The History of John Readhead's Shipyard

In 1965 Readheads celebrated its centenary year. To commemorate this a book was written by Rodney Towers covering the events of the 100 years. The book gives a great deal of information about what it was like working in the yards over those years and I feel it is perfect for this website so I have included it over the next five pages;-

Readhead's 1865 - 1965
Foreword
By Harold Towers, J.P.
Chairman and Managing Director 1965
The growth of any enterprise usually reveals a story full of individual endeavour, courage and skill. But a story of shipbuilding can often go further. Ship work has for long been the breeding ground for men of special character and there have been many colourful personalities amongst them. Shipbuilding still remains for the most part a man’s job and for many of us it is also our life.
We hope that this short account of our history will contribute towards a clearer understanding of the way in which tradition and craftsmanship have grown to become such an integral part of the West Docks.
We are proud of our record of 100 years in shipbuilding; proud of the quality of ships we have built; and above all proud of the generations of Readhead personnel who have manned the various departments of the firm over the years, thereby playing so important a part towards earning the good name that we believe our Company presently enjoys.
A sense of responsibility to maintain this tradition must be ours, as we enter the future determined to design and build the specialised ships which modern ideas in sea transport demand.

Many of Readhead's employees worked all their lives in the yard. There sons very often followed in their footsteps. This photo shows 72 employees in June 1948 with 40+ years service each (Photo courtesy of Rodney Towers)
Front row; (left to right) W.Russell, J.Johnson, W.Elliatt, W.Martin, A.Curry, G.Sampson, P.Robinson, R.Catley, J.W.Young, J.W.Parker.
Second row; (left to right) J.Channon, J.Waybret, T.Lowes, G.Yorston, J.Finn, W.Bell, J.Blair, R.Burr, J.Stonehouse, J.Patterson, D.Porteous, G.Armstrong, W.Sinclair, H.Reah, W.Maclean.
Third row; R.Porter, J.Wiltshire, J.Jackson, J.W.Lambert, A.Wood, D.Sanderson, G.Robson, J.W.Herriott, G.Henry, T.S.Orwin, W.Gordon, T.Mordue, R.Bertie, J.Slater, J.Peel.
Fourth row; W.Jackson, J.R.Brown, J.Plater, J.Hunter, W.Taylor, J.Jameson, H.T.Hibbert, J.Martin, J.Jeune, J.Cass, G.Phillips, W.Arthur, W.Lowes, J.Turpin, H.Cochrane, B.Woodhouse.
Fifth row; W.Mordue, J.Walton, T.Lindsay, A.Phillips, T.Goodsir, J.Allen, R.D.Balls, T.Charlton, T.Lamb, T.Dorward, B.Bradley, F.Cole, E.Dew, T.D.Brown, G.Mowat.

This photo is c1965

How it started
1965 AND 100 YEARS OF SHIPBUILDING; not unnaturally a time for reflection on past achievement. Throughout this time Readhead – built ships have been quietly and continuously slipping their shipyard moorings and heading for sea. A long line of ships to transport the multifarious nature of seaborne trade; ships to serve with the Royal Navy; tugs to tow larger hulls in port; tough ocean tramps for nomadic voyaging; cargo liners for express and specialised services. Ships to fulfil all these functions and more have sailed from Shields, carrying, as they go into ports the world over, the name of Readheads, a little bit of Tyneside, and thereby drawing attention to a region whose industrial eminence was founded upon ships, coal and steel.
But where did the story begin?

“I know not where to seek, even in this busy country, a spot or district in which we perceive so extraordinary and multifarious a combination of the various great branches of mining, manufacturing, trading, and shipbuilding industry, and I greatly doubt whether the like can be shown, not only within the limits of this land, but upon the whole surface of the globe.”
Extract from the speech of THE RIGHT HONOURABLE W.E.GLADSTONE, M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer, on his visit to Newcastle upon Tyne, 1862.

By mid - century the tempo of the Industrial Revolution showed few signs of slackening; new opportunities continued to open up over an ever widening front and Tyneside had clearly emerged to become a leading centre of industrial growth. John Readhead spent his early years following the trade of a millwright at an Earsdon colliery, but upon reaching the age of 32 he decided to move across the river to South Shields where, in 1850, he started training as a shipwright in the shipyard of Thomas Marshall. What prompted him to take this decision we do not know, but we do know that the course he chose was to prove of momentous consequence.
Mr. Marshall was a pioneer in the business of building ships in iron, and his shipyard, situated on the Lawe, was the first to construct an iron vessel on the Tyne. From the start, John Readhead was instructed in the newest skills, and as the years passed he must have considered himself fortunate indeed to have found his niche in a yard that was so far ahead in the business of iron shipbuilding. He must have been quick to learn and of an adaptable nature for before long he became Marshall’s manager. John Readhead served under Mr. Marshall and worked closely with him for fifteen years but the time arrived when he decided to push out his own boat. The founder’s fourth son, later Sir James Readhead, made an interesting reference to this period in a speech dated 1927: “When my father thought the time had come to start business he did so. He started in a small way down at the low end of town”. The best way seemed to lie in forming a partnership with another Shieldsman, Mr. J. Softley, and they set up on thr Lawe at a yard off Pilot Street.
The first accounting ledgers reveal the day the story opened, and it was on March 1st, 1865, that Mr. Readhead and Mr. Softley set down £2860 of their own capital for a joint venture to be known as Readhead & Softley – a partnership that was to last until 1872.