Our River Stories: Heather Page
We’ve finally reached the end of our series with Heather Page sharing her very special story with us! Heather has been friends with Bill Cockroft since she was 5 years old!
“Our River Stories: Swan Hunter’s shipyard was once a giant in the shipbuilding industry and the pride of the North. In its prime 12,000 men were building some of the world’s greatest ships at the yard. Bill Cockcroft started working there in 1969 handing out timecards to the workers at 7am each morning and over the following 26 years worked his way up to office manager. He has wonderful memories of the spectacular supertanker launches, along with warships and elegant ocean liners.”
“During the 1980s the shipbuilding industry steadily declined which led to the yard’s virtual extinction in the early 1990s. In 1993 there was a glimmer of hope that an eleventh hour Government order would keep the yard alive. Swan Hunter lost out on the order to French shipbuilder CMN and the fate of the yard was sealed. This brought an end to the glorious shipbuilding days on the River Tyne. Bill witnessed thousands of people losing their jobs over a number of years and spent a lonely final year working on his own. He was the last man standing in the yard. His final task was to fill out the paperwork for his own P45, sacking himself as there was no-one else left to do it. He turned the lights out just before Christmas in December 1995, not knowing what the next few months and years would hold for him and his family.”
“The future looked bleak with no replies to Bill’s many job applications but he didn’t need to worry! In February 1996 Swan Hunter won a £50 million contract to refit the bulk carrier, Solitaire. This meant work for 1,200 men… including Bill! It wasn’t quite like the good old days but to see workers flooding back through the gates, and a real buzz in the yard again, was something quite special for Bill.”
