THE region’s industrial skyline is set to change forever as work to demolish a steelworks that helped build the world began today.

The skyline of Teesside will look very different in the next 12 months as the Redcar steelworks, including the Redcar Blast Furnace, is to be demolished to make way for the next generation of industry.

The Northern Echo:

Although demolition work has been taking place across the site for some time, today marked a significant milestone with work beginning on some of the site’s most recognisable structures, with one of the 70-metre-tall chimneys of the Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) plant taken down.

The chimney was pulled down at 11am on Monday (August 2) marking the start of the latest phase of the transformation of the Teesworks site, which will be redeveloped to focus on green industries including carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and offshore wind.

Despite today’s demolition, the history of the site will be documented over the coming months and artefacts for preservation are being collected to house in a museum to remember the 170-years of iron and steel making on Teesside.

The Northern Echo:

The work commenced after Mayor Houchen pledged that every structure at the steelworks site would be down within a year, as part of the £113million programme which will see more than 1,000 people on-site and around half a million tonnes of scrap recovered.

When complete, the project will free up 600 acres of land, paving the way for future investment on Teesworks, the UK’s largest Freeport. The site is already earmarked for the Net Zero Teesside Power carbon capture, utilisation and storage power plant, and GE Renewable Energy’s mammoth wind turbine blade manufacturing facility.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “We started the demolition a few weeks ago but this is a big step forward.

“The skyline will look very different, but it will bring more development and more jobs to Teesside.

“We are on the government’s list for net zero, we have a lot of green development happening on Teesside from hydrogen to offshore wind farms.”

Redcar MP Jacob Young said: “I think it’s a bittersweet moment, it has always been part of the Redcar skyline throughout my lifetime and for a lot of people who live in Redcar.

“There are many in Redcar who still have a connection to the place, maybe they worked here or had a relative work here so it will be a sad day for them.

“This is about the renewal of the site and what we can do to bring greener safer jobs back to the area.

“"This is Europe’s largest brownfield development site, and soon it will be the UKs largest Freeport, with a plan to create 18,000 jobs over the next 5 years.

“The scale of the site matches the scale of our ambitions, and this is the start of a new future.”

The Northern Echo:

Leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council Mary Lanigan said: “It’s quite sad for people as Redcar has been known as a steelmaking community. But this is about the future and jobs for the next generation.

“My dad was a steel worker, so it is sad for me to come down but times change.

“We have a big opportunity at the site, so I am excited for its future, for Redcar’s future and the future of the next generation.”

Jessie Jo Jacobs, Labour's former candidate for Tees Valley Mayor who campaigned to keep the blast furnace, said: "It is a sad day for Teesside that the Redcar blast furnace will be demolished. Teesside absolutely needs to regenerate to bring new industry and quality jobs, but our steel heritage like other parts of our history could be a huge asset to the region, one that can also create jobs and prosperity based on a tourism economy. 

"Labour's plan had been to clear most of the site for new jobs and industry but also to preserve some of the heritage structures to create an iconic steel sculpture, a fitting memorial to Teesside's proud steel and iron industrial heritage and something for many generations to come to enjoy and learn of our history. 

The Northern Echo:

"Decisions to demolish were rushed through and genuine alternatives to secure its future were never realistically  explored, showing a tragic lack of vision and imagination from the Tees Valley Mayor. 

"It seems that history repeats itself yet again and as is usually the way in Teesside, our history and heritage is demolished, based on the argument of progress for the future."

A spokesperson for campaign group Save Our Steel Heritage said: “It is a sad day for Teesside that the Redcar Blast Furnace will today be demolished. The furnace as we envisaged would have been truly iconic.

The Northern Echo:

“In our opinion, this is an act of cultural vandalism, a scorched earth policy designed to systematically destroy relics of industry. For some, this structure represents something personal - a living monument to their ancestors who built Teesside from the ground up, to others its a proud symbol of over 170 years of world class iron and steelmaking on Teesside.

“Whilst some see the structure as a reminder of industrial decline, we all must agree that it is a unique landmark that has played a major part of our identity and without it Teesside will never be the same.

“It's a sad day for the UK's long and rich story of iron and steelmaking and a sad day for Teessiders.”

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