We show here from our archives a photo of the queue outside the offices of Castles Shipbreaking in January 1936 in order to view the lying in state at Westminster Hall of His late Majesty. At that time the queue was directed down Millbank, past [...]
The above gong was presented to H.R.H. The Duke of York - subsequently King George V - and Princess May of Teck upon their wedding in 1893, by Henry Castle & Sons the predecessor business name of Castles Shipbreaking Ltd. Carved on the [...]
Ganges Cross In 1933 the construction of the new Cathedral in Guilford located at Stag Hill was initiated, but prior to the start of the building works a large wooden cross was erected on the site. The materials were recycled timber from the [...]
Many artefacts were manufactured from the wood and metal taken from the ships when they were broken up at Castles Yards and sold as mementoes to anyone interested in a souvenir of a particular ship of the line. The weighing scales shown [...]
The above photo shows the decking taken from HMS Ganges broken up at Castles Yard at Cattedown Plymouth in the early 1930s. The original decking was later supplied to the proprietors of the Burgh Island Hotel located off the south coast of [...]
The photograph shown is of the foreshore at the site of the Castles Shipbreaking Yard located at Charlton on the River Thames. The wood has been identified as belonging to two sailing ships and one metal ship broken up by Castles being HMS Duke of [...]
The photograph above shows the rear yard at Castles Wharf in Woolwich around 1910. The figureheads of HMS Cressy and HMS Glasgow can be seen in the far background. The former figurehead of HMS Cressy was subsequently displayed on the new Head [...]
The Orion figurehead appeared on the central gate at Baltic Wharf in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and presented an imposing figurehead, which would have been admired by the many passers by walking down Milbank towards the [...]
On many furniture items there is often a circular plate attached thereto with the company name and address inscribed on it. The plate was made from celluloid, a cellular and camphor thermoplastic process, dating back to the 1860s. It was often [...]
The above photograph is a view of the Morpeth Arms pub taken in 2014. The pub is directly opposite where the Baltic Wharf site used to be. The tree on the left hand side of the picture is almost exactly where the centre gate entrance to the [...]