Walker, Miller, Ravenhill and Co Shipbuilding Yard

HER Number:
4217

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Walker, Miller, Ravenhill and Co Shipbuilding Yard

Place:
Walker

Map Sheet:
NZ26SE

Class:
Maritime

Site Type: Broad:
Marine Construction Site

Site Type: Specific:
Shipyard

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
The partnership of Miller and Ravenhill, both southern engineers who moved to the North East, began construction of vessels at Low Walker in 1851 with the iron steamer Chusan for the P&O Line. The company had left the Tyne by 1855. On the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of the area the yard is annotated ‘Ship building Yard (Iron). It contains substantial rows of buildings to north and west including furnaces in the northern row. The southern portion of the yard includes a walled dock or inlet. Two building berths lie towards the northern end of the yard. Cranes lie to north of the slips and adjacent to the inlet. By the time of the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey the yard has been subsumed within the Neptune Yard. The site now lies within the current Swan Hunter Yard, and it would seem unlikely that early features will have survived.

Easting:
2981

Northing:
6496

Grid Reference:
NZ29816496

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 4217 >> 1st edition Ordnance Survey map, 1864, 6 inch scale, Northumberland, 98 The Archaeological Practice, 2002, Shipbuilding on Tyne and Wear - Prehistory to Present. Tyne & Wear Historic Environment Record; The Archaeological Practice, 2009, Neptune Yard, Walker - Archaeological Assessment