Jim Duncan
Jim belongs to: The Doxford Engine Friends Association
Jim was born in Sunderland in 1943. He followed his father into Doxford's. He began his apprenticeship in December 1959.
Jim was interviewed by Kylea Little on 24 January 2006. The interview took place at the Interviewee's living room and lasted 1 hour, 16 minutes and 2 seconds.
Leaving Doxford's
"I was a little, I was upset. I had worked there for 22 years and I was the first person out, or one of the first people out"
I was a little, I was upset. I had worked there for 22 years and I was the first person out, or one of the first people out, because they had a job for me and they knew I could transfer straight away. I didn’t really want to leave- I was 38 years old at the time and you didn’t get very much in the way of redundancy until you were 40, so I was two years off being 40 and I knew that the yard would close, that the engine works would close before that. So I wasn’t very happy but I walked out and I never ever went back again until you arranged a smashing visit and we went back down and I went to the shipyard and that was the first time I had ever been through those gates which was amazing.
The changes were… I was shocked because I didn’t think the shipyard would have gone down so quickly, because it was brand new when I left- it was less than 10 years old, and everything was looking good for the ships, unfortunately it’s a dump. It’s probably going to get pulled down eventually and they will probably build houses along there and we’ve gone full circle because originally there were houses all the way along there and they pulled them all down to build the shipyard. There were old houses, they were ancient, so it’s working back again to being a residential area. You can’t stop things, things that are taken out of your hands completely, so you just get on with it, but the great thing about Doxford’s was they enabled me to get on.
Jim has 14 memories in the memorynet:
Jim's memories with a The North East theme:
Training the apprentices and the closure of Doxford's- Leaving Doxford's
Aerial view of the Doxford Works and the River Wear
Jim's other memories:
This memory has these themes:
Change | The North East | Work
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