Recent discoveries and challenges on the Sunderland Shipbuilding Archives Project

Collections & Objects   Local History   Maritime History   The Archives
Posted by administrator on August 30, 2012     Permalink     Comments (38)

For the past month I’ve been busy cataloguing the ships photographs of several Sunderland shipyards, including those for Sir James Laing & Sons Ltd and J.L. Thompson & Sons Ltd. There are thousands of fantastic images of ships launches and sea trials. These photographs will certainly be of most interest to maritime researchers but they should also be of interest to local historians and family historians.

The images may even be useful to those researching the history of fashion. That last statement might seem a little strange until you consider that our shipbuilding collections include hundreds of photographs of men and women attending ships launches dressed in all their finery. A typical example is this photograph taken in September 1957 at the launch of the ‘Harpagus’ by William Doxford & Sons Ltd.

 

Launch party of the vessel 'Harpagus', 1957 (TWAM ref. DS.DOX/4/PH/1/823/1/1)

 

It’s the ships, though, that are the real stars and the photographs that I’ve been cataloguing during the past month include some fantastic images. One that particularly caught my eye is this rather artistic view of the ‘Eastern Rover’, built by Joseph L. Thompson & Sons Ltd, taken through the shell plates of its sister ship ‘Eastern Ranger’ (TWAM ref. DS.JLT/4/PH/1/706/2).

 

'Eastern Rover' ready for launch, 1961 (TWAM ref. DS.JLT/4/PH/1/706/2)

 

There are also wonderful images of vessels after launch as they are being towed away to the fitting out quay. A great example is this shot of the ‘British Warrior’ launched by J.L. Thompson & Sons on 22 February 1951 showing workers in the foreground and the tug boats ‘Houghton’ and ‘Grangetown’ on the River (TWAM ref. DS.JLT/4/PH/1/669/3).

 

'British Warrior' under tow on the River Wear shortly after launch, 1951 (TWAM ref. DS.JLT/4/PH/1/669/3)

 

This photograph of the launch of the ‘Aghios Nicolaos’ by William Doxford & Sons Ltd (TWAM ref. DS.DOX/4/PH/1/805/3/2) is also interesting. It shows different stages of shipbuilding with two vessels under construction on the slipways, the ‘Aghios Nicolaos’ sliding down the ways and the vessel ‘Dona Evgenia’ at the fitting out quay.

 

Launch of the ‘Aghios Nicolaos’ (TWAM ref. DS.DOX/4/PH/1/805/3/2)

 

One of the great challenges in cataloguing ships photographs can be trying to put names to unidentified ships. A few weeks ago I came across several unidentified photographs of a Second World War cargo vessel during its sea trials. Apart from the images themselves, the only clue I had to work with was a date on the back of one of the images ‘22/10/43’.

 

Port side view of the mystery ship (TWAM ref. DS.JLT/4/PH/1/625)

 

The photographs had been listed with the records of Sir James Laing & Sons but looking through the excellent photograph albums kept by the firm I couldn’t find any vessels that matched the size and style of our mystery ship. Looking desperately for clues a name jumped out at me from the riverbanks – ‘Joseph L. Thompson & Sons’.

 

Enlarged view of riverbank detail (TWAM ref. DS.JLT/4/PH/1/625)

 

This made perfect sense since the shipyards of Laing and J.L. Thompson were very closely linked and so I decided to widen my search to the latter. Unfortunately, the Archives doesn’t have many wartime photographs of Thompsons ships so there was no easy way of identifying the vessel by direct comparison. The date on the back of the photograph now came to my rescue. Working on the assumption that the vessel was on its sea trials and therefore essentially finished, I checked the Miramar website for details of any Thompson vessels completed around October 1943. There was one very clear match – the ‘Chinese Prince’, which was launched in March 1943 and handed over in October to its owners, Prince Line.

The next step was to try to confirm my suspicions by consulting a book in our searchroom library Pride of the Princes by Norman Middlemiss. At this point there was an unexpected bit of luck. As I took the book off the library shelf I spotted the book’s author sitting right in front of me in our searchroom. After explaining the situation to him he very kindly offered to take a look at the photographs and by studying the style of the vessel immediately recognised it as a wartime cargo vessel of the Prince Line. Given the date of the images and how they’d come to us this left the ‘Chinese Prince’ as the only likely candidate.

I’d like to give a big ‘thank you’ to Norman Middlemiss for his help in confirming the probable identity of these photographs. As an archivist with responsibility for the full variety of collections that Tyne & Wear Archives holds I have to some extent to be a jack of all trades. It’s really useful to be able to tap into the specialist knowledge of our researchers and we are very fortunate that they are almost invariably approachable and generous with their time.

Divine company!

Art   Collections & Objects   Collections Management   Exhibitions   Hatton Gallery   Technology
Posted by administrator on August 21, 2012     Permalink     Comments (2)

painting during varnish removal

I’ve been busy working on the conservation of some of the old masters from the Hatton gallery for their new exhibition. some of the paintings are really old and really dirty. This painting is by de Wit and was painted in the 17 hundreds, it was very dirty and the varnish had turned so yellow that it was hard to imagine what the painting was meant to look like!

Here you see the painting during varnish removal as you can see he is now wearing a nice varnish t shirt and socks! (It takes a long time to remove the varnish so I have to keep myself amused somehow). So far I have been working on this painting for two weeks but it’s so satisfying when you start to see how beautiful the painting is under all the varnish.

Cleaning tests: first I tested to see what would get the black soot of the front then I tested to see what would get the thick yellow varnish off. It was a bit of a shock when I saw what colour the painting was meant to be!

It was probably originally meant as a church decoration to look like carved marble high up on the wall. As the yellow varnish is removed you can see it looking more and more 3D as the lights become lighter and the darks become darker. It’s going to look stunning when it goes on display.

Firing Up exhibition at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens

Art   Collections & Objects   Exhibitions
Posted by administrator on August 16, 2012     Permalink     Leave a comment

An exhibition of ceramic artwork made by students from several local secondary schools as part of the Crafts Council’s Firing Up scheme is currently on display in Museum Street at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens (SMWG).  Firing Up is a national programme which aims to reinvigorate the teaching of ceramics in secondary schools. The project links schools with local university ceramics departments in order to create a sustainable infrastructure for skills exchange and education. The North East cluster was co-ordinated by Dr Andrew Livingstone, subject leader for ceramics at the University of Sunderland and leader of CARCuos, the Ceramic Arts Research Centre at the same institution.

Andrew also led ceramics workshops with staff and students at Wellfield Community School, while Robert Winter, ceramics technician and maker, together with CARCuos Artist in Residence, Katherine Butler, worked with Farringdon Sports Community College, Sandhill View Community Arts School and St Bede’s Catholic School and Sixth Form Centre. I worked with approximately twenty Year 8 students and two members of staff from St Aidan’s Catholic School, Sunderland. Several undergraduate students from Glass and Ceramics also supported these sessions. Each school benefited from 4 full-day workshops delivered by a maker, as well as twilight skill-building sessions for the teachers run by Robert Winter at the National Glass Centre. Many of the schools will also receive Crafts Council funding to renew or refurbish their kilns, enabling them to continue using clay in their curriculum after the project has ended.

An important aim of the scheme is to demonstrate to school students how working with clay and ceramics can lead to a viable career and each maker adopted their own distinct approach to the project, reflecting their professional and creative interests. I was keen to incorporate my involvement in the project into both my PhD research and my wider artistic practice. After consultation with Alanna Nipper, St Aidan’s art teacher, I decided to adapt the ‘Tags, Tabs and Traces’ local mapping project suggested by Clayground Collective and the Crafts Council. Our project was loosely called ‘My Sunderland, My Museum’ and the participants were invited to initially make clay stamps and press moulds from personal items and found objects brought in from home. From these stamps, a series of ‘labels’ and ‘plaques’ were created. Finally, the students made a decorated slab-built box in which they could store the original items used to make the stamps, as well as any other personal ephemera, thereby creating their own miniature ‘museum’.

During the course of the project, Marie Harrison, SMWG’s Assistant Learning Officer, led a session in the museum’s Pottery Gallery, where my students enjoyed handling a range of objects from the handling collection before being sent on a treasure hunt around the museum to find iconic images and objects connected to Sunderland. The trip ended with a sketching activity back in the Pottery Gallery. It was intended that the visit would provide the students with an insight into the varied collections in Sunderland, with particular emphasis on the Sunderland pottery, which would inform the practical work they were making in the ceramics workshops. Knowing that their work was soon to be displayed in the museum, the students certainly seemed to enjoy the trip, their only complaint being that it was too short. Some students, taken with the ‘frog mugs’ on dispay, made their own versions back at  school, using slip-trailing techniques, inspired by other items in the collection, to decorate them.

Andrew’s approach was to spend the initial sessions focusing on developing basic clay skills which enabled the students to make work inspired by the architecture of their school.  Robert and Katherine’s students produced collage-like pieces combining textures, modelled elements and surface imagery.

Firing Up St Aidan's Year 8

Detail of work made by Year 8 students from St Aidan's Catholic School, Sunderland

The exhibition opening and North East Cluster Celebration event was held on Friday 13th July and, according to Tony Quinn, Firing Up Project Co-ordinator, was the best attended event so far. The exhibition will run until 13th September, 2012.

 

Christopher McHugh is an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD student based at the University of Sunderland and Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens.

Take a look at what our visitors and staff are enjoying in the ‘Family Matters’ exhibition

Art   Exhibitions   Laing Art Gallery
Posted by administrator on August 7, 2012     Permalink     Leave a comment

Dianne, from our Front of House staff, is admiring her favourite painting in the exhibition.

Viewing 'Edward, Prince of Wales', painted by a follower of Hans Holbein, Compton Verney

She says, “I love it because it’s a picture of a father’s pride and hope for the future. And the boy does look like his father, Henry VIII, in wonderful red velvet clothes. It’s so well painted, it’s fantastic.” (Sadly, Henry’s hopes were dashed, as the prince died young and never became king.)

Detail of 'The Prodigal Daughter' by John Collier, The Collection, Lincolnshire (Usher Gallery)

Morgan’s favourite picture is very different. He admires the atmosphere of this painting – “the light shining through the man’s beard is really great.” (In case you were wondering, the light is shining from a hidden lamp on the table – you can just see the lamp’s copper base.)

Exhibition view with 'The Prodigal Daughter' by John Collier

In the picture, the couple’s wayward daughter has suddenly come back into their lives – but are they horrified or pleased to see her again in her extravagant clothes? Come along and see what you think the painter is showing.

However, you haven’t got very long to select your favourite painting, because the last day of the Family Matters exhibition is September 2nd. There’s more about the exhibition here, and activities here.

Joy’s adding her card to the exhibition family tree. You’re invited to write down your thoughts about your favourite childhood memories or special things that you’ve inherited from your family. Granny’s necklace, and a big nose feature among the things visitors have got from their family. What would be yours?

Cards and pencils for the family tree activity are on the long cream-coloured table in this gallery view. You can use the computers on the table to look up your own family history.

Sir Hubert von Herkomer's 'On Strike', Royal Academy of Arts, London

Garry admires the strong family relationship in the midst of sadness and hardship shown in this picture. (The lender’s website for the picture is here.)

The exhibition has something for everyone – historical and modern paintings and 3D artworks.

Exhibition view featuring Paula Rego's 'Wide Sargasso Sea', copyright: the Artist, photograph courtesy: Marlborough Fine Art, London

Admiring David Hockney's 'My Parents', Tate, London

 

This is Jonathan Leaman's fascinating 'A Jan Steen Kitchen'

(If you’d like to explore Jonathan Leaman’s picture further, there’s details here.)

 

'The Misses Vickers' by John Singer Sargent, Museums Sheffield

The creamy paint and virtuoso brushwork of Sargent’s painting gets Jill’s vote. The three Vickers sisters of Sheffield were fortunate enough to inherit beauty and wealth.  (If you’d like to see more on this picture, there’s details here.)

You can see the results of our family photo project showing in the cafe at the Laing.

Family activities are continuing at the Gallery during the summer holiday. Here’s some photos from the activities that have already taken place. The activities now on offer will be different from these, but just as much fun.

Hope to see you soon!

Newcastle Improved Industrial Dwellings

The Archives
Posted by administrator on August 6, 2012     Permalink     Comments (7)

I wonder how many of those who now live in the Garth Heads student accommodation know the history of this listed building.

Garth Heads today (© Andrew Curtis under Creative Commons Licence)

During the 19th century concern grew about the poor conditions that many working class families lived under in Britain’s large cities, whose population had expanded hugely during the industrial revolution. There was no social housing and poorer people rented whatever rooms were available, often lacking in basic amenities such as water and sanitation. In Newcastle in 1867, a report showed, 10,000 families were living in single rooms. In response to this situation, a number of Model Dwellings schemes were established, usually by philanthropists but still intended to earn a profit. Among the most famous are the Peabody Trust Estates in London, many of which still exist.

Newcastle Improved Industrial Dwellings Ltd was formed by James Hall, philanthropist and businessman, of Hall Bros Steamship Co. A prospectus was issued in 1869 for a block of 40 tenements in New Road opposite the Ragged Schools, and the buildings were opened in September 1870. They were extended in 1872 and 1878. The original building was four stories in height and the extensions six. Shops were included and eventually 108 separate flats, and there was also a social recreation room, including a library.

The Industrial Dwellings in the 1900s (DT.NID/12/p156)

The architect of the buildings was John Johnstone, a Scot who had worked with Sir George Gilbert Scott, and who also designed Gateshead Town Hall and Leazes Park synagogue in Newcastle.

The flats didn’t have internal sanitation but there were two WCs on each landing and communal washhouses for laundry in the courtyards. Tenants of the Dwellings were offered electric light as early as 1904, but opted to stick with gas. Electricity was installed in 1930. The lack of luxury of the flats illustrates how poor conditions must have been elsewhere.

Advert for a flat (DT.NID/12/p82)

The interior of a flat in 1909 (DT.NID/12/p175)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A soup kitchen was operated from the Dwellings in 1892, 1908 and 1909 in response to hardship in the town.

Children wait for soup in 1909 (DT.NID/12/p177)

The buildings were sold to Newcastle Corporation in 1968 and the company wound up. They are now Grade II listed and in use as student accommodation. The company archives are available at Tyne & Wear Archives. You can find details at http://www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk/DServe2/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28RefNo=%27dt.nid%27%29