Consett Iron Company

The Consett Iron Company Ltd was a major United Kingdom industrial undertaking based in the Consett area of County Durham. The company traded as colliery and limestone quarry owners and iron and steel manufacturers. The company was registered on 4 April 1864 as successor to the Derwent & Consett Iron Company Ltd. This in turn was the successor to the Derwent Iron Company, founded in 1840. The Consett Iron Company was absorbed into British Steel in 1967.

The company’s seven collieries and various coke ovens passed to the National Coal Board on nationalisation in 1947. The Consett Iron Company itself was nationalised in 1951, becoming part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain, was denationalised shortly afterwards, and renationalised in 1967.

British Steel Consett Works was closed in 1980 by the Thatcher government as part of its neoliberal rationalisation plan, and its works were subsequently removed from the landscape.

A tank wagon used from 1917

Sources

The company was closed because of the over capacity caused by the construction of new iron and steel making facilities for which there was no market available to British Steel. The company undertook a hugely expensive expansion programme to double the capacity from around 15 million tonnes/year to around 30 million. Little consideration was given to the finishing end, which is the reason why the company could not sell the increased production. Once the new facilities were completed, the options were to close the older works like Consett and Corby, or not start-up the new furnaces. The latter option would have been too embarrassing to contemplate, so the Consett works was closed. It was not for valid economic reasons.

• Whitaker’s Almanack (various dates)

External links

• A town is born from iron, steel and coal
• Description of the Consett Iron Works 1892
• Durham Mining Museum - Consett Iron Co. Ltd