TOURS of the former Redcar Steelworks site sold out just hours after they were announced yesterday morning, so Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has added another 16 dates for members of the public to take a tour around the historic SSI site before it is demolished.
The guided bus tours will allow people to see the iconic structures such as the blast furnace and coke ovens, which have been part of the Redcar landscape for generations, up close safely and in line with current social distancing regulations. We dug around in our archives and found some great pictures of the coke ovens, power station and steel plant.
Thousands of people have worked at the sites through the generations, so if you have any memories of pictures, then get in touch. Perhaps you have a story to tell about your time on Teesside and with the former steelworks? You can email jo.kelly@newsquest.co.uk and we will feature your photographs online and in print.
SSI UK Pulverised Coal Injection Plant, Redcar
This picture was taken on February 19, 2010 when the the Redcar blast furnace workers completed their last full day, which marked the end of a centuries old tradition of iron and steel making on Teesside. A worker wrote ‘RIP RBL’ on a steel post in the foreground, ‘RIP Redcar Blast Furnace’
Echo Memories - The Downey and Company blast furnace at Warrenby, near Redcar
Workers at the Lackenby steel plant in the closing days of the factory, on 1 January, 2001
Smoke and steam from the last ‘coke push’ rises into the sky from the SSI UK steel coke ovens in Redcar, UK on Thursday, October 15 2015. This was the first time in 30 years that the ovens had been cooled and it was a significant moment in the story of Redcar steelworks
The President of SSI, Win Viriyaprapaikit, far right, with staff at the Redcar blast furnace on the day it was officially re-lit in April 2012
Were you among the hundreds of people who joined a torch-lit procession to the top of the Eston Hills, on October 24, 2015? The rally was organised by The Friends of Eston Hills, a community group that wanted to create an opportunity for people to come together to show their support for the steelworkers of Teesside. More than 2,000 workers at the SSI UK steel site at Redcar had just lost their jobs following the closure of the blast furnace and coke ovens, bringing to an end more than 170 years of steelmaking on Teesside
The South Bank coke ovens were mothballed by the owners, now you can take a bus tour of the sites before everything is demolished. What memories do you have of steelmaking on Teesside?
The Corus Redcar blast furnace. It was announced today that Corus is to mothball the plant at the end of January 2010 along with the South Bank coke ovens and the Lakenby plant. Picture by Tom Banks 04-12-09
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