564:"I wish I could come here with good news, or a change of view by the Government, but I cannot. Reminded every day of Shildon by Derek Foster, (later Chief Opposition Whip) my PPS, which, for Derek, stands for Preserve Production in Shildon I know what you have been through. Any other Government would have been impressed by the fight, the faith, trust and loyalty and would have changed their decision. The Prime Minister is constantly preaching 'Do it yourself', but what complete hypocrisy... You have had accolades from BREL, even by Thatcher's ideals you have done enough to exist, but no, you can't exist due to dogma. We have a run-down British Rail - she never uses it - and an ageing wagon stock... The Tories cannot adjust to the idea that unemployment is not free and it is growing more expensive every year. We shed jobs when we should be investing in a properly up-to-date system. Other Governments see the need of railway networks, good connections, why not this Government? Instead we have a Government which seems to have declared war on work. With work you get income, freedom and rights, without you have to fall in line..."
449:'As you are aware we are currently facing serious workload shortages... It was agreed with the Special Working Party that we should first offer voluntary redundancy to all adult staff... In the event that sufficient volunteers do not come forward, the alternative at the present time can only be a shorter working week for everybody as there is no intention to enforce redundancy. If we are to survive, it's absolutely necessary for us reduce our present staffing and our overhead costs. Every effort is being made to seek new work and to find new ways of reducing our costs. It is, however, vital that we reduce the size of the workforce in keeping with the workload available, as a shorter working week will increase costs and therefore not attract work to this factory. For this reason I am again asking for staff to apply for voluntary redundancy'.
541:'Workers at Shildon Wagon 'Works are to receive drastically improved redundancy pay offers. In a surprise move BREL has offered to increase the maximum pay-off to aver £5,000, an increase of £3,000. BREL are also sending a team of redundancy experts to the Works to give advice to the 1,000 men who face the dole if closure goes ahead. The increase will be seen as an incentive to the workers to accept BREL's offer. But the introduction is conditional on the unions agreeing to the closure of Shildon, Horwich, and Temple Mills. A BREL spokesman, Bernard Ault said, 'This extension of supplementary payments will increase the financial terms available to many employees not wishing to transfer to other areas'".
485:'Foreseeing the position which will arise in 1984, a Working Party of representatives from BR, British Steel Corporation, and the Scrap Federation plans to introduce a nationwide rail service in new purpose-built wagons for which a grant from the Government under Section 8 (Railway Act 1974) is required if the scheme is to be viable.... The ADC points out that for such a grant to be forthcoming the support of local authorities whose road network would be affected by the lorry movement is required and Councils are asked to write to the Dept. of Transport supporting grant aid to the Standard Railway Wagon Company Ltd which is prepared to build the special new box wagons'.
481:. This announcement resulted in discussions at the Policy and Resources Committee of Sedgefield District Council on 13 December. There it was pointed out that the withdrawal of these wagons would put a serve strain on road haulage resources. It became clear that some local authorities were to replace the withdrawn wagons and apply for railway facilities under provisions of the Railways Act 1974 (Section 8). The act allowed for private or public industry to build their own access to sidings on the rail network. Hopes that these new wagons would be built at Shildon were soon dashed, with the Policy Resource Committee reporting -
467:'Walter Nunn has been a railwayman since January 1938... standing beside a replica of the Hackworth's locomotive he said, "The process has already begun. The community is already divided by the "offer" of redundancies. What does the alder man say when the carrot of a pay-off is dangled? What does a man say if he is tired or ill and handicapped from an injury? It's a terrible dilemma, because we know when the redundancies are taken up, the workforce is weakened and fighting far survival then is much harder. No apprentices are to be taken on this year. This had not happened for 150 years. They're cutting the bloodline"'.
385:"I remember being on the platform and watching the faces down there in the crowd. As the politicians and union leaders spoke you could see their faces changing. They'd been full of enthusiasm marching through the Town, full of hope. But as they listened to the tired old clichés coming out of their "leaders" you could see them losing heart. They started to leave before the end. On the fringes of the crowd, with the speakers still talking, you could see them going. Derek Foster, he knew what was happening, tried to rally them, to get them lifted again, but they'd heard enough."
410:'Yesterday's announcement that the Prime Minister was to involve herself with the proposals came as a surprise to the local union leaders. They said they were delighted with the news. 'It came out of the blue.' said John Priestly who, with the NUR and Boilermakers' Society convenors, had an hour long meeting with Transport Minister David Howell in London on Thursday... 'The Minister said he would look into our case and appeared to agree with us that more freight should go by rail instead of road. We were very impressed by his sympathetic attitude' said Mr Priestly."
523:'...With regard to the Shildon closures, the Government has shown its concern at the implication for local employment by setting up a committee of BR, Local Authority and Government officials to examine ways of maximising assistance. The redundancies will fall in the Durham and South West Darlington TTWA (Travel to Work Area) and IA (Intermediate Area) eligible for selective financial assistance. However, the Government considers that it would be premature to try and predict the full effect of redundancies which are not to be completed until December 1984...'
330:"Whenever you had a meeting of branches the people from Shildon always stood out. The others would be perhaps a bit pushy. Argumentative, but those from Shildon would be quieter. It was bit like they were not used to having to fight their corner. I know it may sound strange, but they were sometimes like country people, unused to meeting the sort of people you'd get at a general meeting. The Branch was a big one, one of the biggest, and yet it rarely seemed to have much clout. Bit subdued. Nice people though, but maybe a bit too accommodating."
585:'The last rites have started as Shildon Wagon Works' proud 150-year history grinds slowly to a halt. The doomed works are now echoing to the sound of the mechanical digger as the old tracks (connecting the works to the lines at Shildon station) are ripped from the ground... The remnants of a once-mighty workforce looked solemnly on and knew there was no going back. Yard transport worker, Colin Russell, said "They are cutting the head off before the body's died. It's a sign of the end and it's now irretrievable- there's no going back now."
264:"When I had first heard about the closure, at one of the regular lunches Parker and I had started having, when he put this paper in front of me I said 'No way are you going to close Shildon, no way!' I was determined and he knew that. I had agreed, I had to realistically, that there would be cut-backs, but I was determined to try and keep Shildon going somehow. I knew that once you closed it down it'd never be re-opened. They never are. To close something is too easy and to start it up almost impossible. So he had backed down."
35:
301:'Why Shildon? Shildon is BREL principal wagon-building works and has a capacity to build some 1,200-1,500 wagons per year, and to repair in excess of 20,000 wagons per year. There are no new build orders in for 1983 and prospects for 1984 and 1985 indicate that future needs are insignificant in relation to the capacity available. Operating Shildon on the substantially reduced repairs workload only would not be viable and would lead to substantial losses in 1983, with no prospect of a return to profit in the future'.
196:. An average working day was 11 hours, 06.00 to 17.00, with overtime taking the working day to 21.00. The men were told that their 'boards' would not be issued for the Saturday shift if they refused the overtime. The boards were where the men recorded their work, without their board they could not work.
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Sedgefield
District Council appreciated the need for government grants and subsidies to encourage new industries into the area. These incentives were dependent on the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) classification. The council were seeking to upgrade their area from an Assisted Area (AA) to a
274:
A trade union march was organised for 29 April, which was to assemble at 10am on the playing field of
Sunnydale School. Members of the Sedgefield District Council closure working party were authorised to attend as 'approved duty' with pay. The march worked its way through the town, led by figures
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The Works Joint
Committee gathered on 4 March to discuss the closure announcement. Local MP Derek Foster believed that the campaign to save the works had been a "tremendous achievement" but that it had made little difference to the outcome. Some regarded the meeting as a wake for the works while
287:"More than 5000 people poured through the doomed railway town yesterday in the biggest show of strength in its history. The protest line was a mile long... Shildon came to a sudden standstill as 2,500 wagon workers marched to save their jobs joined by women, children, and pensioners."
235:"Shildon rail workers joined a national fight with BR today over the expected shutdown of vital rail works... This could mean the complete shutdown of one or more railway engineering plants... Worried union leaders from Shildon and York joined a demonstration outside BR's London HQ"
199:
In 1962 the
Shildon Works underwent a £800,000 modernisation following the creation of the British Rail Workshops Division. This saw the works equipped to repair BR wagons and from 1970, wagons from abroad. A notable wagon which came out of the works on this period was the
163:'Only about 50 persons (were) employed in the works, and few of them skilled, with no tools except hand lathes.. no means of raising heavy parts, but the screwjack of old fashioned make. Boiler and cylinder, mine old friends tell me, were got from Newcastle"
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BREL offered the town a £300,000 loan guarantee package but this was thought to be not enough. Then on 7 June, David
Mitchell (Parliamentary Under Sec. Dept. of Transport) set up a group at the ministry to try and reach agreement on an improved offer.
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J. Palette (Dir. of
Personnel, British Rail Board) confirmed the closure of Shildon Works in 1984. In a letter to unions on 18 February 1983 he stated that work would be transferred from the town to work in Doncaster and other BREL sites.
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A protest to London was thought to be a better idea and a train chartered to take people to the capital. Ultimately it was decided that travellers would pay £5 each with the remaining amount coming from the fighting fund.
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The works repair shop had the capacity to overhaul and repair 800 wagons a week. Production figures show that between 1965 and 1982 the works build 11,083 'Merry-go-round' 32.5 tonne capacity coal hoppers.
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These works were to be purchased by the S&DR company in 1855 and closed in 1883. Hackworth was the first of 22 managers of the works in their 151-year history, a post he held between 1833 and 1840.
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On 5 May a joint report by Durham and
Sedgefield Councils' planning departments was issued. It stated that closure would result in the loss of 2,180 jobs and leave one in four of the
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With negotiations under way local journalists reported being hung up on when trying to call union officials at the works. These negotiations received a blow on 17 April, when works
204:' air-discharge cement wagon along with high capacity coal and Freightliner wagons. The forge at Shildon also produced a large proportion of drop stampings for other railway works.
428:"Saved!" The six week battle to save Shildon was won on Friday night when British Rail management postponed controversial plans to axe the whole work force from April next year."
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At 19.30 on the evening of 7 May a trades union meeting was held in the works canteen to discuss progress in the campaign to save the facility. A strike was discussed but
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On 29 May there was a large rally in
Shildon with marchers moving off from the Civic Hall to the park at 10.30 and speeches beginning at 11.15. Official guests included
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On 4 June BR announced a postponement of the closure with a decision to come in early 1983 on the future of the works. Union leaders at a local level said they
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Any new wagons for the movement of scrap metal in areas that would be adversely impacted by an increase in road haulage were to be built by private industry.
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However, the NUR leaders in London were more cautious that a postponement was not a reprieve. A local newspaper did not draw this distinction and declared -
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In 1827, Timothy
Hackworth built the locomotive Royal George at the Soho Works. It was also in this period that the works received an order from the
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for a locomotive. Shildon produced the engine and
Hackworth's son John Wesley Hackworth was dispatched with drivers and mechanics to deliver it to
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Dennis Lees arrived as acting manager of the works on 10 May, replacing Derek Clarke who had been made acting manager at the Doncaster facility.
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Shildon was the terminus of the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR), when it opened in 1825. Its first locomotive superintendent was
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At the time of the announcement the works employed 2,600 people and amounted to 86% of the male workforce's manufacturing jobs in the town.
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In December 1982 the Association of District Councils (ADC) reported that BR wagons at that time carrying scrap metal were to be
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156:, who maintained their locomotives at the Soho Works. Thomas Hackworth (Timothy's brother) was works manager at the Soho Works.
320:"Derby were lukewarm, but Glasgow suggested an immediate strike because of fears that there would be a dwindling of workshops".
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came up for discussion at a meeting of the Works Working Party on 24 June and the need for wagons for the new tunnel.
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The taking up of the railway lines linking the works to the network were reported by the Northern Echo on 25 June -
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was formed in 1899 after growing discontent amongst the workers. One of the grievances was a requirement to work
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BREL set out its case for closure in a special edition of Railtalk Magazine using a question and answer format.
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253:. He was in London for negotiations on 13 and 14 April and the strain is believed to have caused the stroke.
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the works grew to cover 40 acres (16 ha) (11 acres or 4.5 ha roofed), employing 2,750 staff.
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On 25 May a deputation left the for London with 600 people travelling south in eleven coaches from
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MP (Chair. Labour Northern Group of MPs), Ted Fletcher and Roland Boyes MEP (Constituency MEP).
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Eight days before the announcement of the closure there were rumours that it may come.
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The jewel in British rail's crown: an account of the closure at Shildon Wagon Works
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422:"delighted that our industrial strength has brought about a change of attitude."
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unemployed. A further 450 jobs with suppliers to the works would also be lost.
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An announcement came that the works would officially close on 30 June 1984.
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was to meet with local MP Derek Foster to discuss the Shildon closure plan.
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before returning to Kings Cross and arriving back at Darlington at 22.20.
355:(BR) headquarters. There they delivered 630 letters to the chairman of BR
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In his 1990 interview Weighell recalled the Shildon branch of the NUR -
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MP (Shadow Minister for Transport), Derek Foster MP (Constituency MP),
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On 18 August acting works manager Dennis Lees wrote to all staff -
313:"insured population in the Bishop Auckland Employment Exchange area"
249:(NUR) chair Roy Jones collapsed on his way to work from a suspected
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MP visited Shildon on 28 April 1984 and spoke on the situation -
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260:(General Sec. NUR) recalled first hearing of the closure plan -
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Norman Lamont, Minister for Trade and Industry, Letter 23/6/1983
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others wanted to redouble efforts and continue to campaign.
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The closure of the works was announced on 23 April 1982 by
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END OF THE LINES AT DOOMED WORKS, Northern Echo 25/6/1984
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North East History: The Stockton and Darlington Railway
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Policy Resource Committee, Sedgefield District Council
479:'life-expired and withdrawn from service by May 1984'
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ran a two-page spread about the town on 4 October -
773:The Railway Workshops of Great Britain 1823-1986,
537:The Evening Despatch reported in August 1983 -
56:but its sources remain unclear because it lacks
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454:Dennis Lees - Acting Works Manager, OUR FUTURE
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351:. Arriving at 11.00 the party marched on the
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515:wrote to Councillor G. W. Terrans (Leader,
159:The beginnings of the works were small -
748:The Yorkshire Herald, and The York Herald
511:In June, Minister for Trade and Industry
140:, England. Originally built to serve the
87:Learn how and when to remove this message
746:"THE DISSATISFACTION AT SHILDON WORKS".
433:Jim Gilchrist, Evening Despatch 7/6/1982
621:Railway Workshops of Britain, 1823-1986
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212:Campaign to Save the Works and Closure
781:Thomas Hackworth: Locomotive Engineer
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472:John Pilger, Daily Mirror 4/10/1982
390:Official at Mass Meeting - May 1982
283:MEP, to the local football ground.
825:Railway workshops in Great Britain
646:"The story of the other Hackworth"
569:Neil Kinnock MP - Speech 28/4/1984
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750:. No. 15047. 29 August 1899.
766:The Railway in Town and Country,
534:Special Development Area (SDA).
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820:Stockton and Darlington Railway
768:Newton Abott: David and Charles
168:Bishop Auckland Herald 3/9/1863
142:Stockton and Darlington Railway
835:1825 establishments in England
132:opened in 1833 in the town of
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779:Smith, George Turner (2015).
247:National Union of Railwaymen
223:British Rail Engineering Ltd
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830:North Eastern Railway (UK)
546:Evening Despatch 12/8/1983
240:Evening Dispatch 14/4/1982
618:Larkin, Edgar J. (1988).
42:This article includes a
415:Northern Echo 29/5/1982
359:. They moved on to the
292:Northern Echo 30/4/1982
71:more precise citations.
729:Sansick, John (1990).
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117:54.625021°N 1.652446°W
517:Durham County Council
365:members of parliament
256:Interviewed in 1990,
130:Shildon railway works
764:Simmons, J., (1986)
735:. Durham University.
395:On the same day the
361:Houses of Parliament
122:54.625021; -1.652446
347:at 07.15 bound for
113: /
18:Soho Works, Shildon
44:list of references
790:978-1-78155-464-7
650:The Northern Echo
519:Labour Group) -
404:Margaret Thatcher
154:Timothy Hackworth
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69:introducing
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345:Darlington
275:including
105:54°37′30″N
363:to lobby
108:1°39′09″W
588:—
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225:(BREL).
194:overtime
166:—
840:Shildon
759:Sources
279:MP and
202:Presflo
148:History
134:Shildon
65:improve
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655:1 June
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251:stroke
179:Russia
50:, or
785:ISBN
657:2018
626:ISBN
552:1984
499:1983
459:The
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