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.
Contents
History
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. In 1904, at their St Peters works they began building Parsons turbine engines for ships. The company displaced its locomotive manufacturing interests in 1937 to Robert Stephenson and Company, which became Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns Ltd.
Perhaps the most famous ship built by the Company was HMS Kelly, launched in 1938 and commanded by Lord Louis Mountbatten. In 1954, the shipbuilding and marine engine activities were put into separate subsidiaries, Hawthorn Leslie (Shipbuilders) Ltd. and Hawthorn Leslie (Engineers) Ltd. 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.
The company's shipbuilding and marine engineering interests were both 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.
The company's main shipbuilding yard at Hebburn closed in 1982, was sold to Cammell Laird and then acquired by A&P Group in 2001 but has been acquired by developers in 2018 who have secured a planning consent for 446 new homes and construction of Phase 1 has now commenced. The Company itself, deprived of its main activity, diversified into telephones. In March 1993, Vodafone made a bid for the Company which by then had become a mobile phone air time reseller.
The Hawthorn Leslie building still standing in Hebburn has been the target of numerous arson attacks in recent years. This, combined with the presence of asbestos in the brickwork and the ease of access to children, has led to repeated calls from Hebburn residents and councillors for the building to be demolished. Developers Hebburn Riverside Development Limited have fully demolished and remediated the site and commenced construction of the first phase of housing.
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 0-4-4T 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 0-4-0STs and fireless locomotives.
Two 2-4-0 locomotives were supplied to the Kent and East Sussex Railway in 1899. Owned by the Rother Valley Railway and/or the Kent & East Sussex Light Railway.
In 1908, an 0-6-0T and two 0-6-2T locomotives were supplied to the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway,
Hawthorn Leslie 0-8-0T Built 1906, and became K&ESR, No. 4 and named "Hecate," The locomotive was an outside cylindered 0-8-0 side tank engine with a short wheelbase and flangeless driven wheels to cope with the sharp curves expected on the new line. With 16 in by 24 in cylinders and 4 ft 3 in diameter driving wheels, its tractive effort was 16,385 lb, more than twice that of the line's other locomotives and sufficient to take trains over the 1 in 40 gradients of the North Downs crossing. The engine was painted dark blue and lined in red, with a copper cap to the chimney and a polished brass dome. Eventually, in 1932 they exchanged "Hecate" for an older LSWR "Saddleback" and two spare boilers from the Southern Railway (SR). This was a good bargain on the SR's part, as they repainted "Hecate" (keeping the name), numbered it 949, and sent it to Nine Elms, where it worked almost daily on shunting duties until eventual scrapping in 1950.
Preserved locomotives
Steam
28 Hawthorn Leslie Tank Engines are in preservation today:
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Wn2450 Built 1899 Commander B (formerly Newcastle) awaiting overhaul at the Hollycombe Steam Collection
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Wn2491 Built 1901 Henry at the Barrow Hill Engine Shed
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Wn2711 Built 1907 Cyclops at the Tanfield Railway
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Wn2780 Built 1909 Asbestos (On display) at the Chasewater Railway
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Wn2800 Built 1909 Met
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Wn2859 Built 1911 No.2 Ex Keighley Corporation Gas Dept. at the Tanfield Railway
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Wn2928 Built 1912 Pony also known as Achilles at the Chatham Historic Dockyard
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Wn2988 Built 1913 Wallaby at the Illawarra Light Railway Museum NSW
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Wn3056 Built 1914 NCB No.14 at the Tanfield Railway
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Wn3135 Built 1915 Invincible 37 at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway
Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0ST Wn3138 Built 1915 Holwell No.14 Dismantled, awaiting restoration. Ex Goodman Bros, at the Rutland Railway Museum
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Wn3240 Built 1917 Beatty No.139 at the Telford Steam Railway
Shipbuilding
Ships built by Hawthorn Leslie included: