CLEARING out is always a dangerous business. In an old filing cabinet drawer, we've found a large, torn envelope bearing three purple George VI stamps covered by a smeary postmark and a simple address: "The Darlington Forge Ltd, Darlington."
Inside is a superb collection of old industrial photographs with distressingly few details on them.
We know a lot about Darlington Forge. Formed in 1854 on Albert Hill, its huge brick workshop can still be seen beside the East Coast Main Line. It was the first of the town's ironworks, initially making castings for the railway industry but then moving into creating the huge stern frames, brackets and rudders for the enormous liners of the early years of the 20th Century. Parts for the Oceanic, Olympic, Mauretania, Lusitania and, of course, Titanic were made there.
Crane on left was built in Manchester in 1907, and the cab bears the emblem of the North-Eastern railway, and the words "Loco Dept, Middlesbrough". Written in pencil on the rear: "Shaft bracket HMS Nelson ??? (but presumably 'moved') to allow entrance to Blairs Yard". Can you tell us any more?
By the start of the First World War, it was Darlington's second largest employer after the North-Eastern railway, with 1,300 men working there.
It struggled post-war, but re-equipped itself for the rearmament of the 1930s, employing 1,700 men and 300 women in 1942.
Nationalised as part of the English Steel Corporation, it struggled in peacetime, and it closed in 1967 with the loss of 650 jobs.
These pictures are a snapshot of that lost industry. If you can tell us anything about them, please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk
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