This photograph was taken on 17th December 2007 from the Castlegate Marine Club on the River Tees, shortly before she started to list and was broken up in situ. A sad end to a fine ship.
Photograph and details courtesy of Andrew Mackenzie.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Picture Stockton Archive 
Sometime prior to the HMS Kellington being broken up, an open day was held on board the vessel between Stockton Council officials and both Stockton MP’s who at that time were Frank Cook & Dari Taylor. Representatives from the Stockton branch of the RNA Association with a group of young navy cadets were also in attendance. There was some optimism a way forward could be found to finance the saving of the Kellington, sadly, we now know, it was not to be. The photographs I took on that day are a reminder to me of a once proud serving ship.
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It was saved from the knackers when it snuck in just before the bridge locked it in. It cost enough to send it on its way. Should Stockton have paid to lift it out from a jetty not built to use easily hireable cranes? Should Stockton’s ratepayers have had to put a new bottom on a worn out deck then refit a broken never to be used engine etc? If it had had some distinction in the war and could have been used as a tourist attraction then it MAY have been worth the great expense. Let’s get realistic; it was scrap and was hardly worth weighing in at the knackers yard.
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HMS Kellington (M1154) was a Ton-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 October 1954 and named after the village of Kellington in North Yorkshire. She served as part of 108th mine sweeping squadron based in Malta in 1956, and in January 1957 arrived back in Hythe to join the reserve fleet.
She was converted to a minehunter between 1967 and 1969 and was decommissioned in 1993. She was handed over to become a training ship for the Sea Cadets on 23 August 1993. In 2005 she was closed on health and safety grounds.
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The vessel should have been preserved.
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