Steel and Shipbuilding
The valley of the River Derwent, a major tributary of the Tyne that rises in County Durham, saw the development of the steel industry from around 1600 onwards. This was led by German immigrant cutlers and sword-makers, probably from around Solingen, who fled from religious persecution at home and settled in the then village of Shotley Bridge, near Consett.
The combination of coal and steel industries in the area was the catalyst for further major industrial development in the 19th century, including the shipbuilding industry—at its peak, the Tyneside shipyards were one of the largest centres of shipbuilding in the world, and built an entire navy for Japan in the first decade of the 20th century. There is still a working shipyard in Wallsend.
Read more about this topic: Tyneside
Famous quotes containing the words steel and and/or steel:
“Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We are caught up Mr. Perry on a great wave whether we will or no, a great wave of expansion and progress. All these mechanical inventions—telephones, electricity, steel bridges, horseless vehicles—they are all leading somewhere. It’s up to us to be on the inside in the forefront of progress.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)