I spent an unproductive week in the yard waiting for a repair job that never showed up.. That was the great days of British Shipbuilders Ltd 1978. Never burned a rod but met a few good guys waiting for the same boat.
@@VanlifewithAlan It was 1980 Alan. Lech Wałęsa had withdrawn the workforce in Gdansk shipyard. We still got paid and the rest as they say, is history.
The white vans and cars are for hire i walk the dog along here every day, The Swan Hunter ship yard was our bread and butter my Dad and his father before him worked there all of their lives. I live walking distance And the house i live in when first moving in 26 yrs ago you could hear the constant clatter coming from the shipyard. There was an explosion on board a ship in the seventies, my sisters boyfriend died at age 21 while working on it
The legend of these shipyards recently put into song by Sting, with his album 'The Last Ship', soon to become a Broadway musical. I just watched 'Great Performances' on PBS. If the musical is as good as the songs he and his crew performed in that telecast, the album that's been on shelves for 5 months might be given a second long by his longtime fans.
Nice bit of nostalgia there for this Wallsend born lad.. my grandad Jim was apprenticed at Swan Hunters in 1903.. my last visit to Wallsend was 1976, saw one of the last big oil tankers come down the Hunters slipways, the Texaco i think from memory.. we went over to Hebburn where my Uncle Dave was born on the old ferry too.. sad to see the yards in decay, but great memories anyway..
hwdy Alan good video,the 2 buildings on the right hand side are gatehouse security for Arnold Clark Ford dealer in Newcastle who were using the dry docks area for car storage. The site has now been cleared and three docks 'filled' in, the 4th dock, the one the new tyne tunnel was built in, is being retained for maritime use/experiments etc..
Heartbreaking. Wallsend used to be thriving now a ghost Town. Love the Geordies but the area is a service area now, shops, cafes, eateries, no heavy industry and thus short term low paid jobs. Crying shame.
The Ship Inn has now closed an is boarded up. There was supposedly plans to turn it into a nursery or something similar, needless to say, that doesn't appear to have happened.
when i was in china people often where supprised to hear that the uk was no longer an industral country and that most industry from the past had been shut down.
Almost everyone looks back and blames Thatcher. Although Thatcher was part of the chain of events that led to the demise of industry in Britain, it's all to easy to blame her and overlook the other causes. I'm not going to go into what led up to the Thatcher era, except to say that when the tories came to power in 1979, the state of much of Britain's industry was unsustainable and the Tories argued that cuts were carried out of dire necessity. But it was in fact Blair who saw to it that Britain's industry would not revive, because it was Blair who pushed his pipe-dream vision of Britain's "post-industrial" place in the world. New Labour were convinced that the future lay in what they called the "knowledge economy".... a service based economy rather than an industrial-based one. Gordon Brown swore he would make Britain e-commerce capital of the world within three years. Their crime is that rather than focus on the problem of poor management and try to rebuild a profitable industry, they chased this fantasy of the knowledge economy. Then came along Cameron with the same arguments as Thatcher...if you cut back on public spending, private spending will grow, while his ministers give train contracts to German factories rather than to workers in Derby... Everywhere in Tyneside are traces of its industrial past. There's Newcastle university, founded by the arms-maker William Armstrong, and the local tech colleges, which used to provide training to factory staff on day release. Then there's the mining and engineers institutes. The culture in Tyneside was traditionally a productive one rooted in making things and selling them. What the de-industrial revolution has obliged the north-east and others to do is to adopt a consumerist culture - to buy things instead shopping centres and caffé latte. If you want your industry back, demand it back. Britain is a democracy, it's down to individuals to make the difference. We've seen the rise of parties like UKIP, as a result of the mainstream parties not catering for people's needs. If the UKIP can do well, then there is plenty of scope for other parties to do so. What is needed in parliament now are people with the right vision, as opposed to people looking for votes.
And if ever Britain has the misfortune to go to war against one of the countries who are now building its ships, Britain will have to politely refuse a war in favour of a cricket match against them instead!
Very sad to see the decline of UK 'Heavy Industries' .. GB started the industrial revolution in the 1750's and Britannia ruled the waves ...!! The sun never set on the British Empire until the end of ww2 ... Just think of all the technical Innovations we have given the world in areas of engineering, science, and technology .. I hope we can put the 'Great' back into GB in the 21st century, and once again become a beacon to progress & civilisation ...
I hardly see how Mrs Thatcher can have been responsible given that it happened many years after she left power. It is the fault of the management for not being able to successfully compete with other shipyards.
Those shipyards had to close. Those pie-eating, flatcap-wearing Northerners were no good at building ships! The cranes were sent to India where people do a proper job!
my name is Swan, now if i was going to conquer England, which a few vikings Sweins, sweyn did. taking over the sea is all you have to do. all the major cities are by the sea and England is an island after all? losing this company was a big mistake. especially with Russia at the moment, and the middle east problems, and china. being blissfully unaware is all good, but we do live in a very Waring world, and greed is a powerful thing. we chose bankers( who think their wolves?) and what will get in return is hunters who will burn our hides. I personally would have loved to have worked for this company. never say never thou.
I spent an unproductive week in the yard waiting for a repair job that never showed up..
That was the great days of British Shipbuilders Ltd 1978.
Never burned a rod but met a few good guys waiting for the same boat.
I remember those days Charles, even if I was still a teenager.
@@VanlifewithAlan It was 1980 Alan. Lech Wałęsa had withdrawn the workforce in Gdansk shipyard. We still got paid and the rest as they say, is history.
Great video Alan thanks for your vlog on swan hunter
The white vans and cars are for hire i walk the dog along here every day, The Swan Hunter ship yard was our bread and butter my Dad and his father before him worked there all of their lives. I live walking distance And the house i live in when first moving in 26 yrs ago you could hear the constant clatter coming from the shipyard. There was an explosion on board a ship in the seventies, my sisters boyfriend died at age 21 while working on it
The legend of these shipyards recently put into song by Sting, with his album 'The Last Ship', soon to become a Broadway musical. I just watched 'Great Performances' on PBS. If the musical is as good as the songs he and his crew performed in that telecast, the album that's been on shelves for 5 months might be given a second long by his longtime fans.
Shame he hates newcastle
That's not the dry docks , that is the former site of where the ships were built, the dry docks are behind you where all the cars are.
Nice bit of nostalgia there for this Wallsend born lad.. my grandad Jim was apprenticed at Swan Hunters in 1903.. my last visit to Wallsend was 1976, saw one of the last big oil tankers come down the Hunters slipways, the Texaco i think from memory.. we went over to Hebburn where my Uncle Dave was born on the old ferry too.. sad to see the yards in decay, but great memories anyway..
That is great to read! Thank you for watching!
Thanks again Alan. cheers Ajay.
hwdy Alan good video,the 2 buildings on the right hand side are gatehouse security for Arnold Clark Ford dealer in Newcastle who were using the dry docks area for car storage. The site has now been cleared and three docks 'filled' in, the 4th dock, the one the new tyne tunnel was built in, is being retained for maritime use/experiments etc..
I lived most of my life in wallsend :)
Heartbreaking. Wallsend used to be thriving now a ghost Town. Love the Geordies but the area is a service area now, shops, cafes, eateries, no heavy industry and thus short term low paid jobs. Crying shame.
@balacau I should have attempted to go in when I was there last year. It does not seem like the right place for a nursery to me!
The Ship Inn has now closed an is boarded up. There was supposedly plans to turn it into a nursery or something similar, needless to say, that doesn't appear to have happened.
when i was in china people often where supprised to hear that the uk was no longer an industral country and that most industry from the past had been shut down.
Almost everyone looks back and blames Thatcher. Although Thatcher was part of the chain of events that led to the demise of industry in Britain, it's all to easy to blame her and overlook the other causes. I'm not going to go into what led up to the Thatcher era, except to say that when the tories came to power in 1979, the state of much of Britain's industry was unsustainable and the Tories argued that cuts were carried out of dire necessity.
But it was in fact Blair who saw to it that Britain's industry would not revive, because it was Blair who pushed his pipe-dream vision of Britain's "post-industrial" place in the world. New Labour were convinced that the future lay in what they called the "knowledge economy".... a service based economy rather than an industrial-based one. Gordon Brown swore he would make Britain e-commerce capital of the world within three years. Their crime is that rather than focus on the problem of poor management and try to rebuild a profitable industry, they chased this fantasy of the knowledge economy.
Then came along Cameron with the same arguments as Thatcher...if you cut back on public spending, private spending will grow, while his ministers give train contracts to German factories rather than to workers in Derby...
Everywhere in Tyneside are traces of its industrial past. There's Newcastle university, founded by the arms-maker William Armstrong, and the local tech colleges, which used to provide training to factory staff on day release. Then there's the mining and engineers institutes. The culture in Tyneside was traditionally a productive one rooted in making things and selling them. What the de-industrial revolution has obliged the north-east and others to do is to adopt a consumerist culture - to buy things instead shopping centres and caffé latte.
If you want your industry back, demand it back. Britain is a democracy, it's down to individuals to make the difference. We've seen the rise of parties like UKIP, as a result of the mainstream parties not catering for people's needs. If the UKIP can do well, then there is plenty of scope for other parties to do so. What is needed in parliament now are people with the right vision, as opposed to people looking for votes.
And if ever Britain has the misfortune to go to war against one of the countries who are now building its ships, Britain will have to politely refuse a war in favour of a cricket match against them instead!
Very sad to see the decline of UK 'Heavy Industries' ..
GB started the industrial revolution in the 1750's and Britannia ruled the waves ...!! The sun never set on the British Empire until the end of ww2 ...
Just think of all the technical Innovations we have given the world in areas of engineering, science, and technology ..
I hope we can put the 'Great' back into GB in the 21st century, and once again become a beacon to progress & civilisation ...
I hardly see how Mrs Thatcher can have been responsible given that it happened many years after she left power. It is the fault of the management for not being able to successfully compete with other shipyards.
Architects of our demise. We blame Thatcher for all this when Swans shut in 2005. Its the unions fault.
Those shipyards had to close. Those pie-eating, flatcap-wearing Northerners were no good at building ships! The cranes were sent to India where people do a proper job!
There is a lot of truth in that. I am a northerner and am no good at building ships.
We are good at building ships but we are also obsessed with unions who eventually priced us out of the market.
my name is Swan, now if i was going to conquer England, which a few vikings Sweins, sweyn did. taking over the sea is all you have to do. all the major cities are by the sea and England is an island after all? losing this company was a big mistake. especially with Russia at the moment, and the middle east problems, and china. being blissfully unaware is all good, but we do live in a very Waring world, and greed is a powerful thing. we chose bankers( who think their wolves?) and what will get in return is hunters who will burn our hides. I personally would have loved to have worked for this company. never say never thou.
Do you want to know the truth... The men on the tyne killed the yards.. Fact.. To many strikes...