Birtley, Tyne and Wear - Industry

Industry

Birtley is the home of the Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Birtley, and the Komatsu Heavy Engineering Company which operates from the previous premises of Birtley Iron Works (1827-, which became premises of the Caterpillar Company in the mid 20th century). A 'CarCraft Hypermarket' was built on the site of an old factory in south west Birtley, reclaiming much wasted brown field site. The Royal Ordnance Factory was a major target of the German Luftwaffe in World War II. Thanks to its reputation as a 'misty valley', Birtley and the factory survived any hits. The phrase 'misty valley' was coined by Tommy Lawton, a worker at the ROF in the 1970s.

The ROF factory which is operated by BAE was replaced in late 2011 by a new purpose built 350,000 sq ft (33,000 m2) factory in nearby Washington replacing the old Dunlop Tyre factory. The entire Birtley workforce moved to this site.

The Japanese heavy engineering firm Komatsu is now the town's main employer.

It was announced in 2011 that the supermarket Morrisons was to build a 25,000sq ft new supermarket development in the town which would create hundreds of jobs. The development would take place on the site of the former Somerfield supermarket, however,as of 2012, no work has begun so the project may have been abandoned.

Just near to the site of the old station, is where the well known Birtley Brick Works was located. Once employing most of the town's workforce, it is a shadow of its former self. Mining was a very important industry in Birtley. Birtley Iron Company had 10 pits in the area surrounding Birtley employing 3736 below ground and 960 people above ground. There was also a lot of coal mining in the area with the earliest recorded instance was in 1351. This continued until the 1960s when the trade declined.

Danish supermarket operator Netto had a premises in Birtley until October 2011, but they were bought out by rival supermarket The Co-operative Food which opened soon after.