How important were the yards?

Before there were the towns we know today along the River Tyne, many of these places were small villages, farms or riverside settlements. It was shipbuilding and engineering that turned places like Jarrow, Hebburn, Wallsend, Walker and Elswick into the towns and communities we recognise today.

Shipbuilding on the Tyne began in wooden yards but really expanded in the mid-1800s when iron shipbuilding began. Shipyards such as Palmers in Jarrow, Leslie’s in Hebburn, Armstrong’s in Elswick, Swan Hunter in Wallsend and many others grew rapidly along the river. These were not small operations, they were huge industrial sites employing thousands of people at a time.

But the shipyards did not just build ships, they built communities.

Entire streets were built for shipyard workers. Shops, pubs, churches, schools and social clubs grew around the yards. People moved to the Tyne from all over Britain and Ireland looking for work. Jarrow became known as “Little Ireland” because so many Irish families came to work at Palmers. Hebburn had strong Scottish connections and was sometimes referred to as “Little Aberdeen” because of the number of workers who came from Scotland to work in the yards there.

Shipbuilding was not just a job, it was a career and often a family tradition. Sons followed fathers and grandfathers into the yards. Apprenticeships were a huge part of the industry, and many men spent their entire working lives in shipbuilding or the engineering industries that supported it.

During both World Wars, the shipyards worked around the clock building naval ships, merchant ships and repair vessels. Women also worked in the yards during wartime, taking on roles that had previously been done by men. The shipyards were vital to the war effort and to the British economy.

At one point, the River Tyne was one of the most important shipbuilding regions in the world, and the Tyne, Wear and Tees together were responsible for a huge percentage of the world’s shipbuilding output. Ships built on the Tyne travelled across the world, but the real impact of shipbuilding was felt most strongly here - in the towns, the communities and the families whose lives were built around the yards.

When the shipyards began to close in the twentieth century, the impact on these towns was enormous. Jobs disappeared, communities changed, and an entire way of life gradually came to an end. The Jarrow Crusade in 1936 was one of the most famous examples of what happened when shipyard work disappeared and unemployment devastated a town.

Today, many of the shipyards are gone, but their legacy is still everywhere - in the towns, the buildings, the river, the families and the stories that are still told today.

The Shipyard Heritage Museum project exists because this history is too important to be lost or forgotten. The shipyards did not just build ships - they built our towns, our communities and the lives of generations of people across the North East.

And that story deserves a permanent place to be told.