Mike Parrish in the photo went to Newham Grange School the same time as Eddie Peacock who also worked in the foundry. Mike was from Dewsbury Close, Ragworth in the fifties. I remember seeing the castings in the top photo on the land between the Heavy Plate Shop & the Machine Shop being prepared for dispatch.
I see that we are back in the wonderful world of the founries again. These patterns made by Mike, Norman and a young Mick Hope shows the skill that was needed to make the big patterns in wood with the clever allowance for the contraction of the steel when cast in that metal to arrive at nearly always the correct size required. Not many foundries or pattern shops are kicking around in this area. I go back to my training days when we could have upto a dozen or more apprentice moulders and apprentce patternmakers learning their trade every year. Thats without the boys that learned their trade without going to a training centre but started to learn on the job staight from school. Most of the former large castings are now are made of welded steel, quicker and cheaper and from what I am told just as good.
hi ken i too have photos of us at head wrightsons,i have been living in darlington since i got married in 1973 to the girl i was going out with at the time i was working at head wrightsons and still together,after leaving head wrightsons i went onto work for wimpeys on a site behind the spitfire at thornaby as a joiner and since then worked all over the country,the last 14 years i have had my own joinery business,time flies dos”nt it,give my regards to norman, all the best mick
Hi Mick. I do remember you from Oxbridge with your long hair and wooly hat in fact I have a photo of you in the pattern shop with Dougy Hauxwell, Charlie Hunter and myself taken from a 1971 Wright Ahead which unfortunally cannot be re-printed by the Stockton Team. Did you keep to patternmaking or go on to do something different? The chap on the left was Mike Parrish who worked at HW from the start of his apprenticeship till i think HW closed down. I worked at the Thornaby patternshop for well over a year till I transferred back to Stockton Steel Foundry. I remember Billy, Norman and you from the the old days. Good to hear from you.
I remember this I was an apprentice at the time at Thornaby and I had the job of filling in all the screw holes and sanding them down; there where thousands of them. The first picture shows the stern frame outside, the bloke on the right is Norman Dixon I was his apprentice at the time. The second picture shows two patternmakers working on the stern frame the one on the right is Billy Young and the other on the left is a lad called Mike but I can”t remember his surname
These two photographs show two patternmakers working on making a wood for what I belive to be a ships rudder later to be moulded in the steel foundry and cast in steel. Head Wrightsons Steel Foundries made a lot of castings for the shipbuilding industry for firms such as Clarke Chapmans of Gatesheadand and other shipbuilding firms on the Tyne, Wear and Tees rivers. In later years they were involved with a lot of work for the oil rigs.
Mike Parrish in the photo went to Newham Grange School the same time as Eddie Peacock who also worked in the foundry. Mike was from Dewsbury Close, Ragworth in the fifties. I remember seeing the castings in the top photo on the land between the Heavy Plate Shop & the Machine Shop being prepared for dispatch.
I see that we are back in the wonderful world of the founries again. These patterns made by Mike, Norman and a young Mick Hope shows the skill that was needed to make the big patterns in wood with the clever allowance for the contraction of the steel when cast in that metal to arrive at nearly always the correct size required. Not many foundries or pattern shops are kicking around in this area. I go back to my training days when we could have upto a dozen or more apprentice moulders and apprentce patternmakers learning their trade every year. Thats without the boys that learned their trade without going to a training centre but started to learn on the job staight from school. Most of the former large castings are now are made of welded steel, quicker and cheaper and from what I am told just as good.
hi ken i too have photos of us at head wrightsons,i have been living in darlington since i got married in 1973 to the girl i was going out with at the time i was working at head wrightsons and still together,after leaving head wrightsons i went onto work for wimpeys on a site behind the spitfire at thornaby as a joiner and since then worked all over the country,the last 14 years i have had my own joinery business,time flies dos”nt it,give my regards to norman, all the best mick
Hello Mick, I remember you too – and the NMEs, Sounds etc you used to send home for me with Dad (Ken). Hope this finds you well.
Hi Mick. I do remember you from Oxbridge with your long hair and wooly hat in fact I have a photo of you in the pattern shop with Dougy Hauxwell, Charlie Hunter and myself taken from a 1971 Wright Ahead which unfortunally cannot be re-printed by the Stockton Team. Did you keep to patternmaking or go on to do something different? The chap on the left was Mike Parrish who worked at HW from the start of his apprenticeship till i think HW closed down. I worked at the Thornaby patternshop for well over a year till I transferred back to Stockton Steel Foundry. I remember Billy, Norman and you from the the old days. Good to hear from you.
I remember this I was an apprentice at the time at Thornaby and I had the job of filling in all the screw holes and sanding them down; there where thousands of them. The first picture shows the stern frame outside, the bloke on the right is Norman Dixon I was his apprentice at the time. The second picture shows two patternmakers working on the stern frame the one on the right is Billy Young and the other on the left is a lad called Mike but I can”t remember his surname
These two photographs show two patternmakers working on making a wood for what I belive to be a ships rudder later to be moulded in the steel foundry and cast in steel. Head Wrightsons Steel Foundries made a lot of castings for the shipbuilding industry for firms such as Clarke Chapmans of Gatesheadand and other shipbuilding firms on the Tyne, Wear and Tees rivers. In later years they were involved with a lot of work for the oil rigs.
on Teesdale where the new uni and call centres are now.
Does anyone know where Head Wrightson was located?