Tank made by Head Wrightsons for the Bradwell Nuclear Power Plant 19 May 1958.
Photograph courtesy of Ken Pattison.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Tank made by Head Wrightsons for the Bradwell Nuclear Power Plant 19 May 1958.
Photograph courtesy of Ken Pattison.
The description TANK is totally misplaced as this is a very large Pressure Vessel, or boiler as described by Bob Irwin.
A very interesting way to deliver these boilers to site. Once again Head Wrightsons were to the forefront in their field for innovative ways of solving problems.
The two fitters in this photo are Alan Rigg measuring the Blank & Roly (Punker) Graham on the left in a boiler suit.
Head Wrightsons also used to launch the Dock Gates & tow them to site by river & sea.
I worked on the boilers fitting the saddles and also on the slipway. There were 12 boilers altogether and the same saddles were reused for all of them. I also worked down in Bradwell when the boilers were towed around the coast by tugs to the Bradwell village. Funny story is that HW’s bought a cottage in the village near to the river. We used this as a canteen as well as storing tools. Then there was a local boatman they hired and also his boat yard. He kept a lot of hens there which laid their eggs everywhere. We would buy bacon from the local shop and then pinch the eggs from the boatyard. One day our manager Ted Sanderson came with a complaint from the boatman that when we arrived his hens stopped laying eggs.
I think the item in question is one of the boilers for Bradwell. Head Wrightsons were very clever because, as transporting such a large piece of equipment by road was more or less impossible, they came up with the idea of temporarily sealing off the various access points, slipping the boiler into the river and floating it to site.