Mitchisons Ship Repair Yard was founded in 1919, on a site which had previously been known as Fairs Boat Yard or Anderson’s Slipway. Mitchison’s repair yard was taken over in 1955 by James Burness and Co. of London and refitted for ship construction, concentrating on tugs, trawlers and other small vessels.

In 1964, the yard was closed and taken over by Friars Goose Marina Management Group. The yard is, today, within the marina development at Friars Goose.

First Edition Ordnance Survey 1858, Sheet ??
Not seen

Second Edition Twenty Five Inches to One Mile Ordnance Survey 1999, Sheet ??
One slip, projecting obliquely downstream over mudflats. No obvious structures

Third Edition Twenty Five Inches to One Mile Ordnance Survey 1912, Sheet XCV.13
Little apparent change

Fourth Edition Six Inches to One Mile Ordnance Survey 1924, Sheet??
No change. Not resurveyed? {1} The slipway and yard was founded in 1919. It was extended to envelope the old Friar's Goose chemical works in 1921. In the 1920s the building of wooden sailing ships ceased and construction transferred to steel plated tugs, trawlers and purse seiners. In the mid 1950s Mitchinson's started to build a new trawler by Sir D Burney. The yard was taken over by James Burness and Co of London and shipbuilding commenced in 1955. The yard closed in 1964 {2}.

Shown as 'disused' on second edition OS map. The aluminium factory used the Curt Netto process to produce aluminium from cryolite used sodium. It was run by the Alliance Aluminium Company in the 1880s. Within two years, the Hall-Heroult process was adapted, which used electricity instead of sodium. In 1907 the Aluminium Corporation started to use this process throughout England. They built a new aluminium factory at Wallsend to replace the previous one.

Shown on second edition OS map.

Shown on second edition OS map.

Slipway shown on 1st edition Ordnance Survey map 25" to one mile survey.

In 1852, Charles Mitchell, from Aberdeen, set up a shipbuilding yard next to Coutts’ shipyard at Low Walker on the River Tyne. The first vessel launched from the yard was the passenger ship Havilah in 1854. In the same year, Mitchell married Ann Swan, the daughter of a Newcastle businessman. His two brothers-in–law, Charles and Henry Swan, both subsequently played parts in developing his shipbuilding concerns; Henry eventually became managing partner at the Low Walker yard, whilst Charles took over the management of his yard at Wallsend.

A variety of passenger, freight and military vessels were constructed at the Low Walker Yard, including a large number for Russian, German and other international owners. Over the 1860s and 70s a link developed between the Low Walker yard and the armaments company of William Armstrong of Elswick (established in 1847 to produce cranes and other hydraulic machinery, but soon specialising in ordnance). In 1867, the first naval vessel, the Royal Naval Gunboat Staunch was built at Low Walker and armed with Armstrong’s 9’’ Muzzle-loading gun. This was the first of 28 RN gunboats launched from the yard, all armed by Armstrong’s. In 1882 the two companies amalgamated as a limited liability company under the name of Sir W G Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. Ltd. The first joint vessel produced by the yards’ was the Chilean Cruiser Esmeralda. Launched in 1884 , the ship was designed by George Rendel, Managing Director of the Elswick Yard. She was constructed at Low Walker. Thereafter, the Low Walker Yard concentrated largely on merchant shipping, particularly the new bulk oil carrier, the oil tanker: The first of this type of vessel, the Gluckauf, was launched from this yard from 1885. In 1896 the company changed its name to Sir W G Armstrong & Co. Ltd. and the following year, during a period of British naval and armaments expansion, amalgamated with a Manchester armaments manufacturer, Sir Joseph Whitworth & co. Ltd. to become Sir W G Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. Ltd.

During the First World War a variety of tankers and other merchant ships was produced, and orders were numerous into the 1920s, with a significant upturn in 1928/9. However, the Depression forced the closure of the yard (along with the Dobson and Tyne Iron Yards also under the Armstrong-Whitworth name) in 1931. The yard re-opened in 1942 for the production of tramps. The Low Walker yard, by then under the name of Sir W G Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. (Shipbuilders) Ltd., went into voluntary liquidation in 1956.

Map Evidence

First Edition Ordnance Survey, Sheet ///
No shipyard present

Second Edition Ordnance Survey, Sheet ///
Not accessed

Third Edition Ordnance Survey, Sheet ///
Six slips run obliquely to the river. There are substantial buildings in the northern area of the yard, with a travelling-crane positioned along the northern wharf area.

Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey, Sheet ///
The yard has now been extended northwards over the site of the abandoned Walker Waggonway Staiths and the wharf has been extended northwards into this area. The six oblique slips remain in the southern half of the site. Substantial new buildings have been set up to the north of the slips.

Much repaired railway bridge carrying the NER (SMR 4895). Stonework survives largely intact but needs graffiti removing.

Shown on 1st edition Ordnance Survey map. Shown on second edition as a much larger complex including an "Old Forge" called Trimdon Iron Works.

Masonry remains comprising continuous runs of wagonway bridge abutments formerly carrying other mineral lines across the route of the Seaton Burn Colliery Wagonway to staiths on the Tyne at Northumberland Dock. The remains comprise two roughly parallel continuous lengths of bridge abutments built of sandstone with the most recent additions in concrete. Nothing of the original track bed is visible. The abutments flank part of an earlier wagonway, the Brunton and Shields Railroad, constructed by Benjamin Thompson in 1826. At this point the line of the Brunton and Shields Railway was built on land belonging to the Duke of Northumberland and was an incline known as the 'Tyne Plane'. The abutments represent later colliery lines being carried across 1826 way to reach staiths on the east side of the Hayhole Lead Works and ultimately in the Northumberland Dock. The earliest abutments were in position by 1856, with further abutments added by 1866 and final additions for the Tyne Improvement Commissioner's railway by 1881 {1}.

The land either side of the burn known as Galley Gill (previously called Barnes Burn, Eden Burn, Burnfields, Rector's Gill and Wearmouth Burn) to the north of the Newcastle and Stockton Road was owned by the Rector of the medieval church of St. Michael's. Bishopwearmouth, even after its separation from the parish of Sunderland in 1719 was one of the most important and wealthy parishes of the area. The Rectory (SMR 418) reflected this situation and was said to be "one of the best parsonages in England, and there are not more than three bishops that have the better" (G.E. Milburn and S.T. Milburn 1988 "Sunderland: River, Town and People", p.2). Behind the rectory was a small garden together with outbuildings which included three stables, a cow house, a coach house and a large tithe barn (SMR 40) to hold the farm produce received by the rector. Beyond the garden was a stretch of some 30 acres reaching to the riverside, forming the Rectory Park walled in by Henry Egerton (d.1795) one time rector and brother of the Bishop of Durham. William Paley, rector after Egerton, described the park in the following terms: "There is nearly a mile of wall planted with fruit trees, i.e. a rich field of ten acres, surrounded with a well gravelled walk; gardens and shrubbery grounds, commanding some pretty views of the banks of the Wear, two or three hot houses and a greenhouse". Miller describes the land based on Rain's Eye Plan 1790 thus: "on the west side of this walled retreat is the pretty dene known as the Rector's Gill … the Gill is already being nibbled away by industrial development. There is the rector's own quay and workers' cottages…" (ibid p.3). Fifty years earlier, Burleigh and Thompson's map of 1737 shows the rector's ground as enclosed cultivated land or pasture without the early signs of industrialisation. In early19th century burial arrangements were extended beyond the churchyard of St. Michaels, incorporating part of Rectory Park (see SMR 5010). By 1894 housing had spread throughout the former area of the Rector's Field {1}.