Houlder Bros.

[Derek Chadburn]

Hello,
I sailed on the St Margaret as JE and she definitely carried iron ore.
Hope you are all staying safe during this pandemic business.
Tony

The St. Margaret was my first ship in 1968 and then as 2nd Mate in 1973. She was definitely an Ore Carrier, although she did start life as the Joya McCance. Call sign GHJM (God Help Joya McCance) I kid you not.

[russell irving]

Dave Hi , some of the Houlder Bros ships Orepton Orelia etc used to pay frequent visits to the port of Workington ,bringing Iron Ore for the local Iron and steel works
other regular vists were made by the Norwegian Varanger ships Varangberg Varangness and Varangmalm those ships were registered in Kikenes other Ore carriers were regular visitors some Spanish ships they brought iron ore from Spain , not sure where. Workington Iron and steel works were renouned for production of railway lines . the WI&SW have now been dismantled and all that remains is a ''Brown Field Site''. Prince of Wales dock is still operational most frequent ship visits now bring cargos of logs and wood pulp for the local cardboard mill originally Thames Board mill then Higgisund now got another name which I'm unsure of
but still a Scandahooligan company!!! The Port of Workington intended to be containerised but untill the A66 is upgraded into dual carriageway there's not much chance of that. The haulage companies tend to avoid the present day ''Cart Track A66 '' from Scotch Corner to Workington.
OK Thats all for now Best regards Russ Irving ex lecky with Sugar Line also P&O General Cargo Division

[Tony Taylor]

Dave Hi , some of the Houlder Bros ships Orepton Orelia etc used to pay frequent visits to the port of Workington ,bringing Iron Ore for the local Iron and steel works
other regular vists were made by the Norwegian Varanger ships Varangberg Varangness and Varangmalm those ships were registered in Kikenes other Ore carriers were regular visitors some Spanish ships they brought iron ore from Spain , not sure where. Workington Iron and steel works were renouned for production of railway lines . the WI&SW have now been dismantled and all that remains is a ''Brown Field Site''. Prince of Wales dock is still operational most frequent ship visits now bring cargos of logs and wood pulp for the local cardboard mill originally Thames Board mill then Higgisund now got another name which I'm unsure of
but still a Scandahooligan company!!! The Port of Workington intended to be containerised but untill the A66 is upgraded into dual carriageway there's not much chance of that. The haulage companies tend to avoid the present day ''Cart Track A66 '' from Scotch Corner to Workington.
OK Thats all for now Best regards Russ Irving ex lecky with Sugar Line also P&O General Cargo Division

Russ, I think it will be a long time coming; there are no decent roads in Cumbria west of the M6, small sections improved here and there but that's it.
The A1 north of Newcastle is same, successive governments promise to dual it, but that never happens either.

[russell irving]

Tony, yes I reckon you've got it in one , the roads are fairly desparate in terms of lorry road transport for a long time we've been inflicted with the ''manyana'' situation ! If you have local knowledge its fairly easy to get about .City slickers would do better with a donkey cart instead of their great big suv's doing white knuckle rides along our lake district roads !!!
OK thanks for your comments , best regards Russ Irving .