Shipbuilders, of Low Walker, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1842 John Henry Sangster Coutts took over the former shipbuilding yard at Low Walker,[1] that had been used by Mr. William Reay for building wooden vessels.
1842 Charles Mitchell started working at John H. S. Coutts in September 1842. He worked there until 1844.
1842 The John Coutts yard completed the first iron paddle steamer built on the Tyne, the Prince Albert, plus two other ships but then failed financially. Afterwards the Works passed into the hands of Messrs. Miller, Ravenhill & Co.
1844 Advert for 230t Iron Schooner, built but yet to be fitted out, at Coutts, Tyne Iron Shipbuilding Works Walker, Newcastle-on-Tyne[2].
Coutts and Parkinson was set up at Willington Quay.
1852 Charles Mitchell returned to Newcastle and set up his own Low Walker yard next to the Coutts yard.
1860 John Wigham Richardson bought the four-acre yard with three berths and a workforce of 200 men on the site of the John Coutts and Miller & Ravenhill yards. This was enough for him to found the Neptune Shipyard at Wallsend, which he established as Wigham Richardson.
James Skinner (later to form Wood, Skinner and Co in 1883) had worked for the Coutts Low Walker yard.