This April at Somers Forge, we will begin forging the shank for a new generation of Royal Navy anchors, representing one of the largest naval anchors to be built in Britain in more than 70 years.
The anchors are being produced to support vessels in the Queen Elizabeth–class aircraft carrier fleet, including HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
Production will be rooted firmly in the Midlands. We will work alongside two fellow Midlands manufacturers, Solid Swivel and Goodwin Castings, creating a regional supply chain that brings every stage of the anchor’s manufacture back to the heart of British industry.
This collaboration not only supports the Royal Navy but also showcases the strength of Midlands manufacturing and the importance of resilient, local supply chains in modern defence production. Throughout the project, the entire manufacturing process will be overseen and certified by Lloyd’s Register, ensuring the anchors meet the highest international maritime standards.
Forging anchor shanks is nothing new for us at Somers; it forms part of our long industrial heritage. As far back as the early 1900s, we were producing components for the marine and naval industries, including the Olympic-class ocean liners. Between 1910 and 1911, we manufactured an anchor shank for the famous ocean liner RMS Titanic.
The steel was cast by John Rogerson & Co in Newcastle, before being forged at Somers. It was then transported to the Noah Hingley works a few miles away for shackle manufacture and final fabrication, before undergoing testing at the nearby Lloyd’s Proving House.
Measuring an impressive 18 feet 6 inches in length, the Titanic anchor shank was so large that it had to be transported to Dudley railway station by a team of 20 Clydesdale horses, a reflection of the scale of the forging work undertaken by Somers at the time.
More than a century later, we are proud to continue that legacy, forging critical components for some of the world’s most advanced naval vessels while helping to restore an important manufacturing capability here in the Midlands.
