Harry S. Edwards and Sons

Ship repairers of South Shields

1768 Business established at High Docks, South Shields.

1883 Laid out a shipyard at Howdon.

1893 'A New Pontoon Dock.—Messrs. Edwards’ Shipbuilding Company, Limited, Howdon, are at present constructing a large iron pontoon dock for the Manchester Ship Canal Pontoons and Dry Docks Company, Limited. The dimensions are: 300 ft. long by 70 ft. broad, and 31 ft. to the top of the towers. There are 40 watertight tanks, each 7 ft. deep, which will be filled by four inlet valves, each 18 in. in diameter, two on either side. These valves will be worked from the top of the towers. For the purpose of pumping out the water, after the dock has been sunk and the vessel to be docked has been placed upon the blocks, large centrifugal pumps, by Messrs. Tangye, of Birmingham, will be fitted. The whole of the machinery will be placed at the fore part of the dock, and will include, in addition to the pumps, two boilers, 9 ft. in diameter and 9 ft. long, by Messrs. J. T. Eltringham and Co., South Shields. The dock is one of Mr. Alexander Taylor’s invention, and similar to that built by Messrs. Swan and Hunter, of Wallsend, for the Wallsend Pontoon and Dry Docks Company, Limited. There have been used in the construction of the dock about 1500 tons of iron, and nearly 400,000 rivets.'

1898 Subsequent to Edwards’ death in 1898, the yard was acquired by Rowland Hodge, previously yard manager for C.S. Swan and Hunter at their Wallsend yard.

Hodge transferred the ownership of the Howdon Yard to the Northumberland Shipbuilding Co for £6,000, with Sir Christopher Furness, a West Hartlepool shipowner, taking a controlling interest in the company.

1918 the yard was sold to new owners led by the Belfast company Workman, Clark and Co for £835,000. They used the Northumberland company to create the largest shipbuilding combine in Britain.

In 1926 the yard closed, but the following year re-opened as The Northumberland Shipbuilding Co. (1927) Ltd, with 7 berths and capacity to build ships up to 600 feet in length. The last ship was launched in 1930, the 343rd under the Northumberland name. The yard was sold to National Shipbuilders Security Ltd and later dismantled.

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1899 The Smiths Dock Co was registered as result of amalgamation of T. and W. Smith with the Bull Ring repair yards of Harry S. Edwards and Sons and Edwards Brothers.

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Sources of Information

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