THE LAST TYNE-SIDERS

Here’s a yard hidden away in the industrial heritage of the North East, a veritable time capsule harking back to the great ship and boatbuilding days on the River Tyne when great ships like the Mauretania, Carpathia, and in later years the two aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Illustrious slid down the slipways, together with my far more modest classic yacht Sea Jay.

World War Two kept the coal, iron and shipbuilding industries well stoked but by the mid-60s and early 70s, shipyards along the Tyne were struggling under cost and delivery pressures from Korea and Japan. And along with them crumbled the smaller boatyards sandwiched between the large slipways that fed like pilot fish off their larger commercial cousins. Now, the ships, the yards, the skilled jobs, and the cacophony of sounds that once surrounded the river have