No pits ,no shipyards ,no Pyrex glass works ,no Joplin’s ,no Liverpool house ,no Binns absolutely a Disaster totally man made ,ps even Jolly’s buses have gone!
Thank you totally invaluable piece of history, I was one year old when this was made, the town is totally unrecognisable now, when I go back to Sunderland these days I walk about with complete disbelief some good some bad again, thank you for taking the time to look at this video
As a young student I worked on the Sunderland green buses as a conductor (double shifts and no tax) and I used to drop off the shipyard workers while cheerfully singing the song, “Monday, Monday” … of course I never dreamed that this was the end of an era for the town as the foreign yards took over.
i was born in Sunderland in the 60's and brought up in Barclay court just by the bridge and the ship yard, so very emotional to see life back when i was just a bairn. thanks for sharing
Biggest shipyards in the world at that time ! my granny worked there during WW2, when i was a kid at the time the noise was ridiculous, dame dorothy st school opposite my school, and the steam trains and i lived opposite Earnshaws bakery i have hearing trouble but to be expected. but it was a way of life young people would not put up with it now, it is so quiet in Sunderland and cleaner.
On 8th September 1968, the MV Avisfaith (seen here being built) was in the Pacific off southern Mexico and was able to report the formation of Hurricane Naomi, which tracked northwards through Mexico and into Texas, before easing off.
I was 19 when this very evocative movie was filmed and a possible employment choice at 15 was working in a shipyard. My brother and father both worked in these places. Looking at this I'm convinced I made the right choice and joined the RAF as I would have maybe survived a week. It's a shame that a changing environment is a double edged sword; when they closed the yards they took away the economic guts of the town so the more pleasant conditions are maybe a questionable compensation. The North East had some amazing engineers I'm sure they could have adapted.
I guess that's the whole problem - they didn't adapt. And that's really the story of Britain's decline over the past century and a half. We were so inward looking that we had no real understanding of just how far behind we had fallen.
My father, a marine engineer went to junior technical school in Sunderland, went to sea as a merchant navy engineer, and was dive bombed by Dornier aircraft off the coast of Wales and then had another two ships he sailed in torpedoed and sunk. Dad came back after the war to the shipyards in Sunderland, helping to build up the war torn U.K. and where he worked in making the great Sulzer engines. Shipbuilding went to countries like India because the trade unions demanded and got unsustainable wage increases for their members and the U.K. also decreased their shipbuilding capacity to join the E.U. and Sunderland has never really prospered since!
You are absolutely right,the UK steel industry was also sold out by the entire political class via covert little deals behind closed doors with the E U. Deliberate deindustrialization! These political whores who speak with a forked tongue are no friend of England! All those men and women who fought in two W W's also completely sold down the river!
You forget mate - quite a lot of the people back then were Tories, or worse. There's always been a far right streak in Sunderland - like those nut job "metric martyrs" a few years back.
Does anyone have a copy of the full documentary or a link to it. I'm particularly interested in the clip filmed in the Regale Tavern after the launch as it features family members who are sadly no longer with us.
So good to see my history office boy then apprentice . Watched stuart prince launched then joined her as junior engineer officer. Hey what memories what skills
So good to watch this history, I was there as office boy then apprentice. Watched the Stuart Prince launched, then joined her as junior engineer.Still do not understand what happened to Doxfords, however no one will take away my memories or my life experiences gained while working at Doxfords.... top of the
So good to watch this history, I was there as office boy then apprentice. Watched the Stuart Prince launched, then joined her as junior engineer.Still do not understand what happened to Doxfords, however no one will take away my memories or my life experiences gained while working at Doxfords.... top of the world.
Bartram's and the lesser known Sunderland Shipbuilding Co Ltd, which was next door just to the North, were the only Shipyards to launch their ships directly into the sea.
I believe that the Bartram's yard was the only yard in the country that launched directly in to the North Sea rather than a river. It certainly was the only one in Sunderland . Although long gone you can still make out its location on Google Maps to the South side of the river.
Bartram's and the lesser known Sunderland Shipbuilding Co Ltd, which was next door just to the North, were the only Shipyards to launch their ships directly into the sea.
Life was much more simple and less complicated then, employment was dictated by the order book of the shipyard. The shipyard was the heart and soul of the town. Associated businesses lived and died by the yards success. You can see the pride and satisfaction in those men's eyes when the ship is launched. The "Australind" traded for many years on the Australian west coast, didn't know it was built there. Another classic video, thank you Anthony.
Such quality and majestic ships, big pity Britain and other European yards got muscled out by the Korean and Japanese from the 1970's. Great video of great ships, thank you, I enjoyed it Anthony.
