Hawthorn Leslie and Company

R. & W. Hawthorn Leslie and Company, Limited, usually referred to as Hawthorn Leslie, was a shipbuilder and locomotive manufacturer. The company was founded on Tyneside in 1886 and ceased building ships in 1982.

History

Falmouth Docks number 3 in steam at the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway

The Company was formed by the merger of the shipbuilder A. Leslie and Company in Hebburn with the locomotive works of R. and W. Hawthorn at St.Peter's in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1886.^[1] The Company disposed of its locomotive manufacturing interests in 1937 to Robert Stephenson and Company which became Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns Ltd.^[2]

Perhaps the most famous ship built by the Company was HMS Kelly launched in 1938 and commanded by Lord Louis Mountbatten.^[3] In 1968 the Company's shipbuilding interests were merged with that of Swan Hunter and the Vickers Naval Yard to create Swan Hunter & Tyne Shipbuilders.^[4]

The Company's shipbuilding interests were nationalised and subsumed with British Shipbuilders in 1977; in 1979 its engine business was merged with George Clark & NEM, which had also been nationalised, to form Clark Hawthorn.^[5]

The Company's main shipbuilding yard at Hebburn closed in 1982,^[6] was sold to Cammell Laird^[7] and then acquired by A&P Group in 2001^[8] but now lies derelict.^[9] The Company itself, deprived of its main activity, diversified into telephones.^[10] In March 1993 Vodafone made a bid for the Company which by then had become a mobile phone air time reseller.

Locomotives

After the merger the locomotive side continued manufacturing for main line, light and industrial railways, including a large number built for export, usually to the designs of the Crown Agents.

Designs

Steam

The company manufactured locomotives to order for main line companies. Four 0-4-4 locomotives were supplied to the Metropolitan Railway between 1896 and 1901. In 1915 F.G.Smith of the Highland Railway ordered six 4-6-0s to his own designs. However they were rejected by that railway as being too heavy, they were taken over by the Caledonian Railway. The London and North Eastern Railway ordered a batch of Great Central designed locomotives from the Company in 1925/6.

In addition it built locomotives to its own designs such as a 4-2-2-0 with four cylinders - two inside and two outside - connected separately to the two pairs of driving wheels. It was produced for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 but could not produce sufficient steam to compete effectively with the American products.

The company later had a number of standard designs including 0-4-0 saddle tanks and fireless locomotives.

• Two 2-4-0 were supplied to the Kent and East Sussex Railway in 1899.
• In 1907 an 0-8-0 tank locomotive design was supplied to the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway, and another to the Kent and East Sussex Railway.
• Two 0-6-2T locomotives were supplied to the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway in 1911. 27 similar locomotives were supplied to the Taff Vale Railway after 1914.

Diesel

Hawthorn Leslie, in collaboration with the English Electric Company, built diesel shunting locomotives for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in the 1930s. This design formed the basis for the later British Rail Class 08 diesel shunter.

Electric

Electric battery locomotives in advertisement

Hawthorn Leslie, and its successor Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns, built four electric locomotives for Kearsley power station between 1928 and 1946 and three of these still exist.^[11] No. 2 has been converted to battery operation and is in use at Heysham nuclear power station. Nos. 1 and 3 are preserved, see below.

Preserved locomotives

Burra (short for Kookaburra) was ordered by Corrimal Colliery on 1 May 1923

Steam

A number of Hawthorn Leslie Saddle Tanks are in preservation today:

Commander B, 1899 0-4-0ST, ( formerly Newcastle) awaiting overhaul at Hollycombe Steam Collection.

• Burra a 0-4-0ST Locomotive of 1923 operational at the Illawarra Light Railway Museum
• Wallaby a 0-4-0ST Locomotive of 1913 at the Illawarra Light Railway Museum
• Number 1 an 0-4-0ST Locomotive of 1928 at Colne Valley Railway
• Invincible 37 0-4-0 of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway
• 3717 at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
• Cyclops at the Tanfield Railway
• others awaiting overhaul at the SRPS Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.

The Rutland Railway Museum and the Cambrian Heritage Railways both have an 0-6-0ST awaiting restoration. Another, works number 3837, has been sold to the Hawthorn Leslie 3837 Preservation Society.^[12] It has been moved from Leatherhead Leisure Centre to the Lavender Line in East Sussex where it is undergoing a full restoration. Asbestos, Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST, 2780 (built 1909), is preserved at the Chasewater Railway.

Diesel

LMS diesel shunter no. 7069 (built by Hawthorn Leslie in 1935) is preserved at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.

Electric

Two of the Kearsley power station locomotives (see above) are preserved. No. 1 at the Electric Railway Museum, Warwickshire and no. 3 at the Tanfield Railway.

Shipbuilding

Ships built by Hawthorn Leslie included:

Aircraft Carriers HMS Triumph Cruisers HMS Calypso HMS Carysfort HMS Champion HMS Cleopatra HMS Manchester HMS Naiad HMS Sussex Frigates HMS Argonaut NRP Afonso de Albuquerque

Destroyers HMS Active HMS Agincourt HMS Alamein HMS Antelope HMS Armada HMS Blean HMS Boadicea HMS Boyne HMS Cheerful HMS Derwent HMS Doon HMS Eden HMS Electra HMS Encounter HMS Greyhound HMS Imogen HMS Imperial HMS Jackal

HMS Jervis HMS Kale HMS Kelly HMS Legion HMS Lightning HMS Mansfield HMS Marksman HMS Mentor HMS Montrose HMS Pathfinder HMS Pigeon HMS Plover HMS Quail HMS Quilliam HMS Saintes HMS Sarpedon HMS Scourge HMS Starfish HMS Stork

HMS Stuart HMS Talisman HMS Tenedos HMS Termagant HMS Thanet HMS Thisbe HMS Thracian HMS Thruster HMS Tigress HMS Trident HMS Turbulent HMS Verdun HMS Versatile HMS Verulam HMS Warwick HMS Waveney HMS Zulu

Royal Fleet Auxiliary RFA Sir Bedivere RFA Sir Tristram RFA Olwen RFA Olna RFA Echodale RFA Tidespring RFA Tidepool

Merchant ships STS Andara SS Antenor SS Banffshire SS Barneson SS Cass MV Daronia SS Desabla SS Glentworth SS Hanoverian (1902) MV Harpa SS Holyhead Ferry I SS Kent 1899 Smolensk (Russian steamer) (1902) SS Port Nelson SS Port Nicholson SS Ranchi SS Ranpura SS Suntrap SS Tymeric MV Joseph R Smallwood (1972) SS Nairnshire[13]

The Hawthorn Leslie dry dock

See also

• List of shipbuilders and shipyards
• Category:Hawthorn Leslie and Company locomotives

References

Further reading

• Clarke, J.F. (1979). Power on Land and Sea: 160 Years of Industrial Enterprise on Tyneside: A History of R. & W. Hawthorn Leslie & Co., Ltd., Engineers and Shipbuilders (Hardback)|format= requires |url= (help). Clark Hawthorn. 

• Johnston, Ian; Buxton, Ian (2013). The Battleship Builders - Constructing and Arming British Capital Ships (Hardback)|format= requires |url= (help). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-027-6. 

External links

• Photographs from Urban Exploration of the yard in 2007