Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company

Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company Ltd was formerly an independent company, located on the River Tyne at Point Pleasant, near Wallsend, Tyne & Wear, around a mile downstream from the Swan Hunter shipyard, with which it later merged.

It was formed as 'The Wallsend Slipway Co' in November 1871 by a group of Newcastle shipowners, and one shipbuilder, to repair the vessels of their respective fleets, hence the name 'Slipway'. In 1874 Willam Boyd was appointed managing director and it was Boyd who introduced marine engine building to the firm - this becoming over the next decade its most important activity - which brought the words 'Engineering' into the full title of the firm which then became ' The Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Co Ltd'.

The company manufactured Parsons turbines under license for ships including the famous RMS Mauretania and numerous British warships.

Later, the yard was owned by British Shipbuilders. Today, the site is owned by AMEC, who operated it as an offshore facility until placing it in mothballs in January 2005. It was announced in June 2005 that the site was to be sold, probably for redevelopment.