History
The Orb steelworks was opened in 1898 by the Wolverhampton-based John Lysaght Ltd. The works was constructed on farmland adjacent to the River Usk and was served by a large wharf, using the first electric travelling crane in the word, along with a goods railway. Steel was transported to Newport from the company’s iron works at Scunthorpe for rolling. By 1913, the works contained forty-two mills, driven by six steam engines and a workforce of circa 3000. During the First World War the site was adapted for the rolling of brass and zinc, extensively used in munitions manufacture and to produce trench plates. An institute for the for the staff of the works was opened in 1928, close to the entrance of the site, containing a range of facilities including a ballroom, tennis court, bowling green and ornamental gardens. It closed in 2001 and became derelict but was later refurbished and reopened as a community centre. The works were developed through the 1920-30s for the production of sheet steel, destined for the motor industry. In 1936 a new gatehouse complex was constructed, and air-raid shelters were built shortly thereafter. In 1967 the site came under the ownership of British Steel Corporation and later became part of Corus Group, following privatisation. A significant section of the site was demolished in the late 2000s including staff facilities and the original farmhouse, which had been utilised as the main offices since the opening of the works. A new office block and site entrance was constructed to the south at this time. The site is currently owned by Tata and specialised in electrical steel used in generators, transformers and magnetic products. Tata announced their plan to close the plant in September 2019, citing the usual over-capacity thanks to China. The works were mothballed in December and are now for sale, potentially to be reopened by another company.
An early view of the works, as seen from the transporter bridge
The Explore
I may have waffled on slightly regarding the explore but I’ve had a go at giving a full account of this lovely relaxed, easy going derp.
Visited with prettyvacant on a quick trip to South Wales, this was the first of 6 sites we managed to squeeze in in 24 hours. We made it into the grounds easily but as we approached the building, we came across a very fresh palisade fence, making everything a little bit trickier. PV started walking along the fence, trying to find a way past and came across an open gate. As she walked through a bloke came around the corner with a torch and shone it straight at her. I was a bit further back at this point and started slowly walking away, waiting for the imminent “what the fuck are you doing here at this time!” PV said something like “morning mate, should probably put on my hi-vis” and to my utter disbelieve nothing more was said. I quietly rushed through when the guy had gone on his way and we thought we might as well push on while we had the chance. Once we had made it inside, we found the place fairly quiet, though fully lit with occasional signs of life. We had just over half an hour inside before I spotted someone walking around and began searching for somewhere to hide. PV was blessed with her usual shit timing when a bloke walked out in front of her. She tried to calmly walk away but then about 3 others turned up and that was the end of her. Security called the police, but they were pretty decent with the usual questions and stuff. As soon as security had removed PV from the building, I set about getting up on the gantry crane, as is standard practice in every industrial site with a gantry crane. They’d done a fairly good job at trying to seal up the stairs leading to that delicious view but it didn’t take too much noise to make it up there and then I decided to drop my lens cap through a small hole onto the roof of the adjacent building. I spent about 3 ½ hours inside which was made rather stressful with around a dozen workers wandering around, evenly scattered around the interior. In that time, I probably saw half of the building but had enough of sneaking around, continuously scanning the works for the tell-tale hi-vises. As I was trying to find an alternative route out as the gate had been locked up, I heard a door open a couple of meters in front of me, giving me seconds to retrace my steps and find a place to hide. This was the last of several heart-stopping moments where I would have undoubtably been caught, had my timing been slightly different.
The closest I got to an external
A first look inside the building
One of the many small control rooms
ahh, the gantry crane. Sadly the gantry rails aren’t walkable
450m of cool industrial stuff
The interior is much nicer in the day
lots of these gauges around
Machine shop
Note the very fresh palisade on the right
Old Lancashire boilers converted to nitrogen storage tanks
The boiler house. From the exterior this building looked to hold a lot of potential but ended up being a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping for something a bit older and more impressive, some generators too would have been nice
The compressors were even worse, these were running at the time and the noise was fucking deafening
PV leaving early
Thanks for looking
The Orb steelworks was opened in 1898 by the Wolverhampton-based John Lysaght Ltd. The works was constructed on farmland adjacent to the River Usk and was served by a large wharf, using the first electric travelling crane in the word, along with a goods railway. Steel was transported to Newport from the company’s iron works at Scunthorpe for rolling. By 1913, the works contained forty-two mills, driven by six steam engines and a workforce of circa 3000. During the First World War the site was adapted for the rolling of brass and zinc, extensively used in munitions manufacture and to produce trench plates. An institute for the for the staff of the works was opened in 1928, close to the entrance of the site, containing a range of facilities including a ballroom, tennis court, bowling green and ornamental gardens. It closed in 2001 and became derelict but was later refurbished and reopened as a community centre. The works were developed through the 1920-30s for the production of sheet steel, destined for the motor industry. In 1936 a new gatehouse complex was constructed, and air-raid shelters were built shortly thereafter. In 1967 the site came under the ownership of British Steel Corporation and later became part of Corus Group, following privatisation. A significant section of the site was demolished in the late 2000s including staff facilities and the original farmhouse, which had been utilised as the main offices since the opening of the works. A new office block and site entrance was constructed to the south at this time. The site is currently owned by Tata and specialised in electrical steel used in generators, transformers and magnetic products. Tata announced their plan to close the plant in September 2019, citing the usual over-capacity thanks to China. The works were mothballed in December and are now for sale, potentially to be reopened by another company.
An early view of the works, as seen from the transporter bridge
The Explore
I may have waffled on slightly regarding the explore but I’ve had a go at giving a full account of this lovely relaxed, easy going derp.
Visited with prettyvacant on a quick trip to South Wales, this was the first of 6 sites we managed to squeeze in in 24 hours. We made it into the grounds easily but as we approached the building, we came across a very fresh palisade fence, making everything a little bit trickier. PV started walking along the fence, trying to find a way past and came across an open gate. As she walked through a bloke came around the corner with a torch and shone it straight at her. I was a bit further back at this point and started slowly walking away, waiting for the imminent “what the fuck are you doing here at this time!” PV said something like “morning mate, should probably put on my hi-vis” and to my utter disbelieve nothing more was said. I quietly rushed through when the guy had gone on his way and we thought we might as well push on while we had the chance. Once we had made it inside, we found the place fairly quiet, though fully lit with occasional signs of life. We had just over half an hour inside before I spotted someone walking around and began searching for somewhere to hide. PV was blessed with her usual shit timing when a bloke walked out in front of her. She tried to calmly walk away but then about 3 others turned up and that was the end of her. Security called the police, but they were pretty decent with the usual questions and stuff. As soon as security had removed PV from the building, I set about getting up on the gantry crane, as is standard practice in every industrial site with a gantry crane. They’d done a fairly good job at trying to seal up the stairs leading to that delicious view but it didn’t take too much noise to make it up there and then I decided to drop my lens cap through a small hole onto the roof of the adjacent building. I spent about 3 ½ hours inside which was made rather stressful with around a dozen workers wandering around, evenly scattered around the interior. In that time, I probably saw half of the building but had enough of sneaking around, continuously scanning the works for the tell-tale hi-vises. As I was trying to find an alternative route out as the gate had been locked up, I heard a door open a couple of meters in front of me, giving me seconds to retrace my steps and find a place to hide. This was the last of several heart-stopping moments where I would have undoubtably been caught, had my timing been slightly different.
The closest I got to an external
A first look inside the building
One of the many small control rooms
ahh, the gantry crane. Sadly the gantry rails aren’t walkable
450m of cool industrial stuff
The interior is much nicer in the day
lots of these gauges around
Machine shop
Note the very fresh palisade on the right
Old Lancashire boilers converted to nitrogen storage tanks
The boiler house. From the exterior this building looked to hold a lot of potential but ended up being a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping for something a bit older and more impressive, some generators too would have been nice
The compressors were even worse, these were running at the time and the noise was fucking deafening
PV leaving early
Thanks for looking
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