Scotia Marine Engineering Works

Sufficient is known about the engine works to indicate that the remaining structure, now incorporated into Graham's warehouse, is a significant remanant of Wearside's industrial architecture. The remaining part of the former Scotia Engine Works possibly dates from the 1870s and is probably the most intact remanant of this industry on Wearside. A plan of the Scotia Engine Works survives in a locally-held private collection. In the mid 19th century this site had been the shipbuilding yard of Carr, Fowles & Co. In the 1880s these works were reopened by William Allan, a future MP for Gateshead and a pioneering industrialist, as the Scotia Engine Works. In 1900 the company was purchased by Sir Christopher Furness and amalgamated with two other marine engine builders, Thomas Richardson & Sons of Hartlepool and Sir Christopher Furness, Westgarth & Co. of Middlesbrough to form Richardson's Westgarth & Co. Ltd. Output from the marine engine works of the Wear in the decades either side of 1900 was massive. Richardson's Westgarth produced diesel engines from 1912 and in 1923 acquired a licence to produce Doxford Engines. The firm grew to become the parent company of a group which comprised George Clark and North East Marine Engineering. The Scotia Works declined in the 1920s when the shipbuilding industry was driven into economic depression. The works ceased producing new marine engines in 1929 but continued with subsidiary work until after WW2. The works were sold to S.P. Austin & Son Ltd in 1946/7 and used for subsidiary outfitting works. In 1964 the works were changed to a builder's merchants. It was reduced to its present size in the early 1980s.