1961: Working in a SUNDERLAND SHIPYARD | Sunderland Oak | World of Work | BBC Archive

"Why should we live and die by shipbuilding only?"
Philip Donnellan's beautiful documentary Sunderland Oak examines the hopes and fears of workers at the Bartram & Sons shipyard.
Originally broadcast 19 September, 1961.
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[@pit_stop77]

Proud men, debating forces out of their control

[@looperbirhinger7043]

3:20 "The issue of the point is - you've got too many boys chasing too few good jobs." This one hasn't changed at all.

[@Spookieham]

Hard men doing a hard job.

[@jameshodgkins559]

Imagine the amount of asbestos they come in contact with . Every day , day in & out

[@kevinmichael2538]

it's amazing to watch images of the United Kingdom in the 60's, it already shows how much a place is ahead of time because even the way people talk is different

[@mn4169]

My great uncle was welder at the shipyards, he could neither read nor write but was a first class welder.

[@TinLeadHammer]

This was filmed a year after a hanheld Eclair camera with sync sound was created. Looks much less stilted than 1950s vox pops. The BBC should provide more info about subjects and equipment used for every archive reel.

[@Alan..W]

This makes me so sad seeing our long lost heritage in a once proud Sunderland gone. We now have Nissan and it's going to be here for a long time to come, but let's wait and see .....

[@dorothyramser7805]

Brought memories back of crossing the bridge on the bus and seeing all the activity on the river

[@mrlotusmic]

You could relate the old fellas as parents debating to the UK construction industry today.

[@garryleeks4848]

Don’t mess with geezer with the 📝 paper

[@hellie_el]

wonderful sunderland accent!

[@davidoldboy5425]

I was 6, me Grandaa worked at many of the yards first as riveter then as welder, he'd had a hard life which was visible, as most had who'd been through the war. Sunderland was doomed as a shipbuilder due to one thing, geography, the Wear was too narrow, too shallow and with tight bends unsuitable for the size of ships becoming demanded after the 60's, it was that simple. With hindsight they should have swapped from ocean going to coastal and smaller vessels, but the foresight and will weren't there, the Dutch taught them a lesson here. To rub their noses in it they were sent abroad to teach other countries, signing their own death warrant. Everything comes to it's end, shipyards and pits included, but the people naturally were loathe to accept this fact. There will never be a return as the idiots in the council build houses on riverside sites, instead of keeping the areas near the sea for future industry. R.I.P. Sunderland heavy industry both past, present and future.

[@lloydmacknight6214]

Proper Mackem blokes

[@daffyduk77]

Crane op's job not for the partially sighted ... no CCTV to help

[@andrewstripreports9275]

Sunderland is now a s*** hole these days

[@janesmith9024]

My grandfather died in a shipyard accident in Sunderland in 1930, leaving his new wife and tiny baby. A wasted life of a very talented man I never got to meet. May he rest in peace.

[@davedogge2280]

I just wish Ant & Dec would have had a more wholesome life working at the shipyard there. On a more serious note this is great listening to the serious economic concerns of workers in their local area from over 60 years ago, these days it's just hire and fire with few working rights if you're a bloke.

[@nellyfett2681]

Can't stick them two!

[@Itsembish.]

But this is Sunderland not Newcastle

[@ctcurry1777]

Other countries can build things cheaper. Another great film.

[@gntdriver2840]

Strange but they don't all sound as if their from Sunderland

[@zeddeka]

I guess a large employer like that would have pulled in people from a wider area

[@johnboy14]

This video is the perfect example of what happens when you don’t evolve, the world just passes you by. There’s no real reason this industry had to die.

[@Chris-pq3wp]

Well there isn't any commercial ship building in any Western country anymore except for cruise liners which themselves are having a hard time after the pandemic

[@tonypaddler]

@johnboy ; Thatcher.

[@zeddeka]

​@@tonypaddlershe definitely killed a lot of it. But many of the problems were there long before her. British industry had been in decline since the late 1800s. You need only look at an old map to see just how many shipyards had gone even by the 1960s. Britain was stuck in the past. We wouldn't invest or change to new techniques and machinery and as a result, the world passed us by.

[@zeddeka]

​@@Chris-pq3wpthat's not true. The largest shipbuilders in Europe are in Trieste in Italy, with other yards at a number of other Italian cities. They make a range of ships, not just cruise ships. There are also the shipyards in St. Nazaire in France, which are huge. They regularly make tankers, commercial vessels and naval ships, as well as cruise ships.

[@Chris-pq3wp]

@th8257 that is nothing compared to Chinese and south Korean ship production. Italy and France don't make tankers, bulk carriers or container ships which are the vast majority of commercial shipping

[@thomastereszkiewicz2241]

are these all actors?

[@bazsnell3178]

Re those the men who wore tee shirts out when it was snowing?

[@marine4lyfe85]

The old boy with the newspaper looks like Paul's grandfather in "A Hard Days Night".

[@neo1559]

Wasn’t this supposedly around the time that Western men were oppressing women, taking it easy, and laughing over cigars and cocktails?

[@lostyank]

"Guarantee of a lifetime's work ..." 😑😂😑

[@jasonayres]

(4:35) I was waiting for at least one of the older men to say, "During the war..we/you would have to.." Because that's what older people said back then. In my upbringing, anyway, a boy sat there and listened. (An occasional glance at the clock, perhaps. Staring at my shoes, etc. But being quiet, out of respect.)

[@garryleeks4848]

During the war

[@robertbest4398]

UK government Tories and labour brutal wrecked country shocking ongoing

[@dean6816]

Wheys keys are theese!

[@alanbeaumont4848]

An industry destroyed by a refusal to modernise.

[@heinkle1]

A microcosm of British industry at large

[@Spookieham]

Plenty of blame to go round. Lack of investment plus poor management gets its share of the blame also. Clydeside went the same way although Warship building survives.

[@alanbeaumont4848]

@@Spookieham The writing was on the wall in 1945; the American had demonstrated how to build ships quickly with new techniques.

[@Macm73]

Wasn’t it J L Thompson yard that developed those techniques,ie liberty ships where patented by jlThompsons. Demand for ships after the war was so high they couldn’t cease production to modernise. Heartbreaking to see the Wear no longer building ships.

[@custa73burner]

Doxford's yard in Pallion still holds the record for the most ships built in a single callender year during WW2

[@TheJuzi]

Look what they took from us...

[@zeddeka]

Whose "they"? You some kind of russian troll?

[@roddymcniven8734]

Then the wheels fell aff

[@IAmSoMuchBetterThanYou]

Yep. Otherwise known as the Thatcher government.

[@roddymcniven8734]

@@IAmSoMuchBetterThanYou how could I forget? Was born in 66, certainly fkd Scotland over.

[@fidelcatsro6948]

good old days of working without hardhats, gloves, welding goggles, etc...

[@IAmSoMuchBetterThanYou]

And the accompanying gaping headwounds, lost fingers, deaths from falls, blindness etc...

[@bid84]

Ever get a piece of tile enamel travel to the back of your eye and start to cut the nerves from the back?

[@rosewhite---]

how man UK jobs were lost because UK workers were idle and didn't give a damn about quality of getting products out in time.

[@johnstudd4245]

And unions protecting them.

[@kopynd1]

no tradesmen left, all machines operators now, a joiner years ago had all his tools in a box and not 1 electrical tool in there, all hand tools

[@justonsullivan3807]

The good ole days. 🙏🇺🇲🗽🇬🇧🙏

[@occidentadvocate.9759]

Wheres all the Black and Brown people? I've been taught Britain was allways "multi- Racial and Multicultural"?

[@custa73burner]

Shipyard workers were mostly grandfather, father, and son workplaces and in the early 60's there were very few "immigrants" in Sunderland. You'll also notice there were no women, even though women were employed to keep the yards functional during WW2 while a lot of the men went to war. When some of the men returned, the women were replaced.

[@zeddeka]

Why do you care, russian troll?

[@borderlands6606]

I used to enjoy poetic documentaries like this. Now they seem like the forerunner of the propaganda that is universal today.

[@garryleeks4848]

When men weren’t scared of grafting work

[@SwazersC]

When men were not attacked & abused on a daily basis by the MSM.

[@IAmSoMuchBetterThanYou]

Sure.

[@zeddeka]

When trolls weren't russian

[@manchesterukabriefvideooftime]

Boy or Girl you mean 🤣

[@edwardwilson7485]

Not much equality or diversity there, bloody dinosaurs

[@HorseMalone]

Lol...

[@buy.to.let.britain]

i would rather claim universal income, than work doing this !!