiences in 1974.
I live here.
This came out on my 10th birthday
I live here
Can't believe I've got big up mattyfodor as my media studies tutor now lol
It’s like Alan Partridge meets David Brent 😂, should make more about other places.
I live there.,......
HOME!
Cracking plur
Oi oi lad plz come do Ingleby and yarm
Quality Paul lad
should have gone to billingham college and got an education
You should have used a capital letter at the start of your sentence and a full stop at the end of it shouldn't you? How's that for an education?
I'm sorry but I live here and I'm quite cringed by the way this is made
Good, then the joke isn't wasted on you is it?