History

The original quayside continued trading and throughout the first half of the 20^th century was operated by T Roddam Dent and Sons and was known as Dents Wharf, the adjacent picture being from 1950.

It wasn’t till 1970 that Arthur Vernon Dawson, the grandfather of current managing director Gary Dawson bought the land from the Dent family, to build a new yard from which to operate an expanding haulage business and to develop the first multi-user industrial estate in Middlesbrough.

The smaller quay that is owned, closest to the Transporter bridge was known as Tyne Tees Wharf and was once operated by the Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Company until the 1940’s- it had the only Bonded Warehouse on the Tees at the time, the remnants of which we demolished in the 1980s.

Moving into the late 1980s when the National Dock Labour Scheme was abolished by Margaret Thatcher, AV Dawson gained a license to operate its first quay. This is when the quayside changed from being called Middlesbrough Wharf and became known as Dawson’s Wharf.

The company then purchased the Ayrton Rolling Mill from British Steel in 1985 and renamed it as the Ayrton Railhead and Store. Further land acquisitions included the Linthorpe Dinsdale Yard in 1998 (the quay being known as Lin-Din, which was then re-branded North Sea Supply Base).

This was followed by additional purchases of several plots of land to the south of Forty Foot Road, alongside the Middlesbrough Goods Rail Yard. These sites once developed became collectively known as the Tees Riverside Intermodal Park (TRIP Terminal). Latterly a 99-year lease of Middlesbrough Goods Yard was taken from Network Rail.

On 17 September 2020 AV Dawson returned to its roots by renaming its site Port of Middlesbrough – An AV Dawson Facility.