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 [...]
A photograph of the artist W B Wyllie who painted several shipbreaking scenes at the Castles Yards on the Thames.
The picture above, taken from our archives, shows the queue passing in front of the Castles head office building in 1936 in order to view the lying in state of George V in Westminster Hall. The distance involved was considerable and the [...]
A great deal has been written about Sidney N Castle in our eBook and the information therein regarding his life and times will be of interest to our readers. As is known Sidney and family lived in Kingston upon Thames for many years at his [...]
We have discovered more about the family of J B Garnham who figured prominently in the activities of Castles Shipbreaking during the early 1900s. Garnham assisted significantly with the continuation of shipbreaking activities by the Castle [...]