Hartlepool under the Gray shipbuilding family in pictures
- Published
The effect of a shipbuilding company which dominated Hartlepool is being recorded, 50 years after it was closed and sold off. Originally a partnership, William Gray and Company was under one family's sole ownership from 1874.
Copies of photographs and other memorabilia are being collected by Hartlepool Borough Council for a new website. Libraries' reference and information manager Diane Marlborough said: "It's the history of the town but through the eyes of the people."
Personal snapshots, such as this one of Jeannie Lappin, are among thousands already donated. "They think it's just a bunch of old photos and nobody cares," Ms Marlborough said. "Then they bring it in and you can see some detail of Hartlepool in it that nobody's seen before and everybody's raving about it."
Women were employed as "catcher lasses" in the yards during both world wars. As the name suggests, their job was to catch white-hot metal rivets and, in turn, throw them to riveters hammering straight onto the ship.
Shipyard worker Alan Storm, in checked shirt, with ‘Dickie’ Eyres, ‘Blondie’ from Blackhall and Hughie Crawford (l-r). Gray Gull - previously a motor torpedo boat - would take repair workers out to ships.
Launched in 1961, the Blanchland was William Gray and Company's last ship. The yards went into liquidation in 1962 and were auctioned off a year later. Ms Marlborough said they employed a huge percentage of people in the town and almost everybody would have some link.
The Gray family's influence was extensive. West Hartlepool Library was built on land given to the town by Sir William Gray in 1894. Grayfields recreation ground - set up for the company's workers - was later also donated to the borough. Sir William's son gifted much of a personal art collection in 1920.
Gray's shipyards won the Blue Riband prize for highest British shipyard output six times between 1878 and 1900. Photographs of Hartlepool and the yards can be seen on the Hartlepool History - Then and Now website www.hhtandn.org.