Aerial view of oil rig leaving Laing Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool

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Artist's impression of Laing Pipelines Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool.

Construction at Laing Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool.

View of two 509 cranes positioning the 1,000 ton lower leg section of the jacket structure in Laing's Graythorp yard.

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Crane at work at Laing Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool

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Cranes at Laing Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool.

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Details of Graythorp 1

View of Laings Graythorp Dock gates showing 509 crane in background.

Dredging of basin Graythorp 1974. Estimated that one million cubic yards of silt was removed.

Graythorp 1 Drilling Rig under construction.

View shows Graythorp 1 after handover to BPs Engineer Brown & Root being towed to the Forties Field 110 miles ENE of Aberdeen.

Removal of West Gate using tugs. Graythorp Fabrication Yard.

Removal of east gate using tugs.

In 1913, the shipbuilding firm of William Gray & Co. Ltd. started work building a new ship repair yard, Graythorp, on the north bank of the River Tees. The outbreak of the First World War and the 1920s Depression delayed the opening of the yard until 1924.
When the parent company went out of business in 1962, various attempts were made to keep the Graythorp yard in operation but with little success and in 1968 the yard closed. It was purchased and re-opened by Laing Offshore in 1972 for the fabrication of offshore structures. The yard remained open until 1989 when a lack of orders forced closure yet again.
In 1996, Able UK purchased the site for shipbreaking and marine recycling, most notably the dismantling of four U.S. "Ghost Fleet" ships in 2003 and the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau in 2009. The yard continues in operation today.

Description on separate note attached to front of photograph.

Laing Offshore Graythorp.

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In 1971, John Laing took over the disused William Gray Shipyard at Graythorp and offshore oil rigs were built on the site. The site is now owned by Able UK and fairly recently was known for the infamous 'ghost ships' which were dismantled there.

The Nuclear Power Station can be seen in the background.

The photo was taken in February 1985.

The start of an oil rig construction in the Graythorp yard.

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Oil rig construction in the Graythorp yard.

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Oil rig construction in the Graythorp yard.

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Oil rig construction in the Graythorp yard.

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Oil rig construction in the Graythorp yard.

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Oil rig construction in the Graythorp yard.

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Laing Offshore, Graythorp.

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Office workers and management posing at Laing Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool in front of oil rig.

Model of Flotation Raft on which Graythorp One was constructed & floated out.

Oil Rig construction at Laing Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool.

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Oil rig under construction in dry dock at Laing Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool

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Oil rig being towed out of the now flooded dry dock at Laing Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool.

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Oil rig being floated out of the now flooded dry dock at Laing Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool

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Oil rig under construction at Laing Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool

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Lower leg assembly for Forties Field Drilling Platform Graythorp 1.

Sign: 'Another Product of FWJBB Hartlepool'

Scale model of Graythorp 1 which was built at Laings Graythorp yard in the 1970s.

Site workers at Laing Offshore, Graythorp, Hartlepool in the 1970s. In 1978 two American Hoist Revolver 509 cranes were sold and removed from the site by ship/barge; one went to Rotterdam to be installed on on a floating crane barge which then went to the Gulf of Mexico. The steel structures which the cranes sat on remained at the Laing site.

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