Scunthorpe Steelworks
Scunthorpe Steelworks is a steel mill with blast furnaces in North Lincolnshire, England. As of April 2025, the facility employs around 2,700 people. It is the last plant in the UK capable of producing virgin steel, which is used in major construction projects like new buildings and railways. The rest of the UK's steel industry produces recycled steel using electric arc furnaces.
The iron and steel industry in Scunthorpe was established in the mid-19th century, following the discovery and exploitation of middle Lias ironstone, east of Scunthorpe.
Initially, iron ore was exported to iron producers in South Yorkshire. Later, after the construction of the Trent, Ancholme and Grimsby Railway gave rail access to the area, local iron production rapidly expanded, using local ironstone and imported coal or coke. The local ore was relatively poor in iron and high in lime requiring co-smelting with more acidic silicious iron ores. The growth of industry in the area led to the development of the town of Scunthorpe in a formerly sparsely populated, entirely agricultural area.
From the early 1910s to the 1930s, the industry consolidated, with three main ownership concerns formed—the Appleby-Frodingham Steel Company, part of the United Steel Companies; the Redbourn Iron Works, part of Richard Thomas and Company of South Wales ; and John Lysaght's Normanby Park works, part of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds.
In 1967, all three works became part of the nationalised British Steel Corporation, leading to a period of further consolidation—from the 1970s the use of local or regional ironstone diminished, being replaced by imported ore via the Immingham Bulk Terminal—much of the steelworks was re-established with equipment at or south and east of the Appleby-Frodingham works during the late 1960s as part of the Anchor modernisation. Primary iron production was at four blast furnaces first established or expanded in the 1950s, and known as the four Queens: named Queen Anne, Bess, Victoria and Mary.
Both the Normanby Park and the Redbourn works were closed by the early 1980s. Conversion to the Linz-Donawitz process of steel making from the open hearth process took place from the late 1960s onwards, with an intermediate oxygen utilising open hearth process known as the AJAX furnace operated in the interim. Conversion to LD operation was complete by the 1990s.
Following privatisation in 1988, the company, together with the rest of BSC, became part of Corus, later Tata Steel Europe. In 2016, the long products division of Tata Steel Europe was sold to Greybull Capital with Scunthorpe as the primary steel production site, under the historic British Steel name. Jingye Group purchased British Steel in 2020.
Following the closure of the last blast furnace at Port Talbot Steelworks in Wales in September 2024, Scunthorpe Steelworks is the UK's only remaining primary steelmaking facility.
History
Background and geology
It is thought that the iron deposits in Lincolnshire were worked sometime before the 19th and 20th century exploitations—forges at Stowe are mentioned in the Domesday Book, and archaeological evidence has been found of iron working at Scunthorpe.The ironstone in Lincolnshire is thought to have been laid down during the Jurassic period and forms part of a series of ironstones found in eastern England found in the Lias Group of rock strata that also includes ironstone formations making up the Cleveland ironstones and Northamptonshire ironstones; iron deposits in Northern France and Southern Germany may also be from the same period and origin. The Lincolnshire ironstone is found in the Lower Lias band in the Lower Jurassic series/period, it is a nearly horizontal bed, thick, averaging, and consists of calcareous haematite; near the surface the ores are converted to a hydrous form, limonite. The deposit is thought to have been originally created by the deposition by precipitation of Iron containing waters, followed by oxidation via weathering to Iron. Characteristic fossils found in the ironstone beds included large ammonites, and gryphaea, cardinia, and other mollusc species.
The geological strata in Lincolnshire includes a number of iron bearing rocks including the Claxby ironstone ; the Lincoln ironstone; the Caythorpe ironstone, below which is the 'Frodingham Ironstone' once mined at Scunthorpe. At Frodingham the ironstone existed in a bed up to thick, covered by loose sand. The ore was found in the form of a calcareous hydrated oxide, with some oolitic nodules, much affected by water weathering; local variations within the ore bed included bands with iron content as high as 40%, down to 12%, with an average iron content of 25%, excluding spoil. The ironstone bed dipped slightly towards the east—the bed's proximity to the surface, its fair uniformity, and the general low value of the land on which it stood led to rapid development of open ore workings. The lime content of the ore rendered it self-fluxing, but its high lime content and basic nature were problematic and led to the practice of using it in combination with silica containing ores. Iron produced from the bed including the fossiliferous lime contained over 1% phosphorus, similar to that from the Cleveland ironstone, as well as a few per cent of manganese.
Ironstone extraction was almost entirely east of a roughly north–south boundary passing through Scunthorpe between the town and steelworks—this boundary was itself east of the Lower Lias escarpment. Iron ore extraction was reduced in the later half of the 20th century, to be substituted by foreign imported ores of better quality.
Establishment of iron ore extraction and smelting (1859–1912)
is credited with discovering the iron ore in the area, and having it analysed and promoting its use. He suspected that the geology on his estate resembled the Cleveland ironstone which had been discovered and exploited in northern Yorkshire. Initially ore was extracted and exported from leases on his estate, and transported by horse power to the River Trent and onwards by canal. Iron ore began to be commercially exploited in the area from 1859. A narrow gauge railway was opened to Gunness.Winn then was instrumental in the promotion of a line to the ore fields, and with the support of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway and the South Yorkshire Railway as equal third partners; an act of parliament for a new main line, the Trent, Ancholme and Grimsby Railway was obtained in 1861. The new line connected with the SYR via a bridge over the River Trent at Keadby to the west, giving access to the South Yorkshire coalfield; and to the MSLR in the east at Barnetby. The line was fully opened by 1866, and enabled rapid expansion of the iron business around Scunthorpe. A branch to further iron ore deposits near Santon was authorised and opened 1872/3.
W. H. and G. Dawes were the first to utilise the ore which was tested at blast furnaces at Barnsley, transported there by water. In 1862 the Dawes began to build the first blast furnace in the area, which became operational in 1864, operating as the Trent Iron Company. The Frodingham Iron Company also opened in 1864, established by Joseph Cliff, a firebrick manufacturer from Wortley, Leeds who used experienced iron makers from Stockton-upon-Tees to establish the business. Both produced iron from their own local ironstone leases.
North Lincolnshire Iron Works, was established by Daniel Adamson of Hyde, Manchester in 1866, supported by Lancashire capitalists; the business was supplied with ore from Winn's own mines. Over the next decade three more works were established: the Redbourn Hill Company, and the Lincolnshire Iron Smelting Company were supported by capital from Birmingham; the Appleby Iron works was established with capital from Scotland. All six iron works were located adjacent to the ore workings, with the low iron content of the ore favouring local working rather than transportation to external sites.
By 1875 there were 13 blast furnaces in operation, with others under construction. Coke was used, supplied from the Durham coalfield or the South Yorkshire coalfield. Initially the high lime content of the ore caused production issues, through the amount and form of the slag produced, and its basic nature, its corrosive effect on the refractories in the furnace, as well as the large amount of water content in the ore, and carbon dioxide release tending to damp the fire in the furnace. The primary solution to the basic ore was to co-fire with an imported silica containing ore.
Iron ore production reached 248,329 tons, and iron production 31,000 tons by 1870, both rapid increases. In addition to local blast furnaces the ore was supplied to the Milton ironworks, Elsecar ironworks, the West Yorkshire Coal and Iron Company, and the Park Gate Iron Company. By 1875 several businesses were extracting iron ore in the area including Cliff and Sons ; the Kiveton Park Company; W.H. and G. Dawes; Cliff and Sons ; the Park Gate Iron Company ; and Charles Winn.
Appleby Ironworks was established in 1875. By the 1880s the iron making district consisted of separate villages at Crosby, Scunthorpe, Frodingham and New Frodingham, with the iron ore fields and irons works to the east, in an otherwise essentially rural landscape consisting of enclosed fields and coppices. With the exception of housing built at New Frodingham and New Brumby to the south most of the housing expansion associated with the growth of the industry took place around the former village of Scunthorpe—by the beginning of the 20th century Scunthorpe had grown to town sized, and incorporated schools; churches; clubs; a cemetery; and a courthouse, bank and hotel. By 1901 the local population was 11,167 increased from a combined rural population of 1,245 in 1851.
The last business to establish an iron works in the area was Lysaght's, built 1908–1915 when it then came on stream producing heavy steel products for the war effort, notably armour plate for warships. The choice of the uphill site at Normanby Park, north of Scunthorpe, was made by the Chief Engineer, Samuel Henry 'Harry' Meakin. He was originally offered a site acquired by the Lysaght's at Flixborough on the River Trent, but pointed out that the geological strata were not strong enough to bear the weight of blast furnaces. He needed to build on hard ground, which of course hills always are.
Key components of the Normanby Park Works had in practice been designed in the drawing offices of Brymbo Steelworks in Wrexham, which S. H. Meakin had redesigned during 1905–1908. John Darby, the man in charge of that project, listened to Meakin's professional views on how a steelworks could be made even more efficient than was possible in Wrexham, told him to do the drawings anyway then keep them where they were unlikely to be found, or even understood. In due course Darby then won a contract from the Lysaght Brothers to build a brand new steelworks in Scunthorpe, which he confidently asserted would be more efficient than anything seen before. That was destined to become Normanby Park. He then told Harry Meakin "I want you to join me on the new project, but my contract precludes me from poaching staff from Brymbo. So you will have to get yourself dismissed."
According to Harry Meakin's son Frank: "My father – who was 32 years old at the time – then played ducks and drakes at Brymbo for six months until they were forced to sack him." Harry Meakin then moved to Scunthorpe and joined John Darby again, whereupon he took charge of designing the new steelworks. Its upland site necessitated inter alia building large water mains up from the River Trent—steelworks use a huge amount of water. The design included modernistic features, such as the facility to burn gases from the blast furnace beneath the steel furnaces, but this was not proceeded with in practice. Upon completion, S. H. Meakin then managed the new Normanby Park steelworks for a year. However his primary interest was new design, rather than production, so he resigned and moved to Sheffield where he took charge of the design offices of Firth-Brown. S. H. Meakin's hobby was studying and mounting diatoms, for which activity—paradoxically—he is far better known today..