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Scunthorpe

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For other uses, see Scunthorpe (disambiguation).
Scunthorpe
Population72,660 
OS grid referenceSE893102
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSCUNTHORPE
Postcode districtDN15 - 17
Dialling code01724
PoliceHumberside
FireHumberside
AmbulanceEast Midlands
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Lincolnshire

Scunthorpe (popularly known as Scunny or Sunny Scunny) is a town in North Lincolnshire, England, and the historic county of Lincolnshire. It is the administrative centre of the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire. It is also known as the 'Industrial Garden Town' though since the inception of North Lincolnshire and the subsequent demise of floral gardens, shrubbery and nursery beds in the town it has called some people to question whether Scunthorpe should still carry this 'tag'. The town appears in the Domesday Book (1086) as Escumetorp, which is Old Norse for "Skuma's homestead", a site which is believed to be in the town centre close to where the present-day Market Hill is located. The current population is around 72,000. The town is situated at the terminus of the M181.

Industrial history

Ironstone was mined in the area as early as the Roman occupation, but the deposits lay forgotten until the 19th century. The rediscovery of iron ore in 1859 by Rowland Winn on the land of his father, Charles, resulted in the development of an iron and steel industry and rapid population growth.[1]

Iron ore was first mined in the Scunthorpe area in July 1860. Owing to the lack of a mainline railway the ore was transferred to a wharf at Gunness (or Gunhouse), initially by cart then by a narrow gauge railway, for distribution by barge or mainline rail from Keadby. Winn knew that the best way of exploiting the iron ore fields was for a rail link to be built from Keadby to Barnetby. He campaigned tirelessly for the link; construction work started in mid-1860 and was complete in 1864. He persuaded the Dawes brothers, to whose iron works the ore was being supplied, to build an iron works at the site of the iron ore fields at Scunthorpe. Construction of Scunthorpe's first ironworks, the Trent Ironworks, began in 1862, with the first cast from the blast furnace being tapped on 26 March 1864. Other ironworks followed: building of the Frodingham Ironworks began in 1864; North Lincoln Ironworks in 1866; Redbourn Hill Iron & Coal Company in 1872; Appleby Ironworks blew in their first blast furnace in 1876; and the last constructed being John Lysaght's Iron and Steel works in 1911, with production starting in 1912. Crude steel had been produced at Frodingham Ironworks in 1887 but this proved not to be viable. Maxmilian Mannaburg came to Frodingham Ironworks in 1889 to help build and run the steelmaking plant and on the night of 21 March 1890 the first steel was tapped.

Rowland Winn is remembered in the town by three street names: Rowland Road, Winn Street & Oswald Road. He assumed the title Lord St Oswald in 1885.

Local government


Scunthorpe within Humberside
1974-1996

Historically in Lincolnshire, in 1889 the area was included in the Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey administrative county. Separate local government began in 1890 when the Scunthorpe local board of health was formed. In 1894 the local board was replaced with an urban district council. Ten years later the neighbouring townships of Brumby and Frodingham (including Crosby) were also constituted an urban district. The two urban districts were amalgamated, along with the parish of Ashby in 1919 to form a new Scunthorpe urban district. Scunthorpe received a charter incorporating the town as a municipal borough in 1936.[2]

Local authority boundary changes brought the town into the new County of Humberside in 1974, and a new non-metropolitan district, the Borough of Scunthorpe was formed with the same boundaries as the old municipal borough. The opening of the Humber Bridge on 24 June 1981 provided a permanent link between North and South Humberside but did not secure Humberside's future. To the relief of its many detractors, the County of Humberside (and Humberside County Council) was abolished on 1 April 1996 and succeeded by four unitary authorities.

The previous Humberside districts of Glanford and Scunthorpe, and that part of Boothferry district south of the northern boundaries of the parishes of Crowle, Eastoft, Luddington, Haldenby and Amcotts, now comprise the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire.[3] On amalgamation charter trustees were formed for Scunthorpe,[4] and they continue to elect a town mayor.

Coat of arms

When Scunthorpe was incorporated as a borough in 1936, it also received a grant of a coat of arms from the College of Arms.[5] These arms were transferred to the new borough council formed in 1974,[6] and are now used by the town's charter trustees.

The green shield and golden wheatsheaf recall that the area was until recently agricultural in nature. Across the centre of the shield is a length of chain. This refers to the five villages of Crosby, Scunthorpe, Frodingham, Brumby & Ashby linking together as one. At the top of the shield are two fossils of the species gryphoea incurva. These remains of oysters, known as the "devil's toenails", were found in the rock strata from which ironstone was quarried. The crest, on top of the helm, shows a blast furnace. This is also referred to in the Latin motto: Refulget labores nostros coelo or The heavens reflect our labours popularly attributed to the glow observed in the night sky from the steelmaking activities.[7]

Modern industry

Molten Steel Spill

The steel industry is still the major employer in the area and the largest operator within it is the Indian-owned firm Corus. However the industry has shrunk in recent years, following the closure of the Normanby Park works (also known as Lysaght's) and the huge Redbourne complex in the early 1980s; the number employed in the industry fell from 27,000 at its' height to around 3,000 today.

Other industries in the town include those associated with the steelworks such as engineering, along with food production, distribution and retailing.

Education

North Lincolnshire, unlike its neighbour Lincolnshire, has comprehensive education. Brumby Engineering College is on Cemetery Road. The Foxhills School Technology College on Foxhills Road is in the north of the town near Crosby. High Ridge School Specialist Sports College is on Doncaster Road near Scunthorpe General Hospital. South Leys Business & Enterprise College is on Enderby Road, which is in Riddings. This establishment is soon to be merged with Thomas Sumpter School (see following listing) in a brand-new £15m building, which North Lincolnshire Council claims will free up huge amounts of cash for education in the area. Thomas Sumpter Comprehensive School [3] is on Chandos Road to the east of the town. Frederick Gough School, a Specialist Language College on Grange Lane South, is to the south of the town in Bottesford. St.Bede's Catholic School is a specialist mathematics and computing collage, which is owned by the Catholic Church. It is the highest achieving school in the area. The John Leggott Sixth-Form College (JLC) is on West Common Lane. Close by is the North Lindsey College is on Kingsway (A18). Also primary education is served by a number of Infant, Junior and Primary schools, Leys Farm Junior School being one of them on Park Avenue in Bottesford.

Shopping

Scunthorpe enjoys relatively good shopping facilities, with both the uncovered Foundry shopping centre and the part-covered Parishes centre. The former was constructed in the late 1960s/early 1970s during a wholesale reconstruction of the old town; the latter was constructed in the early part of this decade on the site of the town's old bus station.

However the size of the retail units reflects the size of the area's population and with larger shopping facilities within reasonable travelling distance in Grimsby, Hull, Doncaster, Lincoln and at Meadowhall, Sheffield many locals often travel to these towns for major purchases. Retail parks can be found near the football stadium and the steelworks.

All the big food retailers are represented in the area; There is a Tesco Extra opposite the football ground while Sainsbury's have their store on the site of the old football ground. Morrisons have a store at Mortal Ash Hill, on the eastern entrance to the town while Asda's are planning to open a second store at a site off Glebe Road [citation needed]. There is a rather paltry Discount Pet Warehouse on Warren Road near the AMF Bowling Center, which is over-shadowed somewhat by the glorious Pets At Home Superstore.

Sport

The town is known for its football team, Scunthorpe United (nicknamed 'The Iron') at Glanford Park. For most of its existence in the professional game (since 1950) it has been in the basement league of the English game.

However, they won promotion to the current League One (The third tier of English football) at the end of the 2004/2005 season, and for the first time in recent history, retained that spot by finishing 12th in the 05/06 season.

Following an amazing season in league one 2006/07 Scunthorpe United were promoted to the second tier of English football for only the second time in their history. The last time this feat was achieved was over 40 years ago. They were promoted following a 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town on 14th April 2007.

Scunthorpe also have a Speedway team known as the Scunthorpe Scorpions who compete in the British Conference League The Speedway team have been running since 2005 and won the Conference League in 2006

The Scunthorpe problem

In 1996 there was controversy when AOL's obscenity filter (among others) refused to accept the name of the town due to its inclusion of the substring cunt, which the filter rejected as obscene. Some online forums display the name as S****horpe, while Fark.com would display it as Scoonthorpe. This situation is known in the computing world as the Scunthorpe Problem.

Trivia

The Mancunian-born writer Ted Lewis, who lived in nearby Barton-upon-Humber, featured the town in some of his novels about low-life 1960's gangster Jack Carter. The most famous of these books, Jack's Return Home saw the main character return to his home-town of Scunthorpe from London to avenge his brother's death. The story itself was based on the background to the real-life murder of Newcastle businessman Angus Sibbet in 1967, in what was known as the Fruit Machine Murder.

The film rights to this book where purchased by MGM who ironically transferred the setting from Scunthorpe to Newcastle-upon-Tyne and released the film in 1971 as the cult British crime thriller Get Carter, starring Michael Caine in the lead role. However none of the production was shot in the area, it being filmed entirely on location in Tyneside.

In a recent survey circa April 2007, Scunthorpe was voted the 8th worst place to raise a family in the UK

Persons of note from Scunthorpe (and surrounds)

In alphabetical order by surname.

  • Ian Botham, cricketer also used to play football for Scunthorpe United
  • Kevin Keegan, former England Manager also played for Scunthorpe United in his early days
  • Ian Huntley, murderer born in Grimsby, lived in a rented flat in the town with his girlfriend Maxine Carr for a short period [8]

Twinned municipalities

  • Scunthorpe hosts an excellant youth club known as the base which is situated in church square near the bus station. Rock festivals are held there often. The Metal Band Infernaux formed here. You can find Infernaux at Infernaux's Myspace


References

  1. ^ Rowland Winn (1820-1893)
  2. ^ Youngs, F.A., Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol. II, London 1991
  3. ^ The Humberside (Structural Change) Order 1995 (1995 No. 600 ) [1]
  4. ^ The Charter Trustees Regulations 1996 (1996 No. 263 ) [2]
  5. ^ Letters Patent dated September 25, 1936
  6. ^ The Local Authorities (Armorial Bearings) Order 1974 (1974 No.869)
  7. ^ Scott-Giles, C.W., Civic Heraldry of England and Wales, 2nd edition, London, 1953
  8. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/soham/story/0,,1108830,00.html
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