R. Blackett Charlton - An Engineering Enterprise

Blackett Charlton's were a Geordie firm through and through, which you might expect given two surnames laden with Northumbrian heritage. Charlie MacCallam comprehensively tells the story of this once dominant engineers from its beginning, on the side streets of Newcastle, through its peaks to its recent twilight years.

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R. Blackett Charlton & Co were a Newcastle company founded by a young engineer, Robert Blackett Charlton in 1860. This engineering enterprise started at the height of the industrial revolution, the age of steam and the growth of heavy industry on Tyneside. This was also the same period that first Lord Armstrong was in the process of developing his large engineering concern at Elswick, W.G. Armstrong & Co Ltd.  Lord Armstrong’s company was established in 1847 to manufacture bespoke hydraulic cranes and then later military armaments, as well as the hydraulic mechanism for the swing bridge. The Armstrong story is well known & documented and is a great source of pride for Newcastle’s engineering history.

Furthermore, industry in the region was primarily geared around the mining of coal and its transportation from Newcastle to London via sea. As a result, pioneering iron shipbuilding was in progress on the banks of the Tyne, The Star being launched by Thomas Marshall, South Shields in 1839, said to be the first iron-hulled steamer on the river. Significantly, in 1852, Palmer Brothers & Co & Iron Screw Collier Co. launched the ‘John Bowes’ – the first sea-going ‘iron screw collier’ which could complete a return journey to London within 5 days.

Off the back of this substantial growth on Tyneside, smaller businesses were emerging to service these new industries, and R. Blackett Charlton & Co. Ltd was one of these.

1953 advert for Manors Brass Works The above advert dated August 1953 was found by my colleague Phil Moses, (Phil sadly passed in April 2024 after a long battle with Cancer) and myself whilst we were clearing out the archives within the RBC White Street, Low Walker works. It is this advert that sparked my interest in finding out more about the history of the company I worked for and specifically about the Manors works.

The company was started by Robert Blackett Charlton in 1860 aged 34. Prior to starting up his own company, Robert had been working as chief draftsman for consulting engineers Thompson & Boyd, he then took over the management of Henry Watson & Sons works at High Bridge, Newcastle. Henry Watson & Sons were engineers, iron and non-ferrous founders – manufacturing valves, hydraulic rams, pumps etc. Whilst working as chief draftsman, Robert gained further engineering experience and built contacts with local businesses including Mr Armstrong. Moreover, during this time, Robert made useful contacts with Frank Marshall (who would later become director of the Hawthorn Leslie marine engine works at St. Peter’s) and William Boyd (who would move to become chairman of the Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company). As is still the case today, contacts are critical in business, and as such, these contacts would prove hugely beneficial in Robert’s next venture.

The ambitious young engineer then decided to establish his own company in 1860 and set-up his brass founders’ works at Manors, Newcastle, situated at the bottom of Carliol Square adjacent to the St. Andrew’s Convent & School (Roman Catholic).

Above from left to right: Carliol Square in 1957 shows the telephone exchange building to right-hand side of street and the bus depot adjacent Blacketts. Source: Newcastle Libraries

1896 map showing the R. Blackett Charlton site, named as ‘Manors Brass & Copper Works’.

Image looking towards the R. Blackett Charlton Manors Brass works in the background and St. Andrew’s Convent and School (RC) to the right, 1965. Source: Newcastle Libraries

Entry of Robert’s son as a director of the company (Robert Blackett Junior),found via the National Archives records. This entry is dated 1894.

The Blackett Charlton works in the 1960’s taken from Carliol Square. The Telephone Exchange building would be to the right-hand side of this street. Source: Newcastle Libraries

The Manors works went from strength to strength securing orders from W.G. Armstrong. This relationship forged with Mr Armstrong gives credence to one of my colleagues claims that RBC manufactured the valves that are utilised in the Swing Bridge hydraulic mechanism. The Swing Bridge was an Armstrong project, with Sir W G Armstrong being appointed contractor for the construction of the new bridge. Also, William Armstrong did have some input to the design of the bridge as well as his company producing and sourcing both the superstructure and hydraulic operating machinery. Construction of the Swing Bridge commenced in Sep. 1868 & the bridge opened to road traffic in June 1876. Perhaps, Armstrong did look to his newly acquired business contact (Robert Blackett Charlton) for the hydraulic valves required for installation within the Swing Bridge’s pump room.

Robert Blackett Charlton’s new Manors works rapidly developed a reputation for high quality workmanship and was a name that gained recognition in Tyneside and beyond. Whilst the ‘Brass works’ name suggested specialty in one material only, Blacketts actually worked with carbon, stainless, bronze and various alloy materials. The works produced valves and pipework, as well as heating coils for oil tankers. Also, Robert attracted clients from various industries, ranging from W.G. Armstrong’s business at Elswick to the vibrant shipbuilding industry further East on the banks of the Tyne (e.g. supplying to Hawthorn Leslie marine engine works at St. Peter’s or Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Co Ltd at Point Pleasant, Wallsend) and also for the Oil and Chemical industries.

The Blacketts’ Manors brass works would be a fixture within the centre of Newcastle for over 100 years. However, the increased motor vehicle traffic through and into Newcastle throughout the 1950’s/1960’s meant that the Manors location became vulnerable to the need for a new central motorway and multi-storey car parking. Wilfred Burns was appointed chief planning officer of Newcastle City Council in 1960 and he had a vision for ‘car-centric plans for the modernisation of the city through the Central East Motorway Plan 1963’ (modernmooch.com). Construction of the Central Motorway East commenced in 1972. In addition, this grand plan resulted in the building of the Manors Multistorey car park by Brims & Co. Construction in 1971. Reviewing the maps and images from this period, it looks as though the Manors Multistorey car park construction resulted in the demolition of Blacketts’ Manors Brass works ending approx. 100 years of engineering from this works.

The Manors Car Park construction in 1971, by Laszlo Torday. Source: Newcastle Libraries

A timelapse of the 1950's Carliol Square to July 2024 pictured on right (taken by author). You can see the Manors Car Park & central motorway located where Manors Brass Works would have been. The telephone box has been removed and a modern addition made to the Telephone Exchange Building.

White Street

In 1901, off the back of the success of the Manors works, the company opened a new facility in Low Walker at Mitchell Street/White Street. Like the Manors works, the White Street works had a brass foundry for the manufacture of valves as well as pipe fabrication shops, drawing office and stores.

Trade directory from 1962 lists the locations and contact numbers for the two sites in operation at this time. During this time of expansion, the company is still owned by the Blackett Charlton family and would be until the 1980’s.

As opposed to one initial grand plan for the site, the story of the White Street works seems to be one of expansion through various stages, with the site footprint growing over the years and new buildings added as and when required.

From left to right: Photo taken by author in 2018 showing the full extent of the facility on White Street, Low Walker.

Annotated image from 1951 showing the White Street Works. Source: © Historic England. Aerofilms Collection    EAW037022 flown 6 June 1951

Colleagues mentioned the pungent smell from the ‘Boneyard’ just down the road, The British Glues & Chemical Works on the riverside, pictured above.

White Street in 1951. Source: Source: © Historic England. Aerofilms Collection EAW037022 flown 6 June 1951

From talking with retired colleagues, it is believed that the facility expanded in the 1960s & early 1970s to take all of the footprint shown in the below annotation. My colleagues mentioned that by the 1970s, the pipe fabrication and erection business was booming with orders from ICI (Teesside) as well as the usual client work for local shipbuilders Swan Hunters among others. The building of the ICI works at Teesside meant an influx of contracts for supply & erection of pipework for the chemical industry. During this busy time, RBC was fabricating and installing pipework for up to six major projects at Teesside alone. Colleagues have said RBC had approx. 2000 personnel employed to complete these projects and had coaches on to transport men from Newcastle to Teesside.

Further evidence of the rise of the pipe fabrication business comes from the 1960 Newcastle Journal article. The Journal describes the Blackett’s pipe fabrication arm as specialising in Oil, Chemical and Naval industries and that the company was proud to be one of just two companies to be on the Lloyds Class 1 approved list.

The expansion of the site is shown below. This collection of buildings would form the new layout of the site and survive through until demolition started in 2019.

Furthermore, an Ordnance Survey map published in 1967 shows the extent of the site at this time. The below annotations of this 1967 map give an idea of when buildings were constructed:

Annotations show approx. dates & locations of the various RBC buildings constructed on White Street.

The 1960 news article from the Newcastle Journal describes the setting up of Charlton Weddle&Co. in 1957 and at this point occupying a new factory on White Street. As mentioned in above annotation, I have narrowed down the date for construction of the ‘Bottom Shop’ to between 1951 and 1964. Perhaps the new venture as Charlton Weddle&Co. in 1957 was the point at which the ‘Bottom Shop’, the brick building (picture above bottom right), was constructed. The Journal article states that in 1960, R.B. Charlton and Charlton Weddle collectively employed approx. 300 people, a thriving business with both the Manors & White Street works in operation. The White Street works would now specialise in pipework fabrication and installation for Oil, Chemical, Shipbuilding and also heating coils for oil tankers.

This new associate company (Charlton Weddle) occupied the Walker site and specialised in the manufacture of heating coils for oil tankers and had agents selling their products globally. The venture was very successful with Blackett’s coils being installed on some of the largest VLCC Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) tankers ever built. This line of business also resulted in additional revenue for spare parts when replacements were needed during the lifetime of the oil tankers.

Furthermore, during the 1970s the demand for ‘exotic pipework materials’ (predominantly Cunifer and Duplex materials for the North Sea Offshore Oil and Gas fields) increased dramatically. The demand was such that RBC opened a separate new facility - the ‘Exotic Metals’ fabrication works in Ashington. This works quickly became renowned for its exotic metal welding (which was a very specialist area at the time) and was a reputation that would be maintained right through until the mothballing of the site in 2016. During my time at RBC, the management were proud of the 3 separate fabrication halls that allowed segregation of different materials. Segregation is very important in maintaining weld quality – cross contamination of materials is to be prevented as it can cause issues with the integrity of the welds, as well as corrosion from the presence of dissimilar metals.

Both the demand from Teesside’s chemical industry and the rise of North Sea Oil seem to be the two main catalysts for the expansion of the White Street site during the 1970s. The expansion would grow to the extent shown below.

RBC White Street works in 2005, image found on Google Earth. This image shows the yard full of pipe, stacked in the external racks ready to be brought into the Fab Shops for fabrication into pipe spools. On the large-scale fabrication projects for offshore clients, the client would purchase the pipe & fittings and free-issue these materials to R. Blackett Charlton for use in the fabrication of pipe spools. We would then deliver the completed spools to the client, having completed visual and non-destructive testing (X-Ray, Dye Penetrant, Magnetic Particle, Ultrasonic testing) of welds, hydrotesting and surface treatment if/when required.

From left to right: A view of White Street, Walker dated 1979 showing Wincomblee Workshops on the left, and in the distance you can see the cars parked adjacent the R. Blackett Charlton works, showing it must have been a busy time for the company. Source: Newcastle Libraries

Photograph taken from a similar angle to the image from 1979 above. The Wincomblee Workshops is now demolished (2014), but you can see the extent of the Blackett’s facility running along White Street. Photograph by author.

From left to right: Image taken by author in 2018, showing the ‘Bottom Shop’ that ran along White Street. This is the largest single fabrication shop on the site and one we used to call the ‘bottom shop’.

Photograph from 2018 of the engineering office. Taken by author

R. Blackett Charlton - The Next Chapter…

In the mid-1980’s, the Blackett family sold their interests in R. Blackett Charlton, ending over 120 years of family ownership. During the mid to late 1980’s there were various owners; Charlton Leslie Engineering Ltd and BTR Group. In 1989, the company was sold to Shepherd Offshore Ltd. However, from speaking with former colleagues, the business did not do too well in this phase and was mothballed in 1993.

In January 1994 the company was purchased by Chieftain Group plc and this hailed a new lease of life for this engineering enterprise. The story of Chieftain’s ownership and the stewardship of their charismatic chief executive Bill Taylor is how a failing company was revitalised by the leadership team.

At this point it is worth giving a brief overview of the ownership of the company over the years, see below:

Ownership of R. Blackett Charlton:

1) Founder is Robert Blackett Charlton (who lived until 94, died in 1920),

2) His son Robert Junior,  then ran the company - whilst his parents resided at the managers house at Watsons Works, he moved to Cullercoats, then Hexham, lived to 101 and died in 1952

3) Roy Bertram Charlton - son of Robert Junior above, died in 1948 aged 70,

4) Roy Blackett Charlton - son of previous owner and great grandson of original founder is the managing director at the time of the centenary advert (August 1960), he died aged 80 in 1989

5) Mid 1980’s – Blackett’s family sell their interests in the business.

6) 1989 - company purchased by Shepherd Offshore – mothballed in 1993.

7) January 1994 - company purchased by Chieftain Group plc – for a purchase price of £250k. (as reported in Chieftain Group board report for tax year 1994/1995) - *Chieftain Group majority owned by Peter Wardle & Bill Taylor at this point.

8) September 2008  - company purchased by Redhall Group plc.

9) January 2016 - the site is mothballed by Redhall Group plc.

Whilst the Blackett family may have sold their interests in the business during the 1980’s, talking with Tony Cutchie (former Operations Director) and Peter Wardle (co-owner of Chieftain Group), it is said that descendants of Robert Blackett Charlton have continued living in Hexham, owning and working a farm there. Furthermore, it is mentioned in the 1960 Newcastle Journal article that the founder Robert, retired to Riding Mill, and his son Robert Blackett Junior moved to Cullercoats and then later moved out to Hexham buying the Linnels in 1891, which seems to be where later generations have remained. The article also states that Roy Bertram Charlton was ‘an authority on fell ponies, that he bred at The Linnels for over 40 years’.  There is an online death notice for Robert Blackett Charlton who died May 2019 died at Linnel Wood, Hexham, aged 81, but we are unsure if there are other living members of the family still residing at the farm. 

Bill Taylor's Story

Bill Taylor, Peter Wardle and Tony Fairlamb were already running a successful insulation company, Chieftain Insulation Ltd (based in Killingworth). Bill’s wife Ann Taylor has recounted to me how Bill, at age 37, left his directorship at Cape contracts in 1984 to become a co-owner in Chieftain Insulation alongside Peter Wardle and Tony Fairlamb. Ann told me how this move necessitated taking out debentures on their family home to complete the move, such was the extent of Bill’s determination and the incredible support from his wife Ann.

Chieftain Insulation was founded in 1979 by Tony Fairlamb, who had also worked at Cape contracts, Tony resigned from the Chieftain company board in 1988 but continued to work part-time for the company. Chieftain Insulation principally specialised in the installation of insulation for pipework, valves and tanks etc and the removal of asbestos insulation from such equipment. Chieftain also offered fireproofing finishes for steel structures and had an outfitting division which would offer the erection of floors, ceilings, partitions and cold stores. Chieftain provided their services to industrial, marine, offshore oil & gas as well as Heating & Ventilation within the building construction sector. During the mid 1980s the group expanded and opened branches in Belfast, Glasgow, Teesside, Scunthorpe, Port Talbot and London, becoming a truly national business operation. In 1988, Chieftain had 54 permanent staff and 317 hourly paid employees, showing it was a major and profitable concern with a turnover of £6.5m and profits of £783,000 in 1988 – a healthy 12% profit margin. (in today’s year 2024 equivalent, adjusting for inflation, this would be £17.9m turnover and £2.1m profit).

On 28th January 1994, together with his business partner Peter Wardle, Bill took a risk in buying a company that was effectively mothballed at the time they bought it. Bill re-told the tale to me of his first Monday morning at White Street after the purchase of the business and his surprise meeting with the maintenance engineer. When Chieftain Group purchased the company, it was mothballed and there were no employees, however, as Bill was opening up on that Monday morning, a gentlemen popped up and said:

‘Good Morning’, Bill said ‘What are you doing here?’, and the gentlemen replied, ‘I work here, I’m Frankie and I am the maintenance engineer’, Bill said, ‘nobody works here yet, we have just bought the place and there are no current employees’, to which Frankie, replied, well I have been working here for x no. of years, and you will struggle to get the place operating without me’, Bill just said, ‘OK then’, and that was it Bill had made his first appointment!

Bill was a charismatic, driven and inspirational person, it didn’t matter who Bill was talking to, he would engage with them in such a way as to make them feel that their input mattered. Bill was a real ‘people person’ and knew how to get the best out of them and was just the kind of character Blackett’s needed to revitalise and re-invent what was an ailing business in the early 1990s.

Bill, Peter and his team grew the business, opening offices in Teesside, Barrow-in-Furness, Belfast (as well as Chieftain Fabrication at Bath Street), whilst keeping the Low Walker facility as the HQ. Bill was supported hugely by his wonderful wife Anne. Bill assembled a management team of people he could rely on and through this structure and his personality, he attracted new clients and big orders. Even with the demise of shipbuilding on the Tyne in the 1990’s and 2000’s, the dynamism of Bill & his team combined with the excellent Blackett’s reputation meant new clients were found in the petro-chemical plants on Teesside. Also, working together with Operations Director Tony Cutchie, significant new work was secured supporting the offshore oil & gas industry both in the UK and Norway. Figure 21 aerial view shows the works in 2005 and you can see the yard is full of pipe ready to be brought in for assembly, it shows the facility at its best and running at capacity (this was likely the first Heerema Hartlepool project that R. Blackett Charlton completed in 2005).

Notable new clients for the pipe fabrication business included Norwegian clients like ABB and APL Offshore, as well as local clients Heerema Hartlepool, Swan Hunter (prior to its demise in 2006), Amec Wallsend (Hadrian Road, now occupied by Smulders Projects UK, site of the former Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company), Foster Wheeler, AMEC Darlington (many National Grid Projects), BASF, ConocoPhillips, Huntsman. Bill looked to Ray Johnson as Production Director, as well as Vic Turner as Contracts Manager to oversee the delivery of these projects. Tommy Oliver was also the shop superintendent in Bill's time. The projects were a success, and these new clients became repeat customers, relationships were built and sustained. This is evidence of the success of the company under Bill’s leadership, evidence also borne out in the profit statements, Bill always use to say ‘cash is king’, and that there is ‘no point in being a busy fool’.

Expansion of the business continued under Bill and Peter, when in 2007 Chieftain purchased Kevin Lloyd Ltd. This brought a dedicated steel fabrication and engineering services business based in Teesside. In 2007, R. Blackett Charlton was responsible for more than 430 workers on Teesside, providing term maintenance services and fabrication facilities to the likes of BASF, Corus, px (operator of the Teesside Power Station), HydroPolymers, Seal Sands Chemicals, ConocoPhillips and Huntsman.

Also, in approx. the year 2000, a new ‘Manpower Services’ division was set up from the White Street works and headed up by Tony Cutchie. This business was born out of the successes of the pipework fabrication contracts delivered to Norwegian oil & gas clients, such clients were interested in skilled labour to install R. Blackett Charlton’s pipework. This offshoot also proved to be a great success and broadened R. Blackett Charlton’s offering to the engineering industry.

These are some pictures I took whilst working at R. Blackett Charlton, they show the level of success brought by the new Chieftain Group ownership, a bustling fab shop replicating the success of the founder Robert Blackett Charlton.

From left to right: Image taken by author on a Friday afternoon (the welders & pipefitters finished work at dinner time on a Friday). This image taken  whilst standing on the first floor level engineering office staircase looking across the ‘Bottom Shop’. This fab shop was dedicated for stainless steel and duplex materials only, to minimise any material cross contamination with the carbon steel that was being worked on in the other fab shops.

Image taken by author from the opposite end, showing the ‘Bottom Shop’ full of stainless steel pipe work in progress.

This is a picture from 2013 and is the fab shop that colleagues would know as the ‘Ally Brass’ Shop (part of the ‘Top Shop), the pipe spools in this picture are destined for Sellafield Power station, part of their requirements was that the spools were bagged upon completion to ensure cleanliness was maintained. The spools were hydrotested with demineralised water and then bagged as pictured. Quite a strict quality control and various forms were compiled for the client sign off of each pipe spool prior to despatch to site.

In 2008, with a full order book and leaving a company in great health, (the turnover for accounts ending 2007 was £46m, with a profit of £6.7m and a future order book of contracts totalling £69m) Bill (at age 61) and Peter Wardle sold the company to Redhall Group and Bill started his retirement from the business.

For me personally, I owe Bill greatly for giving me an opportunity when I was just a young lad starting out, but also his advice and guidance over the following years too. Sadly, Bill passed suddenly in 2016, having enjoyed several years of retirement and time with his family but with much life left to live. Both my father and myself often discuss Bill when faced with problems or decisions, and we say, ‘what would Bill do’, his influence is still very much with us and he is very much missed.

The later years of RBC after sale to Redhall Group:

In mid 2015, following a downturn in the Oil & Gas industry (for which, at this point, we seemed to have become reliant upon), work started to dry up for the White Street works. Despite efforts by the management team to diversify into other industries, there was an unwillingness from the parent company to continue to support the business during this transition. In early 2016 the site was mothballed by Redhall Group and subsequently sold to Shepherd Offshore Ltd. Sadly, the buildings on White Street have recently been demolished and all that remains are the perimeter walls. However, the history, industrial enterprise and the R. Blackett Charlton name live on through those who worked there and who dealt with the company, as well as the construction projects delivered by the company.

Photograph from 2014 showing pipe spools that have returned back from application of paint at Tyne Surface Treatment down the road at Metnor Business Park, Hadrian Road. They were returned to us to be palletised and packed complete with all the ancillary items – bolts, gaskets etc. before they would be despatched to Peterhead, Scotland to the client Nortech, who would install them on an offshore platform during a planned shutdown.

Even just this year, when liaising with a steam specialist, and discussing my past employment, I mentioned Blackett’s and he immediately remembered having visited to assist on a project for the design & supply of steam valves. He mentioned the excellent craftsmen and engineers that worked there. It should be remembered as part of Newcastle’s great industrial heritage.

To that end, if others have stories, or even corrections to this timeline/details, we would welcome this input so we can document and preserve this piece of local history within the greater context of Newcastle as an engineering centre & powerhouse.

Furthermore, we would appreciate anyone’s comments or stories of dealing with RBC or working for the company.

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Paper Sources:

·         Newcastle Journal Article from August 1960, written by George Jobson (the article was on display within the conference room of RBC, White Street Walker during the time I worked there)

·         Newcastle Trade Directories accessed within the Newcastle Library.

·         Lost Shipyards of the Tyne – by Ron French (Author), Ken Smith (Author)

Contributors:

·         Anne Taylor and family

·         Hannah MacCallam - very grateful for her help in proof reading and editing, several times!

·         Shane McCorristine of Newcastle University (working on the Newcastle Gaol project) https://newcastlegaol.co.uk

·         Tony Cutchie

·         Peter Wardle

·         Ray Johnson

·         Vic Turner

·         Colin Cochrane

·         Phil Moses

·         Stan Wilkinson

·         Malcolm Davison

·         Frankie Davidson

·         John MacDougall

·         Tommy Oliver

·         Julie Purdy

·         Kieran Carter (of North East Heritage Library)

Websites:

https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/

https://www.baesystems.com/en/heritage/elswick-works----newcastle

http://www.wemadeships.co.uk/tyne#:~:text=Iron%20shipbuilding%20was%20pioneered%20on,the%20world's%20first%20steam%20collier.

http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/S-Ships/star1839.html

www.wemadeships.co.uk/tyne

http://tynetugs.co.uk/Hawthorn.html

https://newcastlegaol.co.uk

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2021/05/newcastlegaol/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=university-news-promotion&utm_content=%2Fnewcastlegaol%2F

http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/Armstrong-Yard-HW.html

Swing Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne | Port of Tyne

Manors Car Park – Newcastle upon Tyne (modernmooch.com)

https://www.ciht.org.uk/media/8065/newcastle_central_motorway.pdf

https://www.theblacketts.com/introducing-the-blacketts

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Charlie currently works within the Engineering & Construction sector in Newcastle as a Mechanical Estimator. He is a former employee of R. Blackett Charlton. When he saw the White Street site in progress of demolition in 2019, He became very much aware that the physical reminder of the business would quickly be reduced to rubble. He remembers the Manors advert that they had found when clearing the archives at the White Street site.

These moments of reminiscence prompted him to research and put together something which would preserve the company's history, initially for his own benefit. Charlie enjoys local history and is proud of the region's role as an industrial powerhouse.