These photographs were taken at Swan Hunter, Haverton Hill Shipyard in 1970. Courtesy of Catherine Wright. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
These photographs were taken at Swan Hunter, Haverton Hill Shipyard in 1970. Courtesy of Catherine Wright.
I was trying to find out the history of my home & who’d lived here before us, I live in Rievaulx Avenue, Billingham, we asked our old neighbour & he said a top manager at Swan Hunters shipyard had lived here & most of the bungalows around here were lived in by managers, I’d love to know who he was, I’m really interested in the history of my home & buildings, if any can help me please get in touch.
My dad worked here before the war and after the war came back and got a job as a tower crane driver. He was known as big John
I’d just like to say that I worked in the fab bay with a crane driver like Ronnie Dunn, Perter Melling and one big man called Pallende. We had a slinger called Georgy, still gets in the tuc.
Can anyone help me?.. I am looking for a lad called COLIN FAGAN from NORTON who I worked with from 1974- 79. If anyone know his whereabouts please ask him to get in touch with me through the Picture Stockton team – thank you.
The man that you are talking about was called Norman Becks, a shipwright
I worked on the Matadi Palm from December 69 till March 1970. I was on the ship one afternoon on a payday, a Thursday at about three thirty when a poor chap from Haverton Hill fell off the top of the ship down into the bilge. He was coiling up a light cable and came out of one of those oblong holes in the deck you can see on the first photo and tripped over, he landed on some of those flat stiffeners on the hull bottom. The man amazingly survived the fall but was badly injured. On the slipway next to the Matadi Palm was one of the OBO ships of the illfated Darbyshire fame.
I also worked on MATADI PALM, and finished my time at Swans in 71 with Ian Harrison,Alan Melvin a few names that may ring a bell.
Its great finding people who remember grandad! Been wanting to put these online for ages and wasn’t sure where to send them. I was given the photos after he died and love them. He used to tell me some great stories about the shipyard!
The ship in the photograph, MATADI PALM, was launched in 1970 at Swan Hunters Haverton Yard. I knew Ray well. In 1970 Ray was foreman shipwright during the building of the above ship. I finish serving my time just after the launch of the above mentioned ship.
These photos belonged to my Grandad, Ray Carter, who was employed at Haverton Hill shipyard from 1948, working his way up to Head Supervisor by 1969. Photographs of him at Smith Dock c1970 can be seen in the ‘People’ section of this website (id=90523).