HISTORIC UNVEILING

A 200-metre square mural has been unveiled at Port of Middlesbrough to celebrate the birthplace of modern Middlesbrough and to showcase the site’s 190-year history and its rich rail heritage.

The mural, entitled ‘Hidden Hero’, features Timothy Hackworth, the rail pioneer who designed the original coal export staiths at Port Darlington – now known as Port of Middlesbrough – as well as designing the first locomotive to deliver cargo to the port – which was named “Globe.” Hackworth was pivotal to the original development of Port of Middlesbrough, the growth of Middlesbrough town and the evolution of the railway across the world.

The commemorative mural, which was unveiled by Jane Hackworth-Young, the great-great granddaughter of Hackworth, has been painted onto an external, gable end wall, adjacent to The Staiths –AV Dawson’s new head office at Port of Middlesbrough.

The artist who designed and painted the mural was Lewis Hobson from Durham Spray Paints. AV Dawson worked with Arts Council England’s Borderlands Creative People & Places, who provided some funding towards the project.

AV Dawson Transport Limited, incorporating all of the company’s road haulage services, is the latest business to become part of the AV Dawson Group.

As part of a wider company restructure to support the long-term business strategy, AV Dawson Transport Limited, is the third company to join the group structure and began trading at the beginning of October.

AV Dawson has already launched two subsidiary businesses, including AV Dawson Industrial & Port Services Limited, the business responsible for logistics and port services on its customers’ sites and the company’s ships agency subsidiary, Cockfield, Knight & Company Limited.

Within this new structure, AV Dawson Limited – which owns the Port of Middlesbrough estate –has become the parent company of the group.

Charlie Nettle, managing director designate said: “The launch of the group structure illustrates our growth and development as a business. Not only will this help us maintain strong relationships with our customers, but it will also give each subsidiary business more autonomy to invest and develop. We envisage this will also provide more development opportunities for our colleagues and keep talent within the business.”

The new subsidiary will be taken forward under the leadership of existing transport department managers Paul Scott and Alex Hugill, who have been promoted to AV Dawson Transport’s head of operations and head of commercial respectively.

Paul Scott, head of operations at AV Dawson Transport said: “We are excited the transport arm of the business has become an entity in its own right. This will strengthen the business in delivering the existing efficiencies of our current multimodal freight logistics operations and will also ensure greater resilience, so we can continue to support existing and potential customers in the long term.

“However, it won’t change the overall ethos of the company – we will continue to be the values-led, supportive, customer-focused business we have always been.”