The Teesside Steelworks was founded by Dorman Long in 1917 with the opening of the blast furnace. They were no strangers to the business as mid 19th century they were running thirty blast furnaces in the area. In 1918 the Cleveland works opened all that remains here is the coke works surrounded by a vast amount of baron land. Then in the 1940's they purchased the land between Cleveland Works and the blast furnace to build the Lackenby site.
Much changed over the years with upgrades and demolition. In 1979 the blast furnace you see here was built and the others were shut down. The largest in the UK and could produce over 3,000,000 tonnes annually.
During this time Dorman Long become established globally in bridge construction. The most famous bridge they built was the Sydney Harbour Bridge but I would say the most impressive accomplishment would be the Storstrøm Bridge in Denmark spanning 3199 metres and set on 49 separate piers.
In 2015 the sites ceased all production with a loss of around 1700 jobs. No consolation to the former staff here but the closure contributed to UK carbon emissions 6% drop in 2016.
Work had started to strip and demolish the steelworks which will be a major exercise to remove the harmful waste that will be left in the soil after 160 years of production on the site.
Check out Teeside Steelworks a short timelapse film I made while I was here.
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