Ivy CUMPER, John CUMPER residents 1936 to 1998 (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, May 26, 2017, 23:49 (2731 days ago) @ shepway

Finally it should be mentioned that a major engineering employer existed in Chepstow: Fairfield Shipyard where the deck for the Severn Bridge was manufactured in sections, floated down river and then hoisted into position.

Mike

Many thanks Mike. Searching the net for Fairfield Shipyard gives several hits, I see it was originally one of the WW1 National Shipyards.

"As so many merchant ships were sunk during the First World War, in 1917 the government decided to establish a number of national shipyards. In accordance with the Protection of the Realm Act, all Chepstow shipbuilding companies came under government control. They were expanded to form National Shipyard Number 1 (Chepstow). Over 6,000 men from the Royal Engineers built the shipyard, and men from Tyneside and the Clyde came to work at the yard. Garden cities were built for the workers in Hardwick, Bulwark and Pennsylvania. The concrete blocks used to construct the houses were produced by German prisoners of war. Camps were built for the workers, along with workshops, a power station and hospital. In 1925 Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd bought and later dismantled the shipyard. In due course the company became Fairfield-Mabey Ltd who now special-ise in steelwork for bridges and other structures.

The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited was a Scottish shipbuilding company in the Govan area on the Clyde in Glasgow. Fairfields, as it is often known, was a major warship builder, turning out many vessels for the Royal Navy and other navies through the First World War and the Second World War. It also built many transatlantic liners, including record breaking ships for the Cunard Line and Canadian Pacific.
In 1924, the company bought a shipyard at Chepstow on the River Wye in South Wales, previously developed as National Shipyard No.1 in the First World War and then taken over by the Monmouthshire Shipbuilding Company. (Monmouth Shipbuilding Co. Ltd, of Chepstow were shipbuilders, and later bridge builders The yard was an offshoot of Edward Finch and Co, who had been involved in the construction of the Great Western Railway and the famous Chepstow Railway Bridge. Finch had helped build some of the sections of the bridge; the site where he did this then evolved into a railway and shipbuilding yard, in 1879.)
The works later special-ised in assembling bridges and other major structures.
Fairfield's Chepstow works was sold to the Mabey Group in 1966."

Above text taken from these sites;

http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/415173/details/chepstow-national-shipyard-no-1-fairfi...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfield_Shipbuilding_and_Engineering_Company

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Fairfield_Shipbuilding_and_Engineering_Co

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Monmouth_Shipbuilding_Co

An old aerial view of the shipyard http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/415173/images/CHEPSTOW+NATIONAL+SHIPYARD+NO.+1%3B+FAI...

And a pictorial history of the building of the first Severn Road Bridge.
http://www.severnbridgesvisitorcentre.org.uk/images/brochure/fairfield_mabey.pdf

https://www.mabey.com/uk/about-us/history-and-heritage/our-heritage

And more old photos of the Bridge being built, the ferries it replaced, and the local area.
https://www.sungreen.co.uk/Lydney/_LydneyPage3.htm