Once upon a time in Sundeland we made ships

This film was shot in the North East of England on the River Wear, in Sunderland, once the biggest shipbuilding town in the world, with the co-operation of the workforce at Austin and Pickersgill (holders of the Queen's Award for Industry).

[@mehcol]

from a fellow mackem we did build some bloody good ships

[@WestWing99]

When I was a child I could never understand how a bottle of champagne could send a ship into the river.! 😂

[@mehcol]

Pennywell comp and our badge was ' the Torrens ' Torrens (1875 - 1910) was a clipper designed to carry passengers and cargo between London and Port Adelaide, South Australia. She was the fastest ship to sail on that route, and the last sailing ship on which Joseph Conrad would serve before embarking on his writing career.

[@andrewf9041]

I was born off Chester Road, High Barnes side, in 71, when I was little, and a ship launched, you could hear it from there. Sad the country now has sod all industry. No ships, pits, iron and steelworks. With utilties being so high now, we could do with the pits, and the cokeworks, to have town gas again.

[@leerichardson3752]

as i run past the glass centre, you can still see where the launch strip ran into the river...

[@gordoncarter348]

Ex j l thompsons Sunderland shipbuilders north sands yard on the wear mate served my time there

[@lewisner]

A&P and Doxford's were closed because the EU decided they wanted to "reduce shipbuilding capacity in the UK". All the more reason to vote to leave the EU if our masters ever allow us to vote on it.

[@ooohcheese]

WE did make ships! JLs, Laings, Doxy's, Pikkies, the Tyne. I was a welder in all'. Court Line, British Shipbuilders? You're right. but! We will never have that vote.

[@nigelmetcalf852]

lewisner i

[@lewisner]

The Doxies Ghost can stop rattling its chains.

[@juliecook8890]

what a sad day we saw our whole heritage die under thatcher, I cried when the last ship went as did most of us x

[@lewisner]

And the cranes. As a kid I was fascinated by the cranes, especially the big one next to the Queen Alexandra Bridge.

[@Janus-fn2uz]

You couldn't be more wrong son. Our greatest pm was far sighted to see the economics of shipbuilding in our was doomed and had plans for the future. Unlike your useless labour lot who were blind to this, as you seemed to be. A brilliant woman.

[@zeddeka]

​@@Janus-fn2uzyou're actually both way off. British industry had been in serious decline since the 1800s, accelerated by two world wars. The writing had been on the wall for many years, and everyone failed to grasp the nettle. At a time when Britain needed a real industrial strategy, Thatcher offered nothing but a catastrophic flirtation with monetarism (which she later disowned) which sent a lot of good businesses to the wall too; and a quasi religious belief in the market as the saviour for everything. The all too obvious market failure still scars Sunderland. We are all to blame. We were still dreaming dreams of empire and acting like we still had its captive markets, while the rest of the world was running rings round us. But to imagine Thatcher was some kind of saviour is a historically illiterate joke.

[@originalshadowfax]

32 apprentices??? .................. thats F..k all for the number of people they employed, I worked for a engineering company down in Rugby and we had over 70 apprentices on our books and we didn't employ a 5th of full time employees that they did. Bit of rose coloured specs I believe. Oh and before anyone has ago, I worked down the pits and went through the strike 30 years ago, but I've moved on

[@johnbarnes7274]

Has a big effect on me watching this video, as an apprentice Doxy man 1959 to 1966. Hey this whole northeast downgrade with shipbuilding ,don’t take my word look at the admission of most of the family of the shipbuilders, they admitted they were asleep not upgrading equipment and methods of working. The rest is history the North east shipbuilders were taken over by informed Far East clever engineers who just did it faster and just as good. This country let it happen to the decline of its amazing world class clever people, check out Mrs Thatcher involvement with gadansk and the Sunderland involvment . Contradiction in terms there if you look at it. Writing this I may get a knock on the door.......Why oh why does a country like ours let go so many many talents and world class skills. I have lived with ,worked with men and women with so much skill and talent to do above and beyond. I dunno maybe I’m adinosor born in the past it’s a foreign country and we do things different there....

[@boyfromblackstuff7859]

John , I could converse with you for many hours on this subject. After much research into political and industrial history my conclusion is that this country has been deliberately deindustrialized by its own political elite . They have no interest in the wellbeing of the nation or its people and are beholden to other interests, supranational bodies etc. A nation cannot survive when it has traitors moving freely within the corridors of power.

[@caughtintime2464]

hi this is a long shot but did you serve your time at doxfords as a shipwright

[@johnballard5095]

who sang the song? good voice - sounds like Elvis Costello a little

[@johnc5160]

Shipbuilding by Elvis Costello.

[@donsimpson6139]

Why did you use footage of the tyne? Not the Wear? FTM Stronger than thou.

[@johnwilliamson3228]

Its not the Tyne its the river Wear Sunderland. The tug that probably misled you was the Wearsider, the company that owned the tugs was Newcastle based, which could explain Wearsider, Newcastle on the stern. The shipyard was JL Thompson's. This yard launched the largest ships built on the river Wear up to 150,000 tons.

[@TheDosshouse]

0utmoded working practices and an uncompetetive, clapped out infrastructure post 1945 was fatal for UK shipbuildingThatcher merely accelerated the inevitable thank goodness..

[@lornarobinson1089]

Absolute shame.