Britain's largest steel processing centre is one of the darkest, most beautiful places to be seen in the north East Midlands.
It's one of Tata Steel Europe's two major integrated plants in the UK with facilities such as four blast furnaces, continuous casting and a rod mill. It employs over 4000 people (excluding contractors) and so is massive for the Scunthorpe economy.
The history, in brief:
1860 - Iron ore first mined in Scunthorpe
1967 - British Steel nationalised
1988 - British Steel privatised
1999 - Becomes Corus
2007 - Corus acquired by Tata
2015 - Tata steel expected to announce redundancies
A swift visit last year enabled a brief look around.
Beyond the entrance there's a sooty, chemical smell. Steam billows from vents all around. Red and orange pipes and grey shafts crisscross the 70 miles of road and the many railway lines connecting plant with plant. Road names like Basic Slag Road and Ore Blending Road give clues to the function of the numerous areas. That afternoon thick cloud made it gloomy, with hums and clangs and whirs and hisses the soundscape.
Around the central blast furnace works the giant metal arms come together and flow into and around the furnace towers - this is the entrance to the 'Four Queens of Ironmaking', blast furnace area.
These are various plants.
No internals, but saw about this in the news and thought I'd share it up.
It's one of Tata Steel Europe's two major integrated plants in the UK with facilities such as four blast furnaces, continuous casting and a rod mill. It employs over 4000 people (excluding contractors) and so is massive for the Scunthorpe economy.
The history, in brief:
1860 - Iron ore first mined in Scunthorpe
1967 - British Steel nationalised
1988 - British Steel privatised
1999 - Becomes Corus
2007 - Corus acquired by Tata
2015 - Tata steel expected to announce redundancies
A swift visit last year enabled a brief look around.
Beyond the entrance there's a sooty, chemical smell. Steam billows from vents all around. Red and orange pipes and grey shafts crisscross the 70 miles of road and the many railway lines connecting plant with plant. Road names like Basic Slag Road and Ore Blending Road give clues to the function of the numerous areas. That afternoon thick cloud made it gloomy, with hums and clangs and whirs and hisses the soundscape.
Around the central blast furnace works the giant metal arms come together and flow into and around the furnace towers - this is the entrance to the 'Four Queens of Ironmaking', blast furnace area.
These are various plants.
No internals, but saw about this in the news and thought I'd share it up.
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