大象传媒

My mothers eldest brother Thomas Raymond Tighe, we all called him Raymond ! well I called him Uncle, was a Draughtsman Designer at Tees Bridge and Engineering. The company was formed around 1896 and did sterling work during both world wars. This company was later taken over by Dorman Long then British Steel, my Uncle being a board member by then.
He was with the team who designed the "T" type Aircraft hanger the RAF used on their bases at home and abroad. They were built as a flat pack and then shipped out to be erected where required around 960 were fabricated and erected some still going strong today.
As well as this they built Power Stations Tank parts and went into shipbuilding. Uncle Raymond told me they took over part of the Tees Dock area and built Tank Landing craft, Rocket launching craft and Gun boats. Again these were built in section at the main works then transported to the slipway for assembly. 296 of those craft were built plus 10 salvage vessels that came into their own clearing harbours one being reported still working in the Phillipines in the 1970's.
The river was at that time navigable up to Stockton which was a busy shipbuilding area and port. It was easy for us kids to see what was going on as you just walked down to the riverside from Stockton High Street. It was a magnet to boys because of the numbers of ships, small coasters loading and un-loading along the Quay. There were Flour Mills at both sides of the river and boats often double parked as they had the grain sucked out of them.
A busy Ropner's shipyard on the bend of the river was producing standard cargo craft with sections made in the factory's round about then assembled on the slipway, this was long before the American Liberty ships took the limelight.
One of my friends lived at Thistle Green where the rows of houses ran right up to the slipways. As the boats were built the prow would be over hanging the houses and the riveters would lower their tea cans into the yards below on string for a refill from the women doing their washing, a very noisy place to live.
On the mud flats on the other river bank there suddenly appeared huge concrete blockhouses, I knew Uncle Raymond had something to do with them but he would not tell me, it was a war secret and "walls had ears" so we watched the men working on them and made intelligent guesses as to what they were. We came to the conclusion that although they were on slipways and must go into the river there was no way they could possibly float so must be some kind of dam. The ideas about why they should dam the river came to our fertile minds, they were going to keep all the Salmon upstream adding more food to the rations, so we invented fish farms years before anyone else.
One day they had all gone, they were of course part of the Mulberry Harbour used after "D" day so the Tees had a hand in that too.
The whole river for its full lengh was one big war effort. Several shipyards and dock complexes, Chemical works sending out much needed Cement and Fertilisers, Steelworks building bridges for the forces, pipework and other needs. Most of this was shipped out on the ubiquitous coasters that used the North Sea as we would use the M1 today. The people of the Tees valley worked hard for the war effort, people like Uncle Raymond with his Hangers and landing craft, my mother in Warwork, dad doing his day job then Firewatching after seeing to his animals and garden. Along with the Wear and the Tyne our Northern Rivers did their bit.
None of this could happen now, nothing bigger than a launch can get through the lock at the Tees Barrier, yes they finally did dam the Tees and turned the river into a huge fresh water lake. The Navy had given the Sea Cadets a Mine Sweeper and asked for it back a while ago, they discovered the only way to get it out was to cut it in sections and transport it by road. They gave up and sold it to the cadets for a couple of pounds.
The docks shipyards and most of the heavy industry have gone now, in another war the Tees would be a backwater, such a pity for this proud river that played its part in Empire building and two world wars.
Frank Mee Researcher 241911

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