The Head Wrightson site formerly the old Craig Taylor buildings. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
The Head Wrightson site formerly the old Craig Taylor buildings.
We moulders at Downing called it venting, a long spike on drag box { bottom box } we had most of our moulds in 2-3 parts drag would be dug in black sand, box for middle, and top box for top, sometimes if a mould wasn’t vented properly the gasses ascaping would cause the moten metal to bubble up and often ruin a mould. I always made sure anything I made was well vented. Downings iron foundry – a great place to learn your trade.
Used to go on the then derelict site back in 1986 / 87 when I was young with a couple of my schoolmates. Boy did we have some fun, what an amazing place it was
Peter’s brothers who played for Hartburn were Fenton & the young one Brian, I think Peter also played for Blackhall.I would have thought Benny or Gran would have either played or cross swords with him on a football field. Primrose Hill moved to the Yarm Back Lane ground when they left the Norton Showfield pitch for a season before moving to Rudd Rec. Bill Duckling Snr, well as playing for Billingham Synthonia in the Northern League, e can be seen in the photos on the Synthonia web-site, lso played cricket for Calf Fallow, Norton.
Many thanks for all the comments about ultrasonic testing. The only other fact that I remember from my weeks at Parkfield Foundry was that they were casting using a metal called Meehanite. This was a particular type of iron with specific additives for which they had to hold a licence from the Meehanite company in the USA.
Cliff, that is about spot on. The Ultrasonic set sends soundwaves into the material. These waves bounce back when hitting any holes or cracks. the readings on the screen enable the operator to determine the type and location of the defect. Thats it in simple terms, the only ones I know by the way. I believe we also have a mutual friend in Mr Barker.
Anon, yes Peter was a good footballer. He had brothers Bill, Terry, Peter and Brian as well as Fenton. I would think Brian was to young for the Hartburn team but I do remember him once playing for Primrose Hill against Portrack Shamrocks. Primrose Hill on this day were playing in a big cup match and they played a reserve team and beat Portrack. Could you tell me who the other of the brothers played for Hartburn?
You are quite right Cliff, when a mould is cast there are gasses releast. The moulder use many ways to release them but they can still get trapped in the metal. These are called blow holes. If found by ultrasound testing before machining it saves a lot of time and money. Hope this helps.
Yes Cliff- Castings mainly cast in steel if they were to be used on ships, were ultrasonicly tested using an ultrasonic machine which sent waves into the steel casting and sent back details of cracks and air pockets in the casting which shouldn’t have been there but were. Again the Lloyds inspector would watch them cut out if they were easy to get at and give the works inspector a welding procedure to weld to weld the cut outs up and the retest for cracks and air and if the job was done correctly pass the casting as okay. If the welding job or the casting had too many defects the casting was burnt up again for scrap. I worked at Stockton Steel Foundry as a castings inpector for a number of years with a nice guy as my boss called Jack Clutton and we had to be as clever as the Lloyds man to get some castings passed.
Peter Whelan was another good footballer who played left back. He & two of his brothers played for Hartburn F.C. when they had a team in the Teesside League & played at Yarm back lane about 1960. Others in the team were Billy Duckling Snr., his brother Ron & Eddie Graham. Peter’s brother Fenton helped to run Head Wrightsons football team in the late sixties. When the test pieces were finally machined they were taken to the labs test house.
All this talk of metal testing reminds me of my summer job at Parkfield Foundries in the 1960s. If I remember rightly some of the new castings were tested using an ultrasound machine and an oscilloscope. They told me that they were looking for bubbles in the casting that might create a weak spot – does that sound right?
To expand a little on the correct statement from Anon. The test pieces were taken from test bars which were attached to the various castings which needed a test certificate for the different inspectrate who visited the foundry where the castings were made. The most popular being Lloyds. The Lloyds inspecter would watch the test bar burnt from the correct casting and then stamp it with his stamp. As Anon stated it was then machined to the correct diameter and pulled by Don under the beady eyes of the Lloyds man. If it tested okay he would pass the casting, if not they have been known to watch the casting get burned up for scrap. Are you an ex HW foundryman Anon as well as a man who knows a lot about local football?
When I did my training in the Apprentice school in 1953 and my week in the labs the chap who did the collecting of samples and was a labs man was called Peter Whelan, emigrated to Australia a couple of years after. Also in the labs at that time was Peter Roberts and Les Dale (my cousin) who later went into the x-ray dept in the Bridge Yard. I think they called the lab people Metallurgists. The Manager then was a chap called Barker who lived in Redcar. The firms taxi would pick him up from the railway station and into work because he was disabled. His son Dave Barclay was in charge of the x-ray dept.
The small machine shop was operational in 1961. Along with Don Thirwell there was Jim Turner & an apprentice. The maintenance men of the foundry was joined to the test house machine shop, a couple of the fitters were Joe Lawrence & Dougie Moore who played football for Primrose Hill & Norton C.C.T. respectively.
The test pieces mentioned by Anon were for testing the finished castings, but the samples sent in for drilling were to analyse the molten metal in the furnaces to calculate for additions to bring it into the required specification.
Anon, they must have changed the system from when I left in 1961 as the place I mentioned in the labs just as you entered through the side door is where it happened.
The test pieces which had to be machined such as the tensile & charpy were done in a small machine shop on the path which led from this building along the back of the foundry, the guy in charge of this machine shop was Don Thirwell.
I worked in the steel foundry labs in 1957 when I left school, having spent some time in the apprentice school. The samples mentioned were actually collected from the furnace on a long metal rod with a circular spoon on the end then cooled and brought across for analysis. I had some very good friends there, it all seems like a long time ago now. It was a lovely old building with a revolving door at the front and offices upstairs.
This is the old Craig Taylors main office and in this picture the HW’s Foundry offices. The little door on the gable end leads into the labs. Just inside this door on the right was a drilling machine which was used when samples from melting of the steel was done. The samples were circular as if poured into a small ladle.
Although I did maintenance work in these offices, especially at weekends when no one was there, I never ventured up into the turret. Has anyone been up there and if so what was in there?
This building, in the 60″s, housed, among other operations, the materials “Test House” & “Methods Department”. Pedestrians who use the Millenium Bridge today and approach by the roadway, pass clean through its portals.