John Readhead & Sons - Introduction
John Readhead & Sons - History
John Readhead and Sons - the People
Readhead's Ships
Readheads Ships, including photos
The Technical Offices & Head Office
The Engine Works & Drawing Office
Readhead's Timeline
Local Memories
The Steel Trades
The Outfitting Trades
Other trades
Royal Visits
More photo's
Newspaper & website publicity
The West Docks
The Readhead Family Tree
Readhead's Customers
Local Pubs, social scene, sports, Ashley House & Woodies sho
The Readhead Shipping Line
Readhead's Launch Photos
Photos
Photos 2
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION 2
UNDER CONSTRUCTION 3
UNDER CONSTRUCTION 4
UNDER CONSTRUCTION 5
Message Board
Guestbook
Mail Form
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The Technical Offices
 | Jim Wood, Raymond Liddle, Eddie Weightman, Doug Wilson and Norman Musgrave - Draughtsmen in the Outfit Drawing Office c1964
The Steel Drawing Office;
Situated on the ground floor of the Technical building this office was involved in the calculation of the scantlings of each new ship and then the production of all the necessary drawings to construct the hull and deckhouses.
In the 1960's it consisted of Chief Draughtsman Des Cook, Section Leader Keith McDowell, Steel Draughtsmen Ronnie Clapham, Bob Readhead, Dennis Maccoy, John Horsburgh, Duncan Bedlington, Bob Hamilton, Ian Falconer, Ray Smith, Tracer Mavis Donkin, Plan man Bob 'Tiger' Watson and several others.
The Outfit Drawing Office;
This office was situated on the top floor of the Technical building and was responsible for the General Arrangement drawing and all the necessary drawings for the Accommodation, the ventilation, Rigging, Insulation and deck coverings.
In the 1960's it consisted of Section Leader Bob Henderson (later Ronnie O'Cain), draughtsmen Doug Wilson, Norman Musgrave, Ray Liddle, Eddie Weightman, John Bage and a Tracer.
The Piping Drawing Office;
This was based on the same floor as the Outfit and Electrical Drawing Offices and consisted of Section Leader Alan Dale and later a draughtsman, Len Barron.
The Electrical Drawing Office;
Section Leader Alan Bland, draughtsmen Fred Humphrey, John Humphrey and Harry Rylance.
The Design Office
This was situated on the middle floor of the Technical building and in the late 1960's consisted of Naval Architect George Atkins, Design draughtsmen Gary Newman, Dave Moon, Jim Wood and Estimators Edd Wright and Fred Connaughton.
The Buying Office
This was also on the middle floor and in the 1960's the staff were Ernie Oates and David Hoskins.
The Yard Manager's office was on the middle floor as was his Secretary Linda Winter.
The Planning Office was set up a bit later and consisted of a couple of planners as well as Rodney Towers the M.D's son.
The Typists Office was near the Planning Office and consisted of three women, Shiela ??, Sylvia Graham and one other.
The Print Room was in the basement of the building and was looked after by Norma Scott.
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Readheads Technical Offices
 | | Readheads Technical Offices |
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Technical Office memories
Memories from Bill Stephenson
Mavis Baxter.
She came into the Tracing Office after she’d completed her stint in the forces. She had previously worked in the Graving Dock Offices.
She became a very good tracer, but I remember, she was a ‘whiz’ at calculating the steel weights.
Each steelwork plan included the material lists for all the requirements for steel plates, angles and bulb angles. With her plate-tables and boxwood section slide-rule Mavis compiled everything in Tons, cwts. Qtrs and lbs.
I’m sure she could add up two columns at a time.
Another clever shipwright.
One day our Chief Draughtsman Mr. Heckels said “Billy I want you to go over to the spare ground opposite the yard. Here’s a sketch. We are going to build a new Pipe and Plumber’s Shop. I want you to mark and lay-out the foundations.”
“Go to the Loft and see the Foreman Loftsman. He’s got a 100ft. tape, chalk string line, pegs and battens, and one of the shipwrights will give you a hand”.
I duly collected all these things, met the shipwright, and together we set off for the site.
The shipwright said, “Have you ever marked-off and laid out the foundations for a building before?”
I said I hadn’t. He said “We’ll be alright. I laid-out the whole of South Shields promenade.”
We WERE alright. The job was completed in no time and the new building went up absolutely plumb, thanks to his expertise.
A good example of the wonderful versatility of the shipyard worker.
Bob Watson – The Plan Man
I’m sure he was in the coal mines as a young man. He left school at a very early age and was self-taught, and he was a very clever man.
He could put his hand on almost any plan, no matter how old the vessel was. He knew something about everything.
He was a terrific chess player. When on fire-watching duty at the shipyard during the Second World War everyone there would play chess. Bob played against many of the Managers. They were never pleased to be ‘polished-off’ by a ‘mere Plan Man’.
“Watson doesn’t play chess, he just takes your men off”, was their complaint.
He was an excellent football referee and a good cricketer. He captained the team which included Mr.Heckles the Chief Draughtsman and Director.
Bob was a ‘one off’
The Wartime Staff
Bill Stephenson was at Readheads from mid 1942 to Feb. 1951. The Managing Director was G.H.R.Towers, Engineering Director Mr Coatsworth, Company Secretary was Mr. Beck, Shipyard Manager was Douglas Grier and Chief Draughtsman was W.P.Heckels.
Bill says he loved the firm, but in those days the only way to get on was to gain more experience, so he moved from the Tyne to Blyth Shipbuilders.
He remembers the following Drawing Office personnel;-
W.P.Heckels, Mr Wright, Desmond Cook, Larry Crown, John Gray, Bob Burroughs, George Philips, George Ainsley, Sid Atkinson, Alan Fletcher, Eric Sexton, Jimmy Walker, Alan Stokoe, Bill Peebles, George Ord, Alan Bell.
Tracers;-
Sheila Ramsey, Moira Scott, Joyce Hendry, Eve Slack.
Later; Nancy Mapson and Mavis Baxter.
Photocopy; Irene Leadley.
Bill entered the following for the Morpeth G;-
“The Flying General”
In 1942 when I was 14 I got a job as Office Boy in the shipyard drawing office of John Readhead’s, South Shields. If I was any good I would go in to the drawing office as an apprentice draughtsman when I became 16.
One of the jobs as a young apprentice was to take off all the blue-prints and B & W prints. This entailed operating the antiquated print machine. It was a big machine with a ‘u’ shaped long curved glass, where the carbon-arc lamp ran backwards and forwards on a ‘bicycle’ chain arrangement. All very dodgy if you forgot to switch the mains when changing carbons. There was no ‘fail-safe’ in the design.
The prints had to be hosed-down with water when they came out of the print machine. This developed them, producing a blue back ground with white lines and details – hence the name ‘blue prints’.
They then had to be dried. The prints were placed on long poles and hung in a large gas oven – this was a ‘real shipyard job’, made of steel (a bit of a Heath Robinson affair). You couldn’t light the gas with a match. A lighted newspaper taper had to be used otherwise it took your eyebrows off as it exploded into mode.
When dried the blue-prints had to be trimmed. On this particular day the print room was very hot so all the windows were wide open. I was trimming the finished General Arrangement of our latest ship, when the door opened and a gust of through wind lifted the plan and it flew out of the window like a magic carpet. So there was the ‘Flying General’ floating down the street.
I raced down three flights of stairs and out into the street and eventually caught it about quarter of a mile away, towards Tyne Dock. It was all torn and of course the job had to be done all over again.
Centrifugal Force
Although Readhead’s had a canteen many people preferred to go across the road to a local café – which went by the exotic name of ‘Lambs Cocoa Rooms’. It was there that you could take your can and get a can of tea, and in your other can, a can of broth or leek soup.
The apprentice above me was Jimmy Walker, a very clever lad – he was always calculating things like – ‘How long it would take an economic bus to go from South Shields market square to the moon’, and things like that.
This day we were coming back from Lambs Cocoa Rooms with our cans and he was telling me that the Earth wasn’t a true sphere – it was an oblate spheroid. Now I already knew this, but he continued – how it was shaped like an apple with the poles flattened – it was this shape because of centrifugal force.
To demonstrate he started to swing his can of broth – this was alright as he was walking along the passageway, but when he came to walk upstairs, that’s when the centrifugal force came to a halt. The can hit the overhead landing, stopped instantly and deposited all the soup over him.
Of course this drew the corny comment from the Drawing Office about him being ‘dressed in good taste’.
Unusual football pitch
Bill remembers playing football in the huge empty hold of the ship when he was waiting around during the Inclining and Stability Tests which took place at completion of the vessel. You couldn’t lose the ball in the vast hold
He did this whilst he and others were waiting around for weight changes during the tests. They had to measure the angular movement of the vessel using a long plumb line suspended in to the hold each time the weights up on deck were moved. The Design Office used this information to calculate the Centre of Buoyancy of the vessel.
Dedication to the job.
Bill remembers, shortly after the war, working right through the night with Desmond Cook (Chargehand Draughtsman at the time). We were compiling all the steel material for the latest vessel. We had to do this in order to catch the steel angle’s rolling deadline time at the Steel Mills…..happy days
Office Boy duties
Office boy duties included copying all Drawing Office letters by using a ‘damp tissue’ process with letter ledger and letter press (B.C. – before carbon paper).
I’m sure we were out-of-date with this system.
All plans posted to Lloyds, etc., were parcelled with brown paper and string (B.C. – before cellotape)
This certainly kept us busy.
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Head Office
 | Royal party arriving at Head Office, 1920
The Head Office was situated on the opposite side of the main road. I remember it as having a very plush feel to it, certainly upstairs where there was a lot of polished wood.
There were also a lot of superb ship models in glass cases, some of which I believe are now at the South Shields Marine College.
The Personnel Department was downstairs where I was interviewed by Albert Chisholm who was Personnel Manager. He was always interested in what sports people were involved in.
The Head Office was joined to the Shipyard Office by an enclosed walkway which spanned the main road.
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The 'Bridge of Sighs'
 | This is an excellent view showing the bridge which joined the Head Office with the Technical Offices and Shipyard. To the right is the Head Office and just visible next to it is The Cookson Arms. This pub was eventually demolished and used as a car park for the shipyard workers.
At the top of the road can be seen The Neptune Hotel (The Nep). |
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The Board Room
 | The Board of Directors 1962
Left to right: A.H.Becke, G.H.R.Towers, Lt-Col.R.B.Readhead, P.R.Southall, J.P.Glaisyer, W.P.Heckels. |
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