Durham E-Theses The jewel in British rail's crown: an account of the closure at Shildon Wagon Works Sansick, John How to cite: Sansick, John (1990) The jewel in British rail's crown: an account of the closure at Shildon Wagon Works, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6230/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk "'The Jewel in British Rail's Crown'. An account of the Closure at Shildon Wagon Works." By John Sansick. Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Dept of Sociology, University of Durham. ABSTRACT OF THESIS. In April 1982 British Rail Engineering Limited announced they were closing their Wagon Works in Shildon, County Durham. Prior to the closure Shildon was very much a single occupational community. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of that closure, both as part of a specific instance, and as part of the general decline of primary industries in the north east of England. The main body of the study examines the immediate consequences of the closure and how it affected those responsible for administering the community of Shildon. This was largely achieved through extensive interviewing of the people charged with that responsibility both in Shildon and in the surrounding Sedgefield District Council area. Subsequent to the closure Shildon Town Council, in conjunction with Sedgefield District Council, set up a Development Agency <SASDA- Sedgefield and Shildon Development Agency> to try and attract employment to the area. An account of the political processes thus involved is the central point of the study. In examining how day-to-day events affected policy, both at local and national level, an attempt is made to compare the public rhetoric of apparent firm resolve with the more private sense of confusion felt by all concerned. As the pressure to accept British Rail's compensatory package grew so those faced with the responsibility of trying to alleviate the consequences of the closure found themselves unwilling partners in an elaborate game of bluff and counter-bluff. How this happened, and the subsequent developments, are examined in detail. British Rail's decision to.close the Works at Shildon was inevitably linked to wider issues: how British Rail operates is, for instance, largely dependent on the transport policy of successive governments; when a closure is announced the trade unions affected have to organise, often at short notice, an adequate response; and, finally, when a workforce is made redundant what can be done to retrain it for other work? It seemed appropriate therefore also to briefly assess. how these considerations affected Shildon. "'The Jewel in British Rail's Crown'. An account of the Closure at Shildon Wagon Works." By John Sansick. Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosphy University of Durham. Department of Sociology. November 1990. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. (~ c v '{ \,__..' \5 ~ ,(-)~./ J ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: This study could not have been written without the co-operation and support of many people in Shildon and the Sedgefield District Council . Often this help and advice came, if not anonymously, in such a way as to make acknowledgement difficult. I would, however, like to particularly acknowledge the help given by Tom Toward, Town Clerk of Shildon Town Council, and Councillor Walter Nunn. Both men allowed me, without hesitation or qualification, complete access to their personal files on the closure of the Wagon Works. I would also like to thank Shildon Town Council for the financial assistance given to the Work and Employment Research Unit <within the Dept. of Sociology and Social Policy) of the University of Durham. I also thank Alan Roberts, Chief Executive of Sedgefield District Council, for his help and encouragement throughout the period this study was being prepared. I commenced work under the supervision of Huw Beynon, then Reader in Sociology <University of Durham), but when, quite early on, Huw became Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester Professor Richard Brown, <Sociology Department, University of Durham) kindly agreed to add my supervision to his already full workload. Professor Brown's always tactful and perceptive guidance became an invaluable source of encouragement and support. I would, therefore, like to acknowledge that without his help I would have long since vanished forever under an evergrowing pile of notes- he helped bring order out chaos and I thank him. -1- Finally I would like to thank Pat Wilkinson and Audrey Sansick for helping with the transcription of tape recorded interviews. This work was long and, at times, very taxing, but both gave their help unstintingly. -2- CONTENTS: Acknowledgments .................................................. Page 1 Contents . .............................................................. 3 Preface ............................................................... 5 Introduction .......................................................... 11 Chapter One. Background ............................................. 29 Chapter Two. Development of the BREL Works 1825-1984 ............... 46 Chapter Three. The Announcement of Closure ............................ 52 Chapter Four. The Campaign ........................................... 93 Chapter Five. The Closure ........................................... 135 Chapter Six. How 'SHILDA" became "SASDA" ........................... 150 Chapter Seven: "If I'd been younger I'd have emigrated." ............. 190 -Trade Unions ......................................... 194. -Govern .ment Transport Policy ........................ 207 -"Training for the Future." .......................... 226 Chapter Eight: "So what! The North's finished anyhow." .. , ......... 245 Appendix .................... , ............ , ............ , , ............. 259 Bibliography ......................................................... 280 -3- DECLARATION: I agree that this study, if approved for the degree in question, be desposited in the University of Durham Library, and may, at the discretion of the Librarian- i. be made available for consultation by bona fide scholars without delay. ii. be photocopied when it appears to the Librarian reasonable that consultation should be allowed outside Durham, but preferably that the orginal work should not be lent. iii. be photocopied by the British Library Lending Division, so that the photocopy may be stored centrally by that Library, and copies made more readily available to scholars on loan or by purchase. -4- :: -!!_oly Island Farn~ Islands Seahouses .r­ Luck~r :'- N Sunduland 1 • Beadnell Limon 926 Town N~wton Tors Yethoim 1762 ,\-forebaltle Newton-by-the·S~a ·· C:lteran Hownam Middleton A '\ 876 ·,N Charlton 1-172 Low THE CHEV::g~rc~n \_T Hill ' . 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II II gil II ~II ~ ]II .. !; : jll .~ ; ~ ·~II -~ . j \~ ~~..... .j ill ~.~ .J !IIa 0 a:~ j 0. }II ;;.1! j I ! j -l j j j j PREFACE: "Y'know, I often wonder what it was really all about?" This chance comment in a Shildon pub, is, in a very real sense, why I wrote this study. It happened during a drink with a Shildon town councillor who worked in the town's British Rail Wagon Works- he had worked there since 1945, had been a foreman welder, a shop steward, and was then inspector of welding. On the 23rd of April 1982 it had been announced that the Works were scheduled for closure and we were discussing how the town was reacting to the news. The Consett steel works had recently been shut down and a similar fate was promised for a number of other industries in the north east. Our conversation turned on what this meant to the people who had lived and worked in these industries. Two years later, December 1985, I remembered