We believe in preserving our shipbuilding heritage and educating future generations on the industry that helped build our towns.
How it Started
This began with a simple idea - that the shipyards which built our towns, employed generations of families, and shaped communities along the River Tyne, Wear and Tees deserve a permanent place where their story is told properly.
The project was started in November 2025 by Bronwyn Mogie, who launched a public campaign and petition to establish a permanent Shipyard Heritage Museum on the River Tyne, after discovering her family all worked in these yards for over 150 years. Despite the huge importance of shipbuilding to the region, there was no single permanent museum dedicated specifically to the shipyards and the communities they built.
The campaign quickly gained public support, media coverage and interest from people with historical, academic and heritage knowledge of the shipbuilding industry. As the idea developed, it became clear that the project could grow into something much larger than a campaign or petition.
In February 2026, a small working group formed to begin exploring how the idea could be developed into a long-term project and charitable organisation. The group includes Bronwyn Mogie, Andy Leslie, Professor John Wilson and Dr Mark Stoddart, bringing together community engagement, heritage research, academic expertise, business experience and organisational development.
The project has since developed from a community campaign into a collaborative initiative working towards establishing a permanent Shipyard Heritage Museum for the region - a place where the history of the shipyards, the people who worked in them, and the communities they built can be preserved and shared for future generations.
Our Mission
Our mission is to establish a Shipyard Heritage Museum on the River Tyne that tells of the history, people and communities of the North East shipyards, while creating education, skills, research and innovation opportunities for future generations.
The museum will not only look to the past, but also to the future, connecting industrial heritage with education, engineering, skills development and innovation.
The People Behind the Project
Bronwyn Mogie
Bronwyn is the founder of the Shipyard Heritage Museum project and started the campaign to create a permanent museum dedicated to the shipbuilding heritage of the River Tyne. With a background in marketing and communications, she has led the public campaign, community engagement, media coverage and project development from the very beginning.
Bronwyn has a personal connection to the shipyards through her family, who worked in the Tyne shipyards for generations. Her father worked in several yards including Leslie’s, Palmers, Swan Hunter and Neptune, and her family history on Tyneside goes back over 150 years. Two of her relatives also marched in the 1936 Jarrow Crusade.
Her role is to continue to lead the project and focus on community engagement, branding, communications, project development and build the support.
Andy Leslie
Andy is an entrepreneur and businessman with a background in large corporate enterprises and start-up businesses. He is the 3x great-nephew of Andrew Leslie, who founded Leslie’s shipyard in Hebburn in 1853, later becoming R & W Hawthorn, Leslie & Company.
Andy has spent several years researching the history of his ancestor and the wider shipbuilding industry on the River Tyne, with plans to write a book and develop a television documentary on the importance of shipbuilding on Tyneside and its impact on British industry and the economy.
Andy brings business experience, strategic thinking and heritage knowledge to the project, helping to shape the long-term development of the Shipyard Heritage Museum.
Professor John Wilson
John is Professor of Business History at Northumbria University Business School and has written extensively about the history of British industry, particularly during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when shipbuilding and engineering on the River Tyne were at their peak.
He is currently working with Dr Mark Stoddart on research and a book focusing on the Tyneside engineering and shipbuilding industries between 1840 and 1914, looking at the entrepreneurs and businesses that established world-famous engineering and shipbuilding companies on the Tyne.
Dr Mark Stoddart
Mark originally moved to the North East to study at university and has lived in the region ever since. He spent much of his career working in industry and consultancy in management, process improvement, project and programme management before later pursuing academic research in history.
Mark completed a PhD focused on ‘shipbuilding and engineering on Tyneside between 1880 and 1918’ and continues to research and write about the history of the shipbuilding industry on the River Tyne with Professor John Wilson.
Mark brings research expertise, industrial knowledge and project management experience to the Shipyard Heritage Museum project, helping to develop the historical content, research direction and long-term planning for the museum.