Mineral Water Works. These are not shown on the 1st edition OS mapping, so were working from after 1855.

These engineering works are not shown on the 1st edition OS mapping, so were working from after 1855.

Three Reservoirs which are not shown on 1st edition OS mapping, so were working from after 1855.

Ordnance Works. These are not shown on the 1st edition OS mapping, so were working from after 1855.

Jarrow Cement Works are not shown on the 1st edition OS mapping, so were working from 1855. They were built on the sites of a Ballast Hill (SMR 2265) and Jarrow Quay Corner, (including SMR 2266).

Railway System serving the South Dock and associated sites. The 1st edition OS mapping shows a number of stationary engines which may have provided power for the lines.

The Curlew Works. These were not shown on the 1st edition OS mapping, so were working from after 1855. These works were built over part of the site of a Ballast Hill (SMR 2265).

Two Dry Docks. They were built on part of the site of a Ballast Hill (SMR 2265), which must have been levelled at this point for the docks to be constructed {1}. The First Edition Ordnance Survey shows a ballast hill (SMR No. 2265) to the west of Jarrow Slake. By the end of the century, the ballast hill had been levelled and two adjacent graving docks constructed running at right angles from the River Tyne. The docks are positioned within a small yard to the north of Curlew Road with scattered buildings sitting to the east and west of the docks and along the southern boundary of the yard. Rail lines run between and to the east of the docks. Hachures on the plan show that the docks were cut deeply into the riverbank. A cluster of substantial buildings to the east of the docks are unnamed, but there does not appear to be any reason to assume they are a part of the Mercantile Dry Docks Yard. Beyond this cluster of buildings is the Curlew Chemical Works. To the west of the docks is the Jarrow Forge and Engineering Works. By the time of the Third Edition Survey, a third, larger, graving dock has been added to the yard, to the west of the earlier docks and the yard had been extended westwards. Little has been established about the company history of the site.
Map Evidence
First Edition Ordnance Survey
No graving docks present. Ballast hill in this location.
Second Edition Ordnance Survey, Sheet 15
Two docks of similar size are present, cut into riverbank with buildings dispersed over the site. A revetting wall lies up-slope of the western dock.
Third Edition Ordnance Survey, Sheet 15
Three docks are now present on the site with an addition to the west. The yard has possibly also been extended to the west over part of the old Jarrow Forge and Engineering Works {2}.

Jarrow Forge Engineering Works are not shown on the 1st edition OS mapping, so were working from after 1855. This was built over the west end of Ballast Hill, (SMR 2265).

Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Works. The yard at Hebburn was acquired in 1860 from Charles Mitchell. As well as shipbuilding yards it included engine works, iron rolling mills and blast furnaces. The main product of the yard was Colliers but steamers and also warships, including submarines during World War One, were significant. In 1906 electric overhead trolley cranes on elliptical gantries were installed. After World War One Oil tankers were the main product. The yards and works completely closed in 1933 and were acquired by National Shipbuilders Security Ltd. They were demolished in 1935, although the 715 feet dry dock at Hebburn was taken over by Vickers-Armstrong Ltd and continued working as Palmers(Hebburn) Ltd {1}. A wood shipyard, owned by a Thomas Metcalfe, had occupied a stretch of the Jarrow riverside from the 1830s. This yard was subsumed in Palmer's Shipyard which was founded in 1851 as a dedicated iron shipyard by a partnership of the brothers’ Charles Mark and George Palmer, reputedly as a direct means of speeding up the transport of coal from their coal interests to markets by sea. In line with this aspiration, the second vessel constructed by the yard was the revolutionary iron screw collier John Bowes and the ‘General Iron Screw Collier Company’, founded to stimulate the development of the new steam colliers’ was set up soon afterwards. However, many other types of vessel were constructed by the yard - naval work began in the Crimean War with the construction of HMS Terror, an ironclad of 2000 tons and the first passenger ship constructed by the yard was the Hudson, of 3000 tons, launched in June 1858. More than 90 ships of over 2000 tons each were launched before 1890.
The Jarrow yard, as part of Charles Mark Palmer's industrial empire, became almost completely integrated and self sufficient: An engine works was set up in 1853 and in 1857, Palmer purchased ironstone mines at Port Mulgrave, Whitby, North Yorkshire and set up four blast furnaces next to the shipyard. The Bede Metal Co Ltd. was set up in 1862 to supply copper to the shipyard. In 1863 The Engineer commented that Palmer's "was the only works in England where every branch of manufacturing is done on the premises-from the delivery of ore at one end of the yard till it leaves the dock at the other in the form of a finished ship."
The shipyard, itself, was turned into a limited liability company in 1865 under the title of ‘Palmers Shipbuilding and iron Co. Ltd.’ From 1861 to 1869, ships were also constructed by Palmers on the northern bank of the Tyne at Howdon (Willington Quay) (SMR no. ???).
In 1906, the overhead gantry cranes powered by electricity, which became symbols of the yard, were constructed. Subsequent to the First World War, oil tankers were the most prolifically produced ship type. In 1933 Palmers closed and was acquired by National Shipbuilders Security Ltd. In 1935 the site was demolished, though the large Hebburn dry dock was taken over by Vickers-Armstrong and continued in use as Palmers Hebburn Ltd.
Map Evidence
First Edition Twenty Five Inches to One Mile Ordnance Survey 1858
County Durham III.II
Palmers yard is described as Jarrow Shipbuilding Yard on the survey. The yard incorporates four berths running at right-angles into the Tyne with an engine house alongside, all of which lie on a spur of land projecting into the river over mudflats; a patent slipway running obliquely downstream into the river; a range of buildings to the north of Dunkirk Place presumably fabrication sheds; and an engine works a little way to the west which includes a smithy and a forge. The Springwell Staiths- the drops for the 'Bowes Railway'-bound the yard to the east and a Brown Ware pottery lies to the south of the yard, beyond Dunkirk Place.
Second Edition Six Inches to One Mile Ordnance Survey 1899
The yard has expanded almost out of recognition. In fact, it is very difficult to locate any natural features or structures which correspond with those seen on the First Edition Ordnance Survey other than the rail lines to the west, the old Springwell Staiths, now called the Pontop and Jarrow Staiths.
Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company Ltd. includes (from the west): a gas works, rows of blast furnaces, puddling furnaces, rolling mills, bar mills, iron foundries, a steel works, forges, boiler erecting shops, a marine engine works, a graving dock, shipbuilding berths (8), an extensive range of shipyard fabrication shops, a patent slipway and finally a saw mill, drying shed, joiners' shop and mould loft, all behind a rationalised and consolidated river frontage 3000 feet long.
Third and Fourth Edition Ordnance Surveys 1912 and 1924
Little obvious alteration to the yard {2}.