Head Wrightson
Welcome to the Head Wrightson Photo Archive, a collection of over 16,000 images documenting the work and culture of one of Teesside’s engineering giants.
Beginning life in 1840 as the Teesdale Iron Works, Head Wrightson manufactured a vast range of industrial products used in the construction of bridges, shipping and railways across the globe. At its peak in the 1960s it employed over 6000 people. The collection captures the industrial and individual heritage of this period.
Chief Photographer at Head Wrightson, Alan Simpson, donated the negative collection to Stockton-on-Tees Library Service. After a successful Heritage Lottery bid funding was secured for a team of volunteers to carefully digitize and conserve the negatives, a selection of which are now available to explore on this website.
The majority of the photographs cover the years 1959-1980. During the course of the project we've also had photo donations from other periods of the company's history which we are adding to the archive. Head over to the Gallery section of the website for a view of industrial Teesside and the people that made it.