A view of the RECLAMATION PLANT positioned in Tees Dock on 13 June 1968. The following details are taken from an invaluable "little black book" which I salvaged from someone who was going to throw it out!! when he and I left THPA Ltd.
T.C.C. RECLAMATION PLANT NO. 1
STEEL NON-PROPELLED STATIONARY FLOATING PUMPING PLANT
Port of Registry: Stockton; Registered tonnage 206.02 (gross?); dimensions: 110'0" x 28'1" x 10'1" (that's feet ' and inches " in each case).
Built by Fleming & Ferguson Ltd., Paisley, 1931 for Tees Conservancy Commissioners, Middlesbrough, at a cost of £36,751.
Capable of disposing material by means of centrifugal pumps through a 4,000 foot pipeline and to a static head of 20 feet at the rate of 1,000 tons per hour. Fitted with a clear water diluting pump capable of delivering 17,000 gallons of water per minute.
To allow for rise and fall of tide, a special ball and socket joint pipe with telescopic connection is fitted between the pontoon and the fixed discharge pipeline on the jetty. Power taken from a 11,000 volt main through a 1,500 K.V.A., 11,000/440 volt transformer. Twelve-way link box fitted on pontoon to receive shore cables. Arrangements made for disconnection to enable vessel to be moved.
The main pumps motors are each 750 Brake Horse Power and arranged to work either singly or in series; 293 rpm. The diluting pump motor is 350 Brake Horse Power at 587 rpm. Electrically driven winches are fitted fore and aft, for the purpose of fleeting (sic - but not sure what that means?) the barges.
Fitted with a complete installation of lighting and heating, through a 440/110 volts 3 phase transformer. Alternative supply available from a "Gardner" 2L2, hand-starting compression ignition heavy oil engine stand-by generating set.
The book then goes on to detail who supplied the various motors, with serial numbers!

By 1968 the plant had passed into the hands of the Tees and Hartlepools Port Authority, newly formed on 1 January 1967. Most reclamation work on the river was by then about complete after a 30-40 year programme. I can't recall exactly, but I suspect the plant did not survive many more years after this.
Ron

Is it Tees Dock .... the terrace of houses looks out of place for there? Or are they part of a factory?

George,

Yes, definitely Tees Dock. Mind you I've just checked back in my notebook to make sure my memory is not at fault!

The Reclamation Plant was a fixture on the opposite side of Tees Dock for several years, already there in situ when the Dock was officially opened in 1963 (operational from 1962). She was about halfway along the length of the dock so I suppose about where the present Potash Terminal (opened 1974) runs on into Tees Dock nos 6 and 7 berths (or probably Container Terminal these days?) (opened 1977). Those tanks in the background must be from the Shell Refinery but those buildings are something of a puzzle, considering the whole area was still marshland only a few years previously!

Ron

So the east side of Tees Dock. Had not realised that the Shell refinery was there as early as 1968. Building still a mystery as you say.

The building was one of the long rolling mills at Lackenby Steel Works, just
"up the road" from Tees Dock.

Tony

Did a short spell on this one, she carried two Engineers and unusually the Chief Engineer was also the Skipper, can't remember how many other Crew were on board, both the Suction and Liquidation heads only moved up and down as far as I remember there was no sideways movement which meant that the Barge had to be moved backwards and forwards to be emptied in the correct sequence in order not to "Hog" the Barge, I think possibly the term previously queried about most probably was to do with the Barge movement. Before start up one of the jobs was to walk the discharge line to check for damage/ leaks, what struck me was the amount of ammunition that had been pumped through on occasions laying in front of the pipe outlet!

Interesting reading in the local Press in regards to the Disposal of spoil on land from the river bed due to recent Dredging Operations, it has to be said that most of the land to the East of the Tees Dock which is now built on came from the river bed via the Reclamation Plant!

I remember working for Kier Construction building the now Phillips oil terminal. I was a tug skipper and the barge that transported
the legs "round piles" was the old reclamation plant obviously the deck cleared and racking welded in to hold the piles.

The Reclamation Plant was working ok when I left her When was she stripped out to carry Piles Sailfin, must admit a bit surprised to read that, the amount of Copper in her would have paid for the Plant and her Conversion!
In later years I worked on the then new Aromatics One commissioning the Boiler Plant for an American Company called PROCON after their Engineer was sent home after punching a Plumber and the rest of the Site walked out!!
As the Plant was built on reclaimed land the Turbine Pump couplings had to be clocked every week due to settlement.

I think it was about 1976 and yes there was still a lot of copper in her, albeit converted to carry piles. I remember the riggers coming off her with sacks of it stripping it out during travel from dents wharf to Phillips. Don't know what happened to her after the Phillips terminal was completed. We also had another barge with a crane mounted and that was the remains of HMS Narvik and was named Portal Narvik owned by Kier Group this barge is now on the river meadway with the John H Amos sat on it.