No Words
Ironmasters
Drawing the Cupola and the end of a day’s melt (Cochrane’s) – T. S. Hutton
British Steel – South Teesside 1974
Mark Lawton very kindly sent me a scan of a book that he’d recently found. It’s a lovely snapshot from 1974 of the South Teesside Works when it employed 16,000 people.
You can download the whole book using the link at the bottom of the page
Clay Lane Blast Furnaces
During the 1970s, the train ride home from a day out in Redcar passed between the three blast furnaces and the coke ovens at South Bank. It was a hellish vision, fire, smoke and steam, sparks flying everywhere, the smell of sulphur and benzene with the occasional glimpse of men emerging from the murk. I loved it.
I took these photographs in the late 1980’s during the demolition of the blast furnaces.
Kilton
A remnant from the age of iron
Kilton Ironstone Mine
1870 – 1876 Kilton Ironstone Mine Company
1894 – 1916 Walker, Maynard & Company
1916 – 1963 Dorman Long & Company
Source – Catalogue of Cleveland Ironstone Mines. Peter Tuffs. Industrial Archaeology of Cleveland. 1996
Teesside Steel – The Final Years
Teesside’s steel industry was born in the 1850’s and died in October 2015. Steelworker Mike Guess took it upon himself to record the final few years of iron and steel making on Teesside. ..the mothball, restart and eventual closing of iron and steelmaking on Teesside was something that I was not going to fail to record. It was almost an obligation to future generations..
As well as Mike’s beautiful book there is currently a new exhibition, Steel Stories at the Kirkleatham Museum.
Viva Talbot
Think on..
The current government had an opportunity to save the blast furnace
they chose not to take it.
Unemployment across the Tees Valley is double the national average at 3.9%. The number of jobless youth is higher, at 5.2%, compared with the national average of 2.3%. And Middlesbrough has more deprived areas than any other local authority in the country, with almost half of its 42 neighbourhoods among the poorest 10% nationally. Source
REGISTER
Winding Engine
The Smell of Water 