Iron and steel
Iron-making has been known in Cleveland since the Romans found iron slags in North Yorkshire, with small-scale iron-making known to have taken place at Rievaulx and Whitby Abbeys and at Gisborough Priory in the 17th century.[6]
Some of the key events connected with iron-making in Cleveland:
1837: The first Cleveland ironstone mine opens, at Grosmont, for the Losh, Wilson and Bell ironworks.[7]
1841: Bolckow and Vaughan open the first ironworks in Middlesbrough.[8]
1850: 8 June – The Discovery of the Cleveland Main Seam of Ironstone at Eston by Ironmaster John Vaughan and mining engineer John Marley both of Bolckow & Vaughan. The Cleveland iron rush begins.[9]
1865: 30 blast furnaces operate within six miles (10 km) of Middlesbrough and one million tonnes per annum (TPA) of iron are produced to make the area one of the world's major centres of iron production.[10]
1879: Sidney Gilchrist Thomas arrives in Cleveland and introduces the first commercial steel.[11]
1903: Partial amalgamation of Bell companies with Dorman Long.[12]
1917: The Redcar steel plant is opened, making steel in the open hearth process.[10]
1928-9: Dorman Long takes over residues of Bell and Bolckow Vaughan.[13][14]
1946: Dorman Long purchases 600 acre of land between the Redcar and Cleveland Works to build the Lackenby development.[15]
1955: The Dorman Long tower, a combined coal silo, firefighting water tower, and control room, was built on the Teesside steelworks site.[16]
1967: Dorman Long, South Durham Steel Iron Co, and Stewarts and Lloyds come together to create British Steel and Tube Ltd.[17]
1967: The steel industry is nationalised and the British Steel Corporation is born.[18]
1989: Company is privatised becoming British Steel plc.[19]
1990: Merged with The Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company, Darlington.[10]
1999: British Steel plc merges with the Dutch steel and aluminium company Koninklijke Hoogovens to become Corus Group.[20]
2015: Former Dorman Long Steel plant on Teesside ceased production after SSI mothballed the Redcar works following a global downturn in the price of steel and later announced its UK arm had gone into liquidation.[21]
2021: Cleveland Bridge goes into administration.[22]
2021: The Dorman Long tower is demolished,[23] despite its Grade II listed status.[16][24]
