Old Quay Yard

The largest shipyard in Runcorn, this area was formerly the site of several smaller shipyards and boat yards, including Frederick Abbott's boatyard (by what was Old Quay Mills, at the eastern end of the former dock complex), the Johnson Brothers' Mill Street Yard (later owned by Philip Speakman & Sons, and most likely positioned between Belvedere and Mersey Street Yards, of which more can be read in the separate pages dedicated to them), The Mersey & Irwell Yard (later the Bridgewater Navigation Co. Yard), the Mersey Street Yard (Wright & Hickson, Brundrit, Brundrit & Whiteway, Brundrit & Co., etc.), the yard of Sothern & Co. (at least two members of that family were involved in the trade here and the name is sometimes seen as "Southern") which was formerly that of Okell (including, for a time, in a partnership with a Mr. Webster), which was then subsumed into Mersey Street Yard.

The whole site developed over years into the centre for repair of tugs and other vessels for the Manchester Ship Canal Company and was also the site of their lock gate repair facilities. Known as Old Quay Yard and, latterly, Runcorn Yard, it was always called "Bottom Yard" by employees in reference to her being at the bottom of the former Sprinch Brook (which led from Big Pool on the Bridgwater Canal where was the Victoria Yard, also called Runcorn Yard, and known as "Top Yard" by the workforce).

Facilities included two patent slipways for repair of vessels and a variety of workshops. MSC No. 1 Slipway was the former Mersey & Irwell Company Yard built at the side of the inlet that was once here, known as Old Gut (into which the Sprinch flowed). Old Gut was the original site of the ferry to what is now Widnes before it moved to a place beside Castlerock which is still known by many as Ferry Hut. The Mersey & Irwell Company, known as the "Old Quay Company", built their Old Quay Docks here, and Old Gut was gradually enclosed over the years. When the Old Quay Co. was bought out the yard became the Bridgewater Navigation Company Yard. That company then fell to the Manchester Ship Canal Company and the yard was developed as part of the, then new, Old Quay Yard. For more on MSC No. 2 Slip, see the page on Stubbs' Yard.

The pictures above and left are care of Roy Gough.

The photo below was taken by the author's father, Ian Ratcliffe, from the pleasure cruiser, TENACITY, built by the late Reg Lindop of Ellesmere Port.

The bottom two photgraphs were taken by the author and show the last slipway at Old Quay shortly before the closure of the yard. This slip was the former No. 2 Slip, otherwise known as Runcorn Town Slip, the public slipway available for shipwrights to rent for carrying out their business.