Ardrossan Dockyard, shipbuilders of Ardrossan. There have been a number of enterprises with this name; not clear to what extent they are connected apart from location.
1842 Barr and Shearer was established at Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, Scotland
1859 Joseph Russell took over the lease of the Ardrossan dockyard in Ayrshire. Over the next six years the yard built about thirty small vessels.
1865 Russell gave up the lease as the owner would not sell the yard to him.
1870s Barr and Shearer changed its name in the 1870s to Ardrossan Shipbuilding Co
1891 Ardrossan Shipbuilding Co acquired limited liability, as Ardrossan Dockyard Ltd,
1899 Company dissolved; a successor company, the Ardrossan Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co Ltd was incorporated.
1926 Ardrossan Dockyard became a private company - Ardrossan Dockyard Ltd. took over from the Ardrossan Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co Ltd. the shipyard of Ardrossan, Ayrshire, where shipbuilding has been carried on for over a hundred years. There are eight building berths, and vessels up to 450ft, in length can be built, the whole works covering 31 acres. There is a dry dock 341ft long by 47ft wide with a depth of water on sill of 17ft and a private wet dock.[1]
This company was later placed under the control of Coast Lines Ltd (a member of the Royal Mail Group) and John G. Kincaid and Co, marine engineers, Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland.
1930 the south yard was purchased and closed by National Shipbuilders Security, London
WWII The company made eight coasters for Coast Lines and a number of others for the Government. The yard also built trawlers and boom defence vessels for the Admiralty.
1950s In the late 40s and 50s the yard built mini-cargo liners for Spanish and European companies along with a Clyde ferry
1961 Engineers, shipbuilders and repairers. 500 employees. [2]
1960s The yard was sold to ship repairers and the North yard and dry dock closed in 1969.
1962 Archibald D. Kelly acquired the remaining yard and attempted to modernise
1969 The company closed
1980 Ardrossan Dockyard Ltd was renamed Laird Hotels Ltd
1986 Renamed Laird Catering Ltd
1987 Renamed Steels Aviation Services (Regional) Ltd
2002 Steels Aviation Services, part of the Bricom Group, was in liquidation.[3]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1926/03/26
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ The Times Jan. 30, 2002