Hebburn, Hawthorn Leslie Shipyard, crane gantries

Two raised concrete gantries on which travelling cranes formerly ran. Installed in the late 1940s or early 1950s. They consist of thick concrete beds with a raised edge at each side, inside which the wires of the travelling crane ran. The gantries are supported at the southern end by concrete walls, and at the northern end by reinforced concrete struts. The western gantry still had [in 2000] a 35-ton mono-tower travelling crane at its south end. This is shown on 1950s plans as machine 548. Most of the iron rails at the raised sides of the ganyway have been removed. Beneath the gantry at the north end is a suspended concrete-built chamber. Both gantries retain traces of the winding mechanism by which the travellin cranes were moved, and the tramways along which they ran.