Richardsons Westgarth and Company

Richardsons Westgarth and Company was a British shipbuilding and marine engineering business based in Hartlepool, where it was a major local employer. It traces back to 1832, when Thomas Richardson set up a marine engineering concern in Hartlepool as T. Richardson and Sons, and in 1900 that firm merged with Sir C. Furness Westgarth and Company of Middlesbrough and William Allan and Company of Sunderland to form Richardsons Westgarth, with the shipping business Furness Withy taking a controlling interest. The company was at the forefront of developing steam engines and diesel engines for large ships through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and built engines for many vessels, including SS Empire Amethyst. From 1927 it made Brown Boveri turbo-alternators under licence, in 1962 its marine activities were merged with those of the Weir Group, and it turned to engineering for power stations. In 1956 it acquired the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company. It ceased operations in Hartlepool in 1982 and was acquired by the steel stockholder Klöckner in 2000.