YARD VISIT

THE LAST TYNE-SIDERS

The volunteers keeping the Tyne’s shipbuilding history alive

WORDS BARRY PICKTHALL PHOTOGRAPHY PPL PHOTO AGENCY

Here’s a yard hidden away in the industrial heritage of the North East, a veritable time capsule harking back to the great ship and boatbuilding days on the River Tyne when great ships like the Mauretania, Carpathia, and in later years the two aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS

Illustrious slid down the slipways, together with my far more modest classic yacht Sea Jay.

World War Two kept the coal, iron and shipbuilding industries well stoked but by the mid-60s and early 70s, shipyards along the Tyne were struggling under cost and delivery pressures from Korea and Japan. And along with them crumbled the smaller boatyards sandwiched between the large slipways that fed like pilot fish off their larger commercial cousins. Now, the ships, the yards, the skilled jobs, and the cacophony of sounds that once surrounded the river have all gone, with one exception – the North East

Maritime Trust working museum in South Shields.

Here, a keen band of skilled volunteers, all retired, keep themselves busy maintaining the past by restoring wooden boats up to 40ft (12.2m) long with strong links to local history. The two sheds and slipway where wooden fishing cobles had once been built, was re-opened as a working museum in September 2005, ironically the same month that The Lyme Bay – the last new ship to float down the river – sounded the final death knell for the industry.

I found the museum, more a traditional boatyard, tucked down Wapping Street, once a thriving ship and boatbuilding strip alongside the Tyne, during my search for any signs of John Swinburne & Co, where my own traditional Rhodes 6-Tonner Sea Jay had been fourth in a line of five 27ft (8.2m) wooden classics built between 1964 and 1965. My unexpected arrival drew a warm welcome from 20 or more volunteers all with mugs of tea in their hands, preparing to sit down with their lunch boxes for an engaging natter.

Alec Renwick, Chairman, and historian Steven Landells gave me a guided tour starting with the covered slipway where the coble Peggy, which volunteers had fully restored a few years ago, was awaiting a winter refit. “It’s as much a club as a museum” Landells explained. “A lot are retired and have found it a great place to come. We have craftsmen from all walks of life and the shared expertise means there’s not much that we can’t tackle in house.”

“How many boatbuilders do you have in the group?” I asked, and immediately, a shout from the circle of lunchboxes joked, “None: There’s no room here for know-alls!”

Perhaps not,but judging by the workmanship on the restoration of the Bedford, a traditional pulling lifeboat currently on the stocks, there is no shortage of woodworking skills here. Built in 1886 by LB Lambert at South Shields for the princely sum of £330, she’s a pulling, surf lifeboat measuring 33ft 2in (10.1m) LOA, 10ft 8in (3.3m) beam, with 3ft 6in (1.1m) draft and was propelled by 12 oarsmen. A ballast tank, when filled, provides extra stability.

After her naming ceremony, the lifeboat’s capabilities were tested. With crew in place, she was filled to the gunwales before a word from coxswain led to her cork plugs being removed. The boat emptied itself in just 52 seconds.

Later, competition from the RNLI ‘s next generation of motorised lifeboats stationed at North Shields split opinions, with The Tyne Lifeboat Society maintaining that their surf rowing lifeboats were better suited to local inshore conditions. A motor was fitted in 1935 but proved unsuccessful. Before finally being taken out of service in 1937, the Bedford was launched on 55 occasions and saved

Below left: Famous painting by Edwin Straker of the Northumberland coble Blyth, typical of the comercial beach boats in the North East

Below right: Cutaway and GA of the Rhodes 6-tonner Sea Jay

Facing page: The museum; The team of retired craftsman – all volunteers

50 lives. The Trust’s project is to restore the Bedford back to her original (no engine) condition. This is expected by June.

The museum’s workforce are all skilled with their hands and prepared to take on any task, even down to making traditional cartwheels, despite there not being a wheelwright among them. Trustee David Parker takes up the story:

“After 135 years, the wagon wheels on the Bedford’s lifeboat cradle were found to be very rotten; to the point of collapse and we had to research the traditional art of wheel wrighting. We found that each wheel comprises of three significant parts; the hub, the spokes and felloes. Each is fashioned from different timbers to maximise the characteristics of the wood. The hub is of elm, the spokes are oak and the felloes are made from ash. Various jigs were made to facilitate the cutting of intricate shapes on the band saw before being fashioned by hand. Once assembled, a steel tyre is heated then shrunk around the entire outer circumference to bind everything in place.”

When heated to a dull red, the steel tyre expands by 1/8thin (3mm) for every 1ft (30cm) of circumference, so when quenched with water, this contracts to crunch all the wooden components together. “It’s quite a dramatic part of the wheelwrighting process,” he adds, conjuring up thoughts of what modern-day health and safety rules might make of this once ancient art. Take it as read that a crew from the local South Shields Fire Training Centre was on hand to provide additional expertise!

When completed, the Bedford will be placed on permanent display in South Shields, alongside the 1918 Tynemouth lifeboat Henry Frederick Swan, one of the first self-righting motor/sailing/pulling lifeboats, and the trust’s first long-term restoration, completed in April 2020.

A look through the Ship and Boat Builders National Federation Review for 1959 shows 16 member companies in the Tyne region: Clelands (Successors) Ltd; Donnelly S; Harrison & Son; Hill’s Construction Co Ltd; Lambie (Walsend) Ltd; Mitchelson & Sons; Palmers Hebburn Co Ltd; Patterson & Co; Robson’s Boatbuilders Ltd; St Anthony’s Slipway Ltd; John Swinburne & Co; Tyne Dock Engineering Ltd; Aln Boatyard at Alnmouth; J&J Harrison at Amble; W Campbell at Blyth; and J Eric Brown at Durham.

All have now gone, covered by housing estates, yacht clubs or marinas. One of the oldest boatbuilding names was R Robson & Co established in 1830 on the edge of the Tyne at Shadwell Street, South Shields, now renamed Wapping Street and close to the present North East Maritime Trust Museum. The founder’s son James Robson served his apprenticeship there from 1918-1923 and after his father’s retirement, ran the business until 1945. Their stock in trade was building commercial fishing cobles, and when James’ son Maurice took over after the war, he moved the yard to larger premises up river in Templetown, hoping perhaps to feed off the fit-out work from Readhead’s Shipyard next door. This was one of the more enduring boatyards, fighting the inevitable until the early ‘80s. The yard is now an extension to Riverside Quay owned by the Tyne Port Authority.

John Swinburne started his boatbuilding business in 1950 on the Lawe, now a housing estate in South Shields, to build leisure craft. He supplied Ullswater YC with six Jack Holt-designed GP14 dinghies when the club was first formed and went on to build a series of Rhodes 6-Tonner performance sailing cruisers designed by local naval architect Paul M Rhodes. The company also fitted out a number of 34ft (10.4m) glassfibre-hulled motor cruisers.

The mid-60s was a turning point within the leisure market as the industry graduated from wood to fibreglass, and Swinburne was one to be caught out by the transfer in technology. “Glassfibre was always a dirty word in our house” recalls Swinburne’s Son, Dave, adding, “he was a real craftsman who loved working with wood.”

Sadly, the Swinburne story was one replicated across the UK boatbuilding industry; one of feast, famine, ambitious expansion plans then bankruptcy. In 1965 he had plans to rebuild and cover the entire 8,000sqft of waterside space with a state-of-the-art facility to build boats up to 65ft with an eye to servicing the large fleet of commercial fishing vessels based across the water at North Shields Fish Quay.

But as his son recalls, “There was a credit squeeze, and despite Dad having a full order book, the banks would not consider loans. Those plans for expansion never came to fruition and he was forced to borrow £5,000 from a private investor who saw an opportunity to take over the yard in 1967 and foreclosed. Dad not only lost the business and his savings, but his prized Jaguar and life insurance policies. It broke him. He got work in a local shipyard, but he was like a caged lion and died at the age of 49.”

But the work of John Swinburne and the many other skilled workers of the Tyne now lives on in the work of the North East Maritime Trust Museum and boats like Sea Jay which will continue to bear the torch well into the 22nd century. There is no entry fee to visit the museum, but there is a particular welcome to those prepared to roll up their sleeves or donate a small amount towards the restoration work. The museum is supported by local industry including International Paints and South Tyneside Council and has won grants from Comic Relief and the National Lottery.

Above left: Boatbuilding was already in decline on the River Tyne in the build-up to WW2. This photo from 1938 shows the remains of a boatyard on Green’s Terrace, South Shields

Above right: Four locally built pulling, surf inshore lifeboats including The Bedford, during a 1910 parade on the Tyne

Facing page, clockwise from top left: The main workshop; David Herron, Alan Bolam and Stan Grey work on The Bedford; First of a new set of oars ready for painting; Richard Branson, Derek Seymour and Alec Renwick quench the steel tyre around a new wooden wheel; A coble in the second shed awaits attention; Cheers!

nemaritimetrust.co.uk