Redcar Blast Furnace: December 2021
Another one from the backlog
Another one from the backlog
Large industrial complexes ignite something childish within all of us, I'm sure, similar to seeing heavy machinery and subconsciously thinking that's cool. Its something that just draws you in and begins to play upon your imagination as you tread closer. Or am I just talking crap, again?
An overview of the site:
the blast furnace stands centre of the graph, the control and admin block just off to the left (brick building), the CW Pump station to the lower left, the power station just behind the furnace and the coke ovens? to the upper right.
Background
Teesside has a long and impressive history in the realms of steel production alongside other mass industries, tracing back to the late 19th century. The industry would grow into the late 20th century where it would soon see the demise accounting from numerous political and economical factors, stemming internationally and nationally, with the last blast furnace seeing closure in 2015 after around 36 years of existence.
The item of interest wouldn't become a site among the skyline much before 1979 but a small background is always worth mentioning.
Some of the earliest sightings of iron and steel production around Teesside would come into operation around 1875 under the Bolckow and Vaughan Company who were established iron and steel makers from nearby stemming from 1840. This newest construction would be overseen by their recently appointed director Edward Johnson Fergison upon what would become the cleveland steel works who used this as an opportunity to opt for a furnace using his refined design of the Bessimer Process.
The company would push further into the industry throughout the 19th centry turning Teeside into an expansive centre for the proudction of British curde Pig-Iron. By the end of the 1800's the company would move into the field of steel production having owned nearly a quarter of the blast furnaces in the region.
The Dorman Long firm would form in 1876 and begin their own reign over the region buying up a majority of the steel foundries in the area. By the close of the century they had entered into a deal with the Bell Brothers to construct their own works known as the Clarence Works.
Post World War (the first one), the Bolckow, Vaughan And Company found themselves in an increasing difficult spot with issues stemming for poor decisions made during the turn of the century. Their finances slowly diminished with Dorman Long stepping in to take on the empire, despite their own financial woes, the company had built within the Teeside region. Post-1920's Dorman Long was at the helm of steel making in the region until the sunset of the second world war.
Redcar's Last Furnace
The end of WW2 saw a change in British politics with many major industries falling under the operation of publicly owned firms. Despite the fact the company had merged with South Durham Steel and Iron Co., the newly formed British Steel and Tube Co. wouldn't be a stranger this movement when they were absorbed into the umbrella of the publicly owned British Steel Corporation.
As plans came to light in 1974, it was revealed that the former Redcar steel works site was chosen for the next expansion of the steel empire in the area. It was boasted as a new era for Teesside with much fanfare from British Steel as the most up-to-date facility of its type with around a half-billion pounds thrown at the project.
It was officially opened in a ceremony held in October of 1979, attended by around 400 people in the cast house, and quickly became the new identity of the area with around 500 work opportunities created.
British Steel would only last around twenty years until privatisation was announced in December 1987. The privately owned British Steel Plc would take on the firm in September 1988 with shares being made publicly available in December '98. British Steel Plc would eventually find itself under the ownership of the Tata group by 2007 with the previous owners, Corus, having already shown an interest at slimming down Teesside's operations.
Shortly after, the site began to enter a state of disuse with 1,700 jobs cut through the mothballing of the works in 2009 through to 2010.
Post-2010, negotiations saw Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) hand over 470-million dollars to gain control of the site. SSI would recommence operations in 2012 along with a workforce 800 people stronger than before.
The new life Redcar had been offered with the purchase, along with the parent firm of SSI UK, was short-lived.
2015 saw market conditions batter the industry to a state where the steel works fell back into disuse and SSI's liquidators saw no prospect of a new owner. With the future being relatively bleak the plant was extinguished using quick and unrecoverable forms of decommissioning, to cut their losses as soon as possible, leaving demolition as the only reasonable continuation for the site.
Post 2015 plans were thrown around until demolition was agreed upon for the aim to create a new industrial zone across the area. The blast furnace would fall in the opening months of 2022.
Anyway
The visit.
The whole misadventure, despite being "in the plans" for some time with the UT team having been cracking at the neighbouring sites for the time prior, seemed to creep up on me at the last moment. Before I knew it our routes were set and we had departed.
Being relatively far from the north, it came handy that Jtza had offered to meet myself and Dusty about two thirds of the way in Yorkshire. Having arrived ahead of time I found a handy parking spot and awaited to see the disappointment on the face of the other southerner as he began the challenge of finding a parking spot. With the connection having been made we continued on before trying to order our snacks through a petrol station night-pay which proved to be more awkward than usual.
Arriving along the streets, just outside of what I recall to be a scrap yard, we hurried away from the street lights with the cars left to fend for themselves. The walk along the marshes already began to build tension as the seemingly dead site became ever more alive from a faint glow within the compound. Our walk wasn't steady either with numerous detours seeing us up and down banks, beaches, roads and, earth deposits whilst slowly absorbing the night-time moisture.
Before long, we were deep into the site and well hidden among the darkness. A lot of the land felt as if we were traipsing around a metallic graveyard with any movements being rather slow and daunting from either ourselves or the landscape. It was noticeable that the furnace had a spiders web of connections around the site with many of the strings now leading to nothing. Our task was to find one of the many strings formed from conveyor belts or pipes and hope it was our route in. The problem we quickly began to face was the non-human nature of the networks around the site which hampered our progress way too quickly.
Anyway, a good few hours later our mission was feeling rather hopeless. As the darkness faded into a misted glow our position became desperate. Noting how much activity there was on site, any movements to another checkpoint would have to be pre-calculated and our options were thinning fast. Furthermore, there were still a lot of what-ifs and rumours that had to be accounted for in the hastily suggested ideas.
Impatience allowed us to doubt our concerns. No one had been able to say with any certainty that the furnace would still be alarmed or carefully watched, and even so it would take a lot of effort for a safety conscious security team to attempt a rapid response as our skinny selves flung our way across the site. Surely the worst case scenario was leaving as we were?
Eventually, our group became a small orchestra of rapid muddy squelches, with an occasional chorus of steel and thorns, until it came to halt at the foot of the furnace.
No idea how it all worked out.
From this point we could relax and begin to adjust to the rhythm of continuous steps up and down the structure before seeking refuge from the ground at the peak of the furnace. Here we began to adjust to the environment as our though process was fuelled by Shell's finest meal deals.
I'll crack on with the photos a bit more here. Not knowing anything about steel working, to the same extent as others, the descriptions will be vague.
At the top of the structure.
The peak of the site was a treasure trove of photographic opportunity with the furnace's structure entangling itself in the scenes.
Looking down, through the roof, into the cast house.
The sinter plant.
Dusty
Numerous amount of big-ass pipes
The whole site felt incredibly open, unlike the usual outer structures of cement plants and power stations which are shielded by steel or aluminium cladding.
We began to continue down, knowing that standing this high up on a local icon would attract some attention.
A lot of the levels between the top and the case house floor were similar in design housing a myriad of valves surrounding the furnace.
The peak of the site was a treasure trove of photographic opportunity with the furnace's structure entangling itself in the scenes.
Looking down, through the roof, into the cast house.
The sinter plant.
Dusty
Numerous amount of big-ass pipes
The whole site felt incredibly open, unlike the usual outer structures of cement plants and power stations which are shielded by steel or aluminium cladding.
We began to continue down, knowing that standing this high up on a local icon would attract some attention.
A lot of the levels between the top and the case house floor were similar in design housing a myriad of valves surrounding the furnace.
This was also the day where I realised that the white balance had gone a bit wrong
Eventually, were where beginning to lower ourselves level with the cast house.
I'll let the pictures do the description here, it was impossible to scale the size of the cast-house floors when it was dark and it was even a challenge once the sun has rose.
It's hard to track the passage of time in these pictures but we had been clambering around the furnace for around five hours at this point.
We decided to head on out before becoming side tracked by the prospect of a control room.
The CW pumping station
After a good while, we were in the admin building an found ourselves rather lost looking for the prospected control room.
Eventually, to the sigh of mild disappointment
Well, that was it. We packed up and left a lot quickly than we had arrived.
Anyway, that'll be all.
KP_
I'll let the pictures do the description here, it was impossible to scale the size of the cast-house floors when it was dark and it was even a challenge once the sun has rose.
It's hard to track the passage of time in these pictures but we had been clambering around the furnace for around five hours at this point.
We decided to head on out before becoming side tracked by the prospect of a control room.
The CW pumping station
After a good while, we were in the admin building an found ourselves rather lost looking for the prospected control room.
Eventually, to the sigh of mild disappointment
Well, that was it. We packed up and left a lot quickly than we had arrived.
Anyway, that'll be all.
KP_
