Where it all started: from idea to petition to project
In November 2025, Bronwyn started a petition for a museum. It really started with a simple thought: the shipyards built our towns, employed generations of families, and shaped communities along the River Tyne, yet there is no single permanent place where their story is told properly.
She says, “ever since I can remember, my dad has told me stories about the shipyards - Leslie’s, Palmers, Swan Hunter, Neptune - where he worked and made lifelong friends. When we started researching our family history, we discovered our family had been working in these shipyards for over 150 years, and two of my great uncles were part of the Jarrow Crusade. It made me realise how much of our family history, and the history of this area, is tied to shipbuilding.
So I decided to do something about it.”
17 November 2025 – The First Petition
On 17 November 2025, I launched a petition on the UK Parliament website calling for a permanent Shipyard Heritage Museum on the River Tyne. I didn’t know what would happen or how many people would sign it, but I knew it was something worth trying.
The petition started to gather signatures and people began sharing it. It quickly reached hundreds of signatures, which showed me that a lot of people felt the same way and wanted to see the shipyards properly recognised and remembered.
The petition then went through the approval process, but unfortunately it was rejected in the December and was not allowed to proceed on the Parliament website. That was disappointing, but by that point I had already realised that people cared about this idea and that the support was there.
Starting Again – Change.org
Then in January instead of stopping there, I decided to start again. This time I launched the petition on Change.org so that people could continue to support the idea and so that we could keep building support for a Shipyard Heritage Museum.
This is when things really started to grow.
The petition started gaining signatures quickly, and I began speaking to more and more people about the idea. Many people contacted me with their own stories of working in the shipyards, their parents and grandparents who had worked there, and their memories of the yards and the communities around them.
It became clear very quickly that this wasn’t just an idea - it was something that meant a lot to a lot of people.
Meeting Kate Osborne MP
As the petition started growing, I was invited to a round table meeting with Kate Osborne MP to talk about the idea of a Shipyard Heritage Museum and also commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Jarrow March, and whether something like this could be possible in the future, especially with regeneration funding being discussed for Jarrow.
That meeting was an important step because it meant the idea was now being discussed beyond just a petition - it was becoming a real project that people were starting to take seriously.
Media Coverage – Chronicle and BBC
Not long after that, the story began to attract media attention. The Chronicle wrote an article about my story and the campaign and the idea of a Shipyard Heritage Museum, which helped the campaign reach a much wider audience.
Just over a week later, the BBC also got in touch with me and wrote an article about the campaign. At the same time received a message on LinkedIn from Andy Leslie to say he is writing a book about his ancestor’s shipbuilding career, so I invited him to join me for the BBC interview. That was a big moment because suddenly the idea was being talked about across the region and more and more people were getting in touch with stories, memories and support.
Door to Door – Flyers and Conversations
While all of this was happening online and in the media, a lot of the work was happening offline as well. My dad and I printed flyers and walked the streets delivering them door to door, speaking to people about the idea and asking them to sign the petition.
Some of the best conversations I’ve had during this whole project were on doorsteps. Many of the people we spoke to had worked in the shipyards themselves, or had parents and grandparents who had. Nearly everyone had a story - about apprenticeships, launch days, the noise of the yards, the friendships, and what happened when the yards closed.
That was when I realised this wasn’t just a petition anymore. This was something people really cared about, and something that needed to happen.
From Petition to Project
What started as a petition has now grown into a project to establish a Shipyard Heritage Museum on the River Tyne.
Since then, I have been working with historians, researchers and people with business and heritage experience to explore how this idea could become a long-term project and eventually a permanent museum for the region.
This blog will document the journey from that first petition in November 2025 through to the development of the museum, so that the story of how this started is recorded alongside the history it aims to preserve.
Because this project is not just about the past, it’s about making sure the history of the shipyards, the people who worked in them, and the communities they built are remembered for generations to come.
