Jarrow at Work (People and Industries Through the Years)

Jarrow has a rich history going back well over a thousand years, but the town is best known for its long-term association with shipbuilding. Jarrow remained a small town until the introduction of heavy industries like coal mining and shipbuilding. Charles Mark Palmer established a shipyard—Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron Company—in 1852 and became the first armor-plate manufacturer in the world. John Bowes, the first iron screw collier, revived the Tyne coal trade, and Palmer's was also responsible for the first modern cargo ship, as well as a number of notable warships. Palmer's employed as much as 80% of the town's working population until its closure in 1933 following purchase by National Shipbuilders Securities Ltd. (NSS). The closure of the shipyard was responsible for one of the events for which Jarrow is best known. Jarrow is marked in history as the starting point in 1936 of the Jarrow March to London to protest against unemployment in Britain. Jarrow At Work explores the life of this Tyneside town and its people, from pre-industrial beginnings through to the present day, in a fascinating series of contemporary photographs and illustrations. It takes us through the phenomenal growth of the shipbuilding industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries, its subsequent decline and brief revival during World War II as the Royal Navy needed more ships, postwar nationalization of the shipbuilding industry and the closure, in 1980, of the last shipyard in the town and finally looks at how the town is coping today with the loss of such a major part of its history.