Page 1 of 1

Shipbreaking at Dunston-on-Tyne

PostPosted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 8:59 pm
by Keelman
Clayton & Davie.jpg
A view from July 1968 of the Dunston shipbreaking yard belonging to Clayton & Davie. The paddle tug Eppleton Hall is seen across the decks of the ferries SOUTH SHIELDS and TYNEMOUTH, of late operated by the Tyne Improvement Commission. Behind the camera were several fishing vessels awaiting the cutters torch.
The breaking yard was served by rail, several wagons glimpsed beyond the tug are waiting to be loaded. A good number of steam locomotives were demolished at the yard after the demise of steam working on British Railway metals in 1968.
The two posts protruding from the river bed in the background mark the site of an old mud timber beach where seasoning took place, the stacks of timber behind this spot are on the premises of the timber merchants Palmer Hall & Co. Ltd.
The partly obscured tall brick chimney belongs to the Co-operative Soap Works

Re: Shipbreaking at Dunston-on-Tyne

PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:54 pm
by magoonigal
So was that just above where the Co-op Flour Mill was??

Which is now the back of the Metro Centre.

Re: Shipbreaking at Dunston-on-Tyne

PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 11:17 am
by Keelman
Paul,the piece of wall glimpsed through the wheelhouse of the ferry is the western extremity of the CWS Flour Mill in this easterly looking view. The area that was eventually occupied by the Metro Centre is a little further up stream, beginning more or less level with the site where CEGB's Dunston Generating Station stood (and at the point in the river where Dunston mooring buoys were sited).

Re: Shipbreaking at Dunston-on-Tyne

PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 12:47 pm
by magoonigal
Thanks, its a long time since I was round the back of the Metro Centre, but I'm tuned in to where the site is.

When I was working at our Blaydon Site we used to frequent the Cross Keys on occassions as the food was a tad better than the Skiff! and the back road was quicker.