History
The sinter plant was part of the large British Steel Corporation (BSC) iron works at Redcar, which opened in 1979. The building was designed to turn fine iron ores (which cannot be directly used to charge the blast furnace) into coarse pellets, by mixing iron ore fines, coke fines, limestone fines, and iron dust from the blast furnace, then baking them at a high temperature.
BSC was privatised into British Steel in 1988, before coming under the ownership of Corus, Tata, and finally Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) who reopened the mothballed works in 2012. The whole Redcar site, together with their other two major works in Teesside was suddenly closed in October 2015, after SSI went bankrupt. Demolition of the complex was announced in 2020 and at the time of writing, work to tear down all structures is well underway, though for now dismantling is focused on the conveyor network and the raw materials handling facilities.
The Explore
My third instalment of the Teesside Steelworks complex isn't quite as exciting as the others, but it formed an important part of the works none the less. This will be my last report on the site for now, until I head up there again, hopefully in a weeks time.
Visited with @little_ boy_explores after spending the previous day at Southbank and Lackenby. We were hoping to climb the blast furnace, but our planned route was blocked and it was quickly getting light which would have made it challenging to find an alternative route unseen. As it was a weekday, we knew the site would be swarmed with demolition workers, so we chose to head to the sinter plant. It looked like a fairly quick explore, so we could be in and out before workers descended on the site, plus it's likely to be the first major building on the Redcar site to be torn down, so I was keen to tick it off.
The conveyors connecting it to the blast furnace had been recently dismantled which meant we had to cross over the exposed wasteland, made a little more difficult by a series of herras fences.
Unfortunately, there was very little natural light inside most of the building, which meant I've only come away with photos from the top levels of the structure. If/when I return, I'll have a go at light painting some of the other areas, but after only a couple of hours of low-grade sleep in the previous two days of exploring, I really didn't have the energy at the time.
When we were ready to leave, as the site was quickly becoming busy with workers driving in, we headed down through the offices on the northern side of the building, which still contained quite a lot of leftovers. We had got down to the second floor when I opened a door which had a PIR on the other side, immediately setting off an alarm. We retreated back up and down the way we had come in, without any issues - from the outside the noise seemed very faint. It was a long walk out in the open to leave the site, I put a hi-vis jacket on to try and look a little more official, and despite all the vehicles driving close by they entered the works, we didn't have any bother.
The Redcar site at night, the sinter plant is out of shot to the left.
The silos which stored material ready to be taken to the blast furnace, behind is the power station and coke works.
The silos offered a great view of the blast furnace, in the foreground are the roofs of the workshops and stores.
The sinter plant seen from below the silos, even from here it looked bloody big.
The power station and blast furnace from one of the upper levels of the sinter plant.
The Redcar coke ovens.
The sintering area, looking towards the furnace.
We were very surprised to find working lights in the offices. By this point I was really struggling to stay awake and I was on the verge of lying down and dozing off.
On the other side of dark doorway in the previous photo is a wonderful old control room. It must have been partitioned off many years ago, but remains very intact.
The more modern control room, even the screens were still lit up!
A wide angle shot of the open end of the building, showing the circular cooling structure.
The coke ovens, gas holders, and power station.
The area at the top of the structure, there was just enough light up here to make it possible to get some photos.
The silos we had found ourselves in earlier, the cars driving along the road give a good indication of scale.
The building from the east, showing the fluted chimney.
The building from the nature reserve, about a kilometre away.
Thanks for looking
The sinter plant was part of the large British Steel Corporation (BSC) iron works at Redcar, which opened in 1979. The building was designed to turn fine iron ores (which cannot be directly used to charge the blast furnace) into coarse pellets, by mixing iron ore fines, coke fines, limestone fines, and iron dust from the blast furnace, then baking them at a high temperature.
BSC was privatised into British Steel in 1988, before coming under the ownership of Corus, Tata, and finally Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) who reopened the mothballed works in 2012. The whole Redcar site, together with their other two major works in Teesside was suddenly closed in October 2015, after SSI went bankrupt. Demolition of the complex was announced in 2020 and at the time of writing, work to tear down all structures is well underway, though for now dismantling is focused on the conveyor network and the raw materials handling facilities.
The Explore
My third instalment of the Teesside Steelworks complex isn't quite as exciting as the others, but it formed an important part of the works none the less. This will be my last report on the site for now, until I head up there again, hopefully in a weeks time.
Visited with @little_ boy_explores after spending the previous day at Southbank and Lackenby. We were hoping to climb the blast furnace, but our planned route was blocked and it was quickly getting light which would have made it challenging to find an alternative route unseen. As it was a weekday, we knew the site would be swarmed with demolition workers, so we chose to head to the sinter plant. It looked like a fairly quick explore, so we could be in and out before workers descended on the site, plus it's likely to be the first major building on the Redcar site to be torn down, so I was keen to tick it off.
The conveyors connecting it to the blast furnace had been recently dismantled which meant we had to cross over the exposed wasteland, made a little more difficult by a series of herras fences.
Unfortunately, there was very little natural light inside most of the building, which meant I've only come away with photos from the top levels of the structure. If/when I return, I'll have a go at light painting some of the other areas, but after only a couple of hours of low-grade sleep in the previous two days of exploring, I really didn't have the energy at the time.
When we were ready to leave, as the site was quickly becoming busy with workers driving in, we headed down through the offices on the northern side of the building, which still contained quite a lot of leftovers. We had got down to the second floor when I opened a door which had a PIR on the other side, immediately setting off an alarm. We retreated back up and down the way we had come in, without any issues - from the outside the noise seemed very faint. It was a long walk out in the open to leave the site, I put a hi-vis jacket on to try and look a little more official, and despite all the vehicles driving close by they entered the works, we didn't have any bother.
The Redcar site at night, the sinter plant is out of shot to the left.
The silos which stored material ready to be taken to the blast furnace, behind is the power station and coke works.
The silos offered a great view of the blast furnace, in the foreground are the roofs of the workshops and stores.
The sinter plant seen from below the silos, even from here it looked bloody big.
The power station and blast furnace from one of the upper levels of the sinter plant.
The Redcar coke ovens.
The sintering area, looking towards the furnace.
We were very surprised to find working lights in the offices. By this point I was really struggling to stay awake and I was on the verge of lying down and dozing off.
On the other side of dark doorway in the previous photo is a wonderful old control room. It must have been partitioned off many years ago, but remains very intact.
The more modern control room, even the screens were still lit up!
A wide angle shot of the open end of the building, showing the circular cooling structure.
The coke ovens, gas holders, and power station.
The area at the top of the structure, there was just enough light up here to make it possible to get some photos.
The silos we had found ourselves in earlier, the cars driving along the road give a good indication of scale.
The building from the east, showing the fluted chimney.
The building from the nature reserve, about a kilometre away.
Thanks for looking
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