Carl Johan Kindberg senior was born in Karlstand, Varmland, Sweden in 1840 & became a sea-going carpenter. He arrived in West Hartlepool from Sweden in about 1882 & set up a building business. Carl died on 1 April 1916 at West Hartlepool. His son Franz Oscar, who had been about three years of age when he first arrived with his father, took over the business & converted it to a ship repairers.

In 1930 Franz was living at 'Glencroft' in Caledonian Road & by 1935 he resided at 'Pine Croft' Stockton Road, Foggy Furze.

Carl Robert Kindberg was born in Sweden in 1872 & married Maria Kristina Eleanora Dalen. Carl died on 14 December 1944 & Maria died on 11 April 1953 both at Edinburgh. Carl was a master mariner & among the ships he sailed from West Hartlepool were Veraston, Carrie & Elfie.

Agnes, one of the daughters of Carl Robert Kindberg, became a student in 1922 at what is now the College of Art in Hartlepool & joined the full time staff in 1930. She was a painter & a gifted needlewoman. In 1942 she took up an appointment in Edinburgh as a teacher of dress design & embroidery. In 1951 there was a one woman show of her work at the Lyceum Gallery in Edinburgh which displayed hundreds of pieces of designs, lino cuts, water colour sketches & embroideries.

In the 1870s a Swedish pastor, Johan August Dalen, saw to the spiritual needs of the many seaman of the Swedish merchant marine who plied daily into Hartlepool. From 1876 the services were carried out in a dockside church which had been converted from an old shed. It was felt that a more substantial building was required and in 1884 a foundation stone was laid in Middleton Road & the following year the church was inaugurated by Pastor Dalen of the Swedish Seaman's Mission. He had raised the funds to build the church almost single handed. In WW1 the church suffered damage in the bombardment. It was repaired after the Armistice but was again damaged in 1941 by the Germans.

Middleton Road, Hartlepool, at it's junction with Clarence Road. The building is the Raglan Quoit Club which is in Stuart Street. The derelict land is where the Swedish Church stood.

Hartlepool's Swedish Church was supposedly the oldest of its kind in Britain. On this image, Inga-Britta Blomqvist is leading the traditional procession of St Lucia with seven attendants.

The congregation is made up of Hartlepool's Scandanavian community and their British friends and crews from Scandinavian ships in port. Following the candlelit procession, Swedish Lucia cakes are eaten by candlelight.

A Hartlepool Mail report at the time said that it could be the last such service in Hartlepool as the congregation may next year be moved to Middlesbrough.

View looking NE to church on corner of Middleton Road & Clarence Road. Gas holder visible in background.

Swedish Church, Middleton Road. The Swedish or Scandanavian church was on the corner of Middleton Road and Clarence Road and opened in 1884. In 1954, the congregation moved to Middlesbrough.

Photograph says taken in 1908, the church on the corner of Middleton and Clarence Roads was to serve the Scandanavian community in the town and those visiting  who were primarily in shipping and timber trades.

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This image is of an altar painting, executed by a Swedish artist, and it was taken just prior to the demolition of the church. The painting was to be removed to the Middlesbrough Scandinavian Church which would become the place of worship for people who had attended the Hartlepool church.