Shipbuilding in Teesside - In Pictures

I went to see this - brilliant exhibition for anyone who remembers Smith Dock (two of my family did their apprenticeships there). If you can't make it (it's in North London), the catalogue is worth buying. The prints look great too.
 
Whereabouts in North London is it?
I’m off there is a few weeks
masquesmog said:
I went to see this - brilliant exhibition for anyone who remembers Smith Dock (two of my family did their apprenticeships there). If you can't make it (it's in North London), the catalogue is worth buying. The prints look great to
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masquesmog said:
I went to see this - brilliant exhibition for anyone who remembers Smith Dock (two of my family did their apprenticeships there). If you can't make it (it's in North London), the catalogue is worth buying. The prints look great too.
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I worked at Smith's Dock from 1978 until it started to close down in 1986. I knew both Mark Dawse (picture 7) and Tony Burke (Shipwright) well. After leaving the Dock, we got issued a book that included pictures taken prior to its closure.

Did you know we had an order for four boats to be built at Smith's Dock that got built elsewhere (I seem to remember Poland getting the order) and had four boats (one being fitted out and three on the stocks) to build? It was the busiest it had been for some time.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
I worked at Smith's Dock from 1978 until it started to close down in 1986. I knew both Mark Dawse (picture 7) and Tony Burke (Shipwright) well. After leaving the Dock, we got issued a book that included pictures taken prior to its closure.

Did you know we had an order for four boats to be built at Smith's Dock that got built elsewhere (I seem to remember Poland getting the order) and had four boats (one being fitted out and three on the stocks) to build? It was the busiest it had been for some time.
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Both of my family had left by the mid 70s to work abroad, but I did know that it had a healthy order book when it was closed. Wasn't it part of the Swan Hunter group at the end, and their consolidation of the work involved moving contracts out of Smiths Dock to their other yards?
 
masquesmog said:
Both of my family had left by the mid 70s to work abroad, but I did know that it had a healthy order book when it was closed. Wasn't it part of the Swan Hunter group at the end, and their consolidation of the work involved moving contracts out of Smiths Dock to their other yards?
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Smith’s Dock did become part of the Swan Hunter group but kept its name.

When the closure was announced, Smith’s had two boats on the stocks and two boats to start. All this order was completed at the South Bank yard but men had to be brought in from other yards to complete the order. This was normal throughout British shipbuilding at the time and during my time at the Dock I was transferred to yards at Southampton, Port Glasgow, Govan, Birkenhead and Appledore.

If memory serves me right, the government thought the order for the other four boats would be built at other British yards but the company insisted it was at Smith’s or nothing. Thatcher refused to go back on the closure and the order was built abroad.
 
Fabulous photos - I still remember seeing them exhibited in Teesside Oh several decades ago now.

Perhaps you might like to view the first film of art student Ridley Scott, starring his brother Tony - where Tony visits the Greatham Creek boat people captured so amazingly by Ian Macdonald.
They are scenes straight out of Dickens and yet they are a century later on Teesside and as shown here a few minutes cycle ride out of the centre of Hartlepool.

 
Picture of Paddy's Hole can't have been taken in '86 'cos the Redcar Coke Ovens Preheater ([un]affectionately known as the coal mine in the sky) is in the background and clearly operational. The ovens and preheater were shut down in '82 and the preheater demolished. They were rebuilt as a wet charged plant and recommissioned in '84.
 
chickenrunner said:
Picture of Paddy's Hole can't have been taken in '86 'cos the Redcar Coke Ovens Preheater ([un]affectionately known as the coal mine in the sky) is in the background and clearly operational. The ovens and preheater were shut down in '82 and the preheater demolished. They were rebuilt as a wet charged plant and recommissioned in '84.
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I think you are right there. We left art college in '71 and I have a feeling Ian had already taken this photograph or perhaps it was soon after - too long ago for an accurate memory.
PS. I posted on the other thread - hadn't seen this one.
 
chickenrunner said:
Picture of Paddy's Hole can't have been taken in '86 'cos the Redcar Coke Ovens Preheater ([un]affectionately known as the coal mine in the sky) is in the background and clearly operational. The ovens and preheater were shut down in '82 and the preheater demolished. They were rebuilt as a wet charged plant and recommissioned in '84.
Click to expand...
I love this
 
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