Ravenscraig

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Ravenscraig

Postby Vladimir » Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:11 pm

Not of course in Glasgow but any info, photos etc. on/of the steel plant would be helpful.
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Postby Schiehallion » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:24 pm

I know when they pulled it down it caused mayhem amongst the racing pigeons of Lanarkshire who were trained to use Ravenscraig as a navigational waypoint. Apparently birds were ending up all over the place, as far away as Saltcoats.
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Postby glasgowken » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:50 pm

Are scans from books ok ? Or original stuff only ?

I was quite surprised to see the huge blank "hole" left in a Glasgow A-Z map of the demolished Ravenscraig site, it really shows what a massive place it was.
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Postby Apollo » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:56 pm

The plant drew its cooling water directly from the Clyde, and there was a remotely controlled and unmanned pumping station on its banks. This was reached by a little single track road buried somewhere at the back of a housing estate. I assume it's gone now, and I couldn't find it without being guided by one of their staff, though I used to be able to spot it from the A74.
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Postby Vladimir » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:28 pm

Are scans from books ok ? Or original stuff only ?


Anything at all. To be honest Im looking for video of some kind, there seems to be very little around from the time of closure and demolition...
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Postby engineer » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:37 pm

Image
Image
some photos of the redevelopment, which i worked on during the summer. this is only one fifth of the whole ravenscraig site. you can see dalzell works in one of them. ill see if i can get some aeriels
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Postby yoker brian » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:47 pm

There was a promo film made around 1963 it was called the "Big Mill"

Clips from it are available from the BBC see links below

Clip 1

Clip2

Clip3

Clip4


I work for Corus - which is what was once British Steel, I will check and see if I can get anymore information, although not sure how much infor survived given the political nature of the closure of the 'Craig.

And i know it's available to buy from

http://data.scottishscreen.com/film/det ... d=03870001
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Postby Vladimir » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:06 pm

Ive got The Big Mill already, its actually not a bad film, what I need is clips of the water tower crashing down etc. In what way do you work for Corus, at one of the plants?
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Postby yoker brian » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:21 pm

Corus still have a couple of places in Scotland

Dalzell - Plate mill
Clydebridge - finishing mill
Mossend - Stockholding & distribution
Mosstodloch - Stockholding & distribution

I work at the Mossend site
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Postby Vladimir » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:41 am

The second one is cool. Is that a school just below the towers?
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Postby MacotheIsles » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:49 pm

*bump this thread as my own got erased*

Vladimir. I don't think there was a school there near the towers, but there was an office block type building. I went to see the towers getting blown, but made the mistake of watching from Cleland - well above the site but about a mile away as the crow flies and too far for decent photos. The best views were in Craigneuk of course. It was a strange moment when the towers started falling in rapid sequence - whole families had turned out and there was almost a picnic atmosphere, but it was definitely a defining moment in the ending of an era. Most people had assumed Ravenscraig would always be there; offering secure employment for generations. It wasn't just the steel manufacturing; there were lots of ancillary jobs. They had locomotive workshops full of fitters, engine drivers, waste disposal people, asbestos removal teams, crushers creating road stone from the waste slag, their own power station (still in evidence), pumping stations and lock gates, etc.. As I said in the other thread, there's not a lot above ground now, but it's still posible to partially work out what was where from the remains of the tracks, roads and foundations. Quite an eerie experience to walk there now that nature has started growing over this vast tundra of waste ground.
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Postby KonstantinL » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:42 pm

I grew up in Newarthill.

My bedroom window over looked Ravenscraig and one of my most vivid childhood memories was at night they would pour the slag and it would literally turn the sky bright red - as well as making a hell of a noise!

I remember the Miners Strike, when the gates were picketed and the closure when probably something like 25% of the men in my area lost their jobs.

If I remember correctly one of the huge water tanks didn't collapse properly during the demolition and only about half it crumpled up, with it staying upright.
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Postby MacotheIsles » Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:24 pm

Konstantin!

Yep - It was very spectacular on a cloudy night when the whole sky lit up vivid orange. I miss that, PLUS I'm sure that Motherwell's weather's got dreicher since Ravenscraig, and it's massive discharge of cloud-busting hot air and gasses, disappeared.

The three cooling towers were concrete and crumbled as far as I can remember. The blue tower (water tank?) was steel. I remember it buckled up and heeled right over, but I wasn't close enough to see how completely it was destroyed.

One of the most striking legacies of the works I think, is the fact that the river valley in front of the site was gradually filled in with waste until completely level, and is now built up into a hill (Prospect Hill).
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Postby KonstantinL » Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:07 am

I'm almost certain the blue tower was only partly demolished. About half of it 'crumpled up' and the top part of the other half collapsed on top of the crumpled half but the tower remained standing if slightly squinty!

I don't know much about demolition so perhaps it's not possible to bring down steel structures in the same way you can with concrete structures.
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Postby Alycidon » Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:33 am

I worked for many years in the Steel industry and suffered redundancy from the Clydesdale Works when it ceased tube manufacture in the 1980s. I and many of my colleagues felt aggrieved at the publicity surrounding the closure of Ravenscraig and the preceeding campaign to keep it open as it overshadowed the closures and redundancys at many other sites around the same period. I remember a "Save the Craig" poster being defaced to read "Save the Craig - bugger the rest", the inferance being that other sites were being sacrificed to keep it open. Clydesdale, Lanarkshire, Glengarnock, Clyde Iron, Hallside, Gartcosh all closed with a lot less fuss than when Ravenscraig shut. OK it was the biggest and just about the last but every job was important to the individual and the community, and a lot of Steelworkers already on the dole probably thought along the lines of "what comes around goes around".
Incidentally I would not go poking around any old Steelworks sites, even if they think that they have cleaned them up. Records of what was tipped and where were not terribly accurate, and I would bet that there are a lot of nasties buried around there
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