CLEVELAND INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS
Hear the behind the scenes story of restarting the Redcar Blast Furnace and bringing steelmaking back to Teesside.
This event is FREE, but we are expecting a high degree of interest in this exciting topic, so please register with Sue at events@cieng.org to confirm your interest
Members and non-members welcome.
Centuria Building,
Teesside University,
Middlesbrough,
TS1 3BA
Tel: 01642 218121
Show on map The two cooling towers and a chimney came down at 11:30 on 22/04/2012
Show on map At around 13:30 the first completed steel slab emerged from the restarted Redcar plant (not at 10:00 as initially reported by the Gazette, or 14:20 as they later stated)
Show on map The SSI Redcar Blast was ceremonially relit over the weekend by Wills Waterfield, the son of union boss Geoff Waterfield, who led the campaign to bring steelmaking back to Teesside but sadly died last year.
Things are progressing and actual steelmaking production should restart very soon, Torpedos are ready and waiting.
Show on map This brickworks was setup in 1900 to provide bricks for the nearby Ravenscar development that never materialised, it is located inside an old Alum quarry.
The remains of the single large Hoffman Kiln are still to be found on the site.
Although heavily overgrown the outer doors can still be identified
Despite the failure of Ravenscar, the brickworks was next to the railway and found work supplying bricks to Scarbrorough until the 1930s. The chinmeys on the site remained in place until demolition in the 1960s.
A bridge nearby still stands that carried the abanboned Whitby to Scarborough line
Show on map I noticed these two markers by the roadside on Smiths Dock Road.
The stones mark the edge of Bolckow and Vaughans property and are marked on old OS maps with the wasteland now to the east being the Eston Sheet and Galvenising Works which was aquired by Bolckow and Vaughan in 1916.
Show on map Originally an alum shale quarry between 1776 and 1805.
In 1929 an aerial ropeway was installed to dump waste from the Spa Woods ironstone mine into the quarry, it was dismantled 1933-34 and moved to Upton Colliery.
The area is now heavily wooded so its difficult to interpret which spoil belongs to which phase.
Show on map Little remains of Black Nab itself which will be completely lost to the sea at some point.
The site below the cliffs is now heavily eroded and covered but its location can be seen on the first edition OS maps.
The most promenant remains are those of a harbour / breakwater below the actual quarry site, the quarry is thought to have been in use between 1649 and 1791.
The highlight is a 1766 datestone which has somehow survived nearly 250 years on the beach.
In the cliff at this location are the ‘Smugglers Holes’ its not really clear whether these actually relate to smuggling, the alum works or possibly jet mining (although my local expert on that tells me they are in the wrong strata)
Show on map The remains of the alum house can be found at the edge of the beach and are being rapidly lost to erosion, what can be seen now is just the back wall of the structure.
Some remains still exist under the beach itself which were excavated by the Scarborough Archaeological and Historical Society. A circular stone cistern also remains just in front of the wall but I don’t have a photo as some holiday makers were using it as a seat at the time.
Show on map Saltwick Nab was a site of alum quarrying between 1650 and 1791, the red colouring indicates shale has been burned which is part of the alum making process.
An alum house existed in later years, although its though that initially the alum liquor was taken to South Shields for processing. The remains of a stone ramp exist on the shore, which may have been used to get carts on and off the Nab.
The flat area inland of the Nab has some remains of buildings and wooden pits, although the whole area has been so heavily eroded since it was worked its now difficult to interpret, it is however much more apparent on the first edition OS maps.
