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Welcome to the home page of the Doxford Engine Friends' Association.

So what is a Doxford Engine?

  • It's a special type of engine used for powering large ships.
  • Ships powered by Doxford Engines imported cargoes such as iron ore from Spain, Australian Lamb, butter from New Zealand, wheat from Canada and bananas from the Windward Islands. They delivered manufactured goods from Britain to worldwide markets.
  • Many Doxford Engines were very big – the size of several three-storey terraced houses! The largest have cylinders bigger than four dustbins stacked end to end, and each of these cylinders is as powerful as two or three Spitfire engines.
  • Most Doxford oil engines made after 1954 could run on cheap ‘heavy oil', a thick, tarry by-product of oil refineries.
  • Doxford engines are an important British innovation; the first one was tested in 1914, and the last one was built in 1980. Doxford engines were developed in Sunderland, but they were also made on Tyneside, on Clydeside and in several countries abroad.
  • Hundreds of people worked at the Doxford Engine Works in Sunderland, designing, building, installing, repairing, and making spare parts for the engines to keep them running.

Click here for more about the history of Doxford Engines
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