Swans Training School

[martymont]

Anyone remember Swans training school at Walker, your first 16 weeks were spent there, learning the basics welding, burning, fabrication and shipwright loft work, getting there you had to have strong stomach not good if you had a drink, when you got off the ferry, the smell and sight of the boneyard woke you up and if that did not work walking to the centre the beautiful aroma of Dowsons pickle factory stirred your senses back ti reality thats probably why I have no wine palate destroyed by above ah happy days.

[bril422]

Aye poo lifting on a warm day at the bone yard eh. Still never stopped people going down to hannigans shop ( Shed ) for one of them round pies .Pies where rank but the cheese pasties where ok though. Aye when you used to run for the ferry for walsend from hebburn and yes and wot do you think, yep it was the wrong one and it turned in the middle of the river then went to walker dam docked half an hour lol. The training centre with all them spuggys flying around in the canteen.

[martymont]

One dinner time a spuggy was dead in the middle of the table and one of the lads put in his sarnie and pretended to eat it. the dinners were rank it was the yards leftovers heated under light bulbs.

[isomache]

remember it well served my time as a welder back in 75. rember the bone yard after a thursday night out. they filmed some episodes of when the boat comes in outside and inside the pub down the bottom of the bank ? the neptune, also rember the pies was there for a year, started out 9 stone after a year was 12 stone, who ate all the pies.