‘A reminder of what we used to be’: Crowds gather to watch demolition of Redcar’s iconic blast furnace in enormous controlled explosion – seven years after steelworks site closed
- Part of Britain’s industrial heritage came crashing to the ground today surrounded by emotional onlookers
- The colossal Redcar Blast Furnace was brought down in an enormous controlled explosion in Teesside
- It marks the end of a steelmaking tradition dating back 170 years in region which boasted: ‘We built the world’
Part of Britain’s industrial heritage came crashing to the ground today surrounded by emotional onlookers, marking the end of a steelmaking tradition dating back 170 years.
The colossal Redcar Blast Furnace was brought down in an enormous controlled explosion, sending a plume of dust high above the Teesside skyline.
The site where it stood will be used for a ‘green industrial revolution’ in an ambitious scheme by the Government to turn around the area’s fortunes.
The furnace was the last of 100 to be built along the River Tees since the late 1800s in a region that once boasted: ‘We built the world.’
The Dorman Long company used Cleveland steel to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932 and the Tyne Bridge in 1928, as well as Lambeth Bridge in London, the Chien Tang River Bridge in China and countless other structures around the globe.
The colossal Redcar Blast Furnace was brought down in an enormous controlled explosion, sending a plume of dust high above the Teesside skyline
Part of Britain’s industrial heritage came crashing to the ground today surrounded by emotional onlookers, marking the end of a steelmaking tradition dating back 170 years
The entire site was reduced to rubble in six seconds by demolition firm Thompson’s of Prudhoe, who spent 10 months preparing the explosion with 175 kilos of explosives at 40 points around the site
The furnace itself was first to come down, sending a black cloud billowing into the air. It was followed by the Casting Houses, the Dust Catcher and Charge Conveyors on the site
Steelmaking became the biggest employer on the Tees, with 17,000 people working in the industry by 1980.
The 365ft Redcar Blast Furnace was commissioned in 1979, becoming the second largest in Europe and producing 3.6 million tonnes of steel a year.
It was built during the time of state-owned British Steel which was privatised in 1988.
The furnace then came under the ownership of Corus but it was mothballed in 2010 under the ownership of Tata Steel.
A deal to save it was struck in a takeover with Thai firm SSI but when that collapsed in 2015 there was no way back and 1,700 jobs were lost as steelmaking on the Tees ended for good.
The entire site was reduced to rubble in six seconds by demolition firm Thompson’s of Prudhoe, who spent 10 months preparing the explosion with 175 kilos of explosives at 40 points around the site.
The furnace itself was first to come down, sending a black cloud billowing into the air. It was followed by the Casting Houses, the Dust Catcher and Charge Conveyors on the site.
Watching the explosion, Mark Davies, 42, said: ‘There was a beautiful fiery sunrise this morning, it was a fitting backdrop to a very important moment for this region’
A 250ft exclusion zone was thrown around the site as crowds gathered to watch the final moments of an industrial landmark which had dominated the skyline
The colossal Redcar Blast Furnace was brought down in an enormous controlled explosion, sending a plume of dust high above the Teesside skyline
A 250ft exclusion zone was thrown around the site as crowds gathered to watch the final moments of an industrial landmark which had dominated the skyline.
One of them was Dave Cocks, 58, who started at Redcar steelworks in 1978 and moved to the new site when it opened the following year.
Dave said: ‘All that passion, heritage and hard work is disappearing forever.
‘The Redcar Blast Furnace is such an iconic and organic shape and for so many people it’s been part of the landscape forever.
‘It’s as permanent as the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough, Roseberry Topping or the cliffs at Saltburn and to see that gap where it used to be will be very strange.’
Mr Cocks, who went on to volunteer for the RNLI, was part of the team that mothballed the furnace in 2010 and then re-booted it two years later when new owners took over.
It was his job to empty the blast furnace of raw materials and drain the ‘salamander tap,’ named after the salamander lizard, a creature famed for being able to withstand phenomenal heat.
Dave said he would always be proud to call himself ‘an iron maker on Teesside’.
But he added: ‘I’d like to hope new industries rise out of the ashes and we’re going to have a very prosperous Teesside again.
‘It was a terrible shock for the whole of Teesside when we lost the industry. To see it disappear off the landscape will, I think, give quite a lot of people closure.
‘Then we’ve got to look forward to the future and hope that the things do get delivered in the ways they’ve been promised.’
Also watching the explosion, Mark Davies, 42, said: ‘There was a beautiful fiery sunrise this morning, it was a fitting backdrop to a very important moment for this region.
‘Teesside built the world, we all grew up with that phrase and to see the last furnace come down is a really emotional moment, it marks the end of that era.
‘For me it should have been preserved as a heritage site but that was considered too expensive – just like keeping thousands of steelworkers in their jobs was considered too expensive. It’s a sad day.’
Redcar’s Tory MP Jacob Young said: ‘The site is central to our plans to transform Teesside, this time into the UK’s flag bearer for the Green Industrial Revolution
Eileen Henderson, 67, said: ‘We all grew up with steelmaking, everyone you knew in Middlesbrough and Redcar was either part of the industry or had someone in their family who was.
‘The blast furnace wasn’t pretty but when it was there at least it was a reminder of what we used to be.
‘I hope the Government follow through with their plans to bring new industry to this region, God knows, we need it.’
Ian Wright, 70, said: ‘I started working on the site just before my 24th birthday in 1976, there was around 400 of us building the blast furnace and it took us two and a half years.
‘I’ll definitely have a tear in my eye when it comes down, I can see the blast furnace from Saltburn where I live and I remember the manager at the time telling us that it would be a monument to our work and it really has been.’
A heritage taskforce was created to look into preserving the site as monument to the region’s industrial heritage, but it was considered too expensive and demolition was ordered last year.
The site will now be used to bring new opportunities to Teesside.
Redcar’s Tory MP Jacob Young said: ‘The site is central to our plans to transform Teesside, this time into the UK’s flag bearer for the Green Industrial Revolution.
‘And thanks to the work of Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen, the support of local councils and MPs, Teesworks is now the largest and most connected industrial zone in the UK, home to diverse, sustainable and low-carbon activity.
‘It’s also the heart of the UK’s first and largest post-Brexit freeport which is seeing the creation of hundreds of high-quality, well-paid jobs coming to our region with the likes of SeAH choosing Teesside for their wind turbine manufacturing facility.’
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