Head Wrightson Ironworks

Pictures of Stockton on Tees : Head Wrightson Ironworks and Engineering

Head-Wrightson, Whitwell’s works in 1933 , Thornaby

Head Wrightson Plaque 1948

Visit HERE for a definitive timeline of Head Wrightson Works

Head Wrightson , the famous Norton Road Stockton engineering company first started life in 1840 as a firm named Head Ashby and was established on the site of an old mill in the area of Teesdale, Thornaby (also known as Thornaby Carrs) which used to manufacture cotton for ships sails. In 1864 Thomas Wrightson joined the firm from the Elswick works of Armstrongs and the firm was re-named Head Wrightson & Co.

In 1896 the company acquired Stockton Forge Works, Norton Road and the company expanded rapidly until by the early 20th century practically every blast-furnace on the North East coast was constructed by Head Wrightson. The company took over the Stockton Steel Foundry plant to extend its output of steel castings in 1929. During the 1920s and 1930s the company expanded still further until by the 1940s the Head Wrightson Works at Thornaby, Middlesbrough and Seaton Carew covered a total of 70 acres and employed over 4,500 people.
In 1931, during the last great economic slump, the Wrightson family had to mortgage their mansion, Neasham Hall near Darlington, to keep the firm from going under.

It was Head’s heyday. On six sites across Teesside, it employed about 6,000 people.
After a long and sometimes painful decline the company finally succumbed, like so much of the British manufacturing industry, to final closure in June 1987.

View the Evening Gazettes brilliant in depth article HERE [...]

One of four heat exchangers being loaded at the Thornaby works four weeks ahead of schedule

Launch of a Bradwell boiler , 1950s from the Teesdale site on the Thornaby bank of the Tees

Machine burning at Head Wrightson

A flotilla of Head Wrightson, Cleveland Bridge, Cargo Fleet and Whessoe built 238 landing craft ready for D-Day in 1944. This is a quarter of them

Launch of a Bradwell boiler , 1950s from the Teesdale site on the Thornaby bank of the Tees

1983

Furnaces being dismantled 1987

Head Wrightson loco

HEAD WRIGHTSON - HY21-1870 - at THORNABY 1961

Builder's plate on footbridge across the Tees ,Barnard Castle -Head Wrightson

HW loco on a roundabout inStockton in 2010 ,now relocated to Preston Park

Head Wrightson loco

Load from Head Wrightson makes its way past The Bridge Hotel in Thornaby in 1956

Head Wrightson plaque 1870

Heavy load leaving Head Wrightson's

`schiff belademaschine` or `Ship Loading Machine` built by HW . In use in Germany

The longest load ever moved on a British public highway on Sunday, March 25, 1984

Head Wrightson built Newburn Bridge over the River Tyne

Many of those memories have been superbly collected by the Teesside Industrial Memories Project for its third book – its previous books have captured the oral history of ICI and Smith’s Dock . Northern Echo

SEE MORE : Pictures of Stockton

High Street
Newport Bridge
Infinity Bridge
Postcards
The Town Hall
Historic Stockton Advertisements
Finkle Street
Stockton Castle

Stockton Collection 1
Stockton Collection 2
Stockton Collection 3
Stockton Collections 4-8
Stockton Collections 9-13
Stockton Collections 14-18
Stockton Collections 19-23
Stockton Collections 24-28
Stockton Collections 29-33

Yarm

Teesside Steel
Tees Transporter Bridge
Head Wrightsons Ironworks

Amazing Teesside landmarks photographed at Dusk and Dawn

Source Websites
Tanfield railway blogspot
Graces Guide
Northern Echo
Evening Gazette