Falcon Hildred - The Riverhead & West Haven

Falcon Hildred (born 1935) is an artist and industrial designer whose life's work has been devoted to recording Britain's industrial heritage. Born in Grimsby, he developed an early fascination with the town's industrial and working environment. Following a wartime move to Coventry, he began his art training there at the age of thirteen and subsequently studied at the Royal College of Art, where he received a medal for work of distinction.

Although industrial design was his profession, Hildred devoted much of his career to recording industrial archaeology through his Worktown project. His detailed drawings document industrial buildings, engineering structures and working landscapes across England and Wales.

Grimsby has remained an important subject throughout his career. His drawings provide an exceptionally valuable record of the town's docks, railways, industries, streets and buildings, preserving views of a rapidly changing industrial and maritime landscape.

In 1993 Hildred was made an honorary member of The Royal Society of Architects in Wales in recognition of his contribution to the recording and appreciation of the built environment. He now lives and works in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, North Wales.

The Grimsby & Cleethorpes Museum is sincerely grateful to Falcon Hildred for his generous permission to create this online gallery of his Grimsby and Cleethorpes drawings. We also thank the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales for its assistance and permission to reproduce these images under the terms of the Non-Commercial Government Licence.