Redcar's steelworks have been in the news a lot in recent years due to its closure and how much of an impact it has had on Redcar and Middlesbrough. It opened in 1979 on land that had been occupied by steel making for years. However the new factory was different, and was actually the second biggest in Europe.

 

There were 19 seperate blast furnaces, which are giant ovens which smelt the iron and steel, and its area was huge. It was actually owned by the government when it was built, but in later years owned by private companies like British Steel and SSI. 

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Sadly nowadays, much of the site is no longer producing anything, which meant the loss of a lot of jobs and the end of a long history on Teesside. Some of it is still used by a Chinese company, though not to the same scale. You may know someone in your family that worked there or still does as it was so big.