Teesside Steelworks
On 1 October 2022, the Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) Plant at Lackenby was demolished in one of the largest single explosive demolition operations in the country in 75 years.
[3][better source needed] Vaughan and his partner Henry Bolckow, over the next decades, would build an iron and steel works, which extended, by 1864, over 700 acres (280 ha) along the banks of the River Tees.
Richards' work helped to improve the Bessemer process for making steel, in the case when the ore is rich in phosphorus, and an alkaline rock (dolomite, limestone or magnesite) is used.
[citation needed] The amount of slag coming out of the various furnaces of Teesside increased substantially and its disposal became a costly problem for works' owners.
One solution, invented in the 1870s, was the Scoria brick which became a major export of the region and can still widely be seen as a road surface in the local area.
The causes of these problems included: poor decision-making in the period from 1900–1910 which delayed the introduction of improved steelmaking technology; optimistic belief in promises of funding made by the British government during the war, leading to reliance on costly bank loans in 1918; and failure to invest in its own coal mines to provide enough for steel production, and for cash.
[citation needed] In 1967, Dorman Long was absorbed into the newly created nationalised company, British Steel Corporation.
[23] Corus utilised the site for basic oxygen steelmaking, using iron produced at the company's Redcar blast furnace.
Support was put in place to help affected workers with individual sessions to update CVs, highlight job opportunities and look at retraining options.
[31] The acquisition was expected to create more than 800 jobs on top of the existing workforce of 700 and the plant was officially reopened 15 April 2012.
The coke ovens were scheduled for extinguishing, however this time it was done without the complex decommissioning processes conducted in 2010, which would have allowed the facility to reopen in the future.
[36] The remainder of the site is still operational (Teesside Beam Mill and ancillary support services at Lackenby and the deep-water bulk handling terminal), having been sold by Tata Steel to investment firm Greybull Capital on 1 June 2016.
[39] In April 2024, British Steel won planning permission for an electric arc furnace to be built at the remaining Lackenby site.
[40] The steelworks' BOS plant, blast furnace, and power station, along with auxiliary structures, were demolished in between October 2022 and June 2023, creating a 4,500-acre site of brownfield land.
