Ivy House

Ivy House has been names after Stockton's very own Ivy Close, born on July 15, Miss Close would go on to become the winner of the Miss Great Britain Beauty Contest, where Ivy beat 1,500 hopefuls to win the Daily Mirror sponsored contest. Ivy was soon being hailed as the ‘Most Beautiful woman in the World’ and her picture appeared on millions of postcards around the world.
After winning the fist prize ( a car) in the beauty contest later went on to marry Elwin Neame a photographer who later became a film maker along side Ivy herself
the two were considered pioneer film makers from 1908 unitl th 20s.
after the birth of their son Ronald who grew up to become a distinguished cinematographer, screenwriter and director and earned Oscar nominations writing the screenplays for ‘Brief Encounter’ and ‘Great Expectations'
full time motherhood wasn't enough for Ivy however as she stepped into an acting roll. It was Elwin’s first attempt at a short film, using his home as a set and wife as his star that led to Ivy’s 12- month acting contract with film producer Cecil Hepworth.
Her debut was “Dream Paintings” in 1912, in which she appeared as several works of art, followed by ‘The Lady Of Shallot’, ‘Mifanwy : A Tragedy’ and her first feature-length film ‘The Lure Of London’. At the end of her contract, she formed Ivy Close Productions and made ‘The Girl From The Sky’, ‘The Haunting Of Silas P. Gould’ and ‘Darkest London’.