Been meaning to get up here for ages but never fancied it on my own (long arse drive) anyway managed to get up here a few weekends ago with @Bolts and a non member.
Cracking day out, pretty much turned up and just went straight at it. Very fun explore, secuirty is pretty on top. Constant patrols, hidden alarms, cameras, sensors allsorts. Still!
We didnt manage to check out much more of the site as the place was crawling with secca and they were certainly looking for us, I think we counted 7 vans/cars patrolling at the same time. How we managed to get out I do not quite know. Also the wind was absolutely insane as we climbed the furnace so we couldnt get to the top, it was blowing us all over the place and it would've been genuinely stupid of us to continue.
History has been copied off @The Amateur Wanderer brilliant report and I wont go on too much as Speed has already covered the whole site in great detail.
History
The blast furnace itself was completed in 1979 during the British Steel remodeling of the Redcar Iron Works site and constructed by Davy McKee of Sheffield. It was the largest of it's kind in Europe when completed, although I doubt that's the case any longer.
The Redcar Iron Works site itself was opened in 1917 by Dorman Long, Iron produced here was used around the world, the most impressive feat probably been the production of steel for the Sidney Harbour Bridge in 1923.
In 1967 Dorman Long was nationalised under British Steel, the site would later be taken on by both Corus and SSI before closure in 2015 marking a sad end to steel and iron making in Teeside.
The furnace was re-lined in 2000, it is advised that a re-line is undertaken every 20 years so had the furnace still been in operation we'd be looking at a 2020 overhaul of the furnace.
Pics
Didnt manage any ground level pics due to the game of cat and mouse.
Cracking day out, pretty much turned up and just went straight at it. Very fun explore, secuirty is pretty on top. Constant patrols, hidden alarms, cameras, sensors allsorts. Still!
We didnt manage to check out much more of the site as the place was crawling with secca and they were certainly looking for us, I think we counted 7 vans/cars patrolling at the same time. How we managed to get out I do not quite know. Also the wind was absolutely insane as we climbed the furnace so we couldnt get to the top, it was blowing us all over the place and it would've been genuinely stupid of us to continue.
History has been copied off @The Amateur Wanderer brilliant report and I wont go on too much as Speed has already covered the whole site in great detail.
History
The blast furnace itself was completed in 1979 during the British Steel remodeling of the Redcar Iron Works site and constructed by Davy McKee of Sheffield. It was the largest of it's kind in Europe when completed, although I doubt that's the case any longer.
The Redcar Iron Works site itself was opened in 1917 by Dorman Long, Iron produced here was used around the world, the most impressive feat probably been the production of steel for the Sidney Harbour Bridge in 1923.
In 1967 Dorman Long was nationalised under British Steel, the site would later be taken on by both Corus and SSI before closure in 2015 marking a sad end to steel and iron making in Teeside.
The furnace was re-lined in 2000, it is advised that a re-line is undertaken every 20 years so had the furnace still been in operation we'd be looking at a 2020 overhaul of the furnace.
Pics
Didnt manage any ground level pics due to the game of cat and mouse.
