Teesside Steelworks, Redcar

The horizon in Middlesbrough is dominated by the blast furnace of the Redcar Ironworks, the last clearly visible monument of once heavy industrial history on the east coast of England.
It was back in 1875, when Bolckow, Vaughan & Co Ltd. founded the first ironworks in the area - called the Cleveland Steelworks.

Middlesbrough became the largest steel producer in the World in 1914 already. The ironworks were then operated by Dorman Long company, which was founded in 1876 by two entrepreneurs Albert John Dorman and Albert de Lange Long after the purchase of Marsh Ironworks in the same location.

After nationalization in 1967, Dorman Long became part of the newly established British Steel Corporation.

The modern blast furnace of the Redcar Ironworks, at that time the second most powerful furnace in Europe, was built in 1979.

In 1999 the works were merged with the Dutch company Koninklijke Hoogovens to form the Corus Group.

In 2007 Corus was bought by the Indian company Tata Steel. The mothballing of the iron&steel production was announced two years later.

However in 2011 the ironworks were bought by the Thai-based company Sahaviriya Steel Industries. And indeed they managed to restart production. But only until 2015, when another shutdown was announced due to low prices of steel.

In 2016 the newly formed British Steel company resumes operation of the rolling mill, but bankrupted three years later. The mill was taken over by Chinese Jingye Group then.

Demolition of the metallurgical combine (blast furnace, steelworks, two coke ovens) began in 2021.

Keywords: Middlesbrough, united kingdom, redcar, teesside, british steel, industrial landscape, industriekultur, průmyslová krajina, industrial architecture, industrial photography, steelmaking, steelworks, hochofen, blast furnace, vysoká pec, 2019

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