11 fantastic photos documenting shipbuilding at John Readhead & Sons in South Tyneside

Here we have an incredible glimpse at South Shields’ shipbuilding history.

Thanks to the wonderful Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums we have the means to look into South Shields’ shipbuilding history.

And John Readhead & Sons plays a massive part in that history. The company was opened in 1865 after shipyard manager, John Readhead, entered into business with J Softley at a small yard on the Lawe at South Shields. In 1872 the partnership was dissolved and John continued alone on the same site until 1880 before moving to the bigger, High West Yard site.

In 1968 the company was absorbed by the Swan Hunter Group and in 1977 came to be part of the nationalised British Shipbuilders.

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But in the same year the last vessel was launched and the site was sold off in 1984.

From 1865 to 1968, 600 ships were built by Readhead in South Shields. The firm built vessels, which were involved in the major conflicts of the Twentieth Century. During the First World War they built patrol vessels and ‘x’ lighters (motor landing craft used in the Gallipoli campaign) for the Admiralty. During the Second World War the firm built tankers for the Normandy Landings.