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1930'S view of works down at Aldwarke
How long has there been Thrybergh Steel
? Well the name has been in use for several centuries, if I say four hundred
years some of you may shake your head in disbelief , non the less I recently
found the following.
On the 2nd September 1667 there was an Assignment by Charles Tucker of
Rotherham, gent. to Robert Harrison of Richmond, a yeoman, and Robert
Harrison the younger of Handsworth Woodhouse, also a yeoman reciting a lease
to Tucker by Sir John Reresby of Thriburgh, bart. on the10th January 1663/4
of all the water course which was lately used for a steel mill or forge
called Thriburgh Steele Forge formerly in the tenure of Charles Tucker,
father of Charles together with the mill or site of the mill, for a term of
21 years provided that Reresby's corn mill shall have priority of water in
times of scarcity and that the walk mill has priority when there is cloth in
the stocks at a rent of £10 10s.
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The old Thrybergh Rolling Mill in the 1960's developed the
Worlds first internal welding technique used for manufacturing stainless
steel tubing. Prior to this Tubing was rolled and welded externally which
meant that the weld then had to be ground and polished to leave a smooth
finish. With the internal weld no grinding was required.
At the same time the development of a stainless steel tube
that could be bent by the use of a plumbers bending spring was introduced,
which also could be soldered similar to copper tube. The Thrybergh rolling
Mill was probably the Worlds most advanced rolling mill for a number of
Years
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Along with coal mining
the local steelworks were major employers of the local community, and still
are to an extent. However with the collapse of British Steel a lot of people
found themselves unemployed. Here is an extract from a Parliament debate
regarding the issue at the time featuring two local M.P.S
Mr. John Healey (Wentworth): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for
Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) on securing the debate, and on arguing his case so
powerfully. He brings a worldwide view to the subject. I cannot compete with
that, so I shall not try. Instead, I want to examine the local scene and
make a plea to the Minister for practical help in dealing with some of the
fallout of the problems that my hon. Friend outlined.
The British Steel Engineering Steels plant in Alwarke is in my constituency,
as is the Thrybergh rolling mill. Many constituents also work at Kvaerner
and Avesta and in other small steel plants throughout Rotherham and
Sheffield. They feel a growing sense of dismay and desperation. They are
doing all they can, often led by their union, to help their companies
succeed and to become internationally competitive, but the firms are then
hit by forces well beyond their control.
Steve Shaw is typical. He lives in Rawmarsh in my constituency, and works at
Avesta in Sheffield. He, the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation branch
secretary and other colleagues have been heavily involved in work force and
management partnerships in the past five years to introduce new shift
patterns, new working teams and new levels of productivity and
profitability. However, in the summer, as my hon. Friend the Member for
Rotherham said, the firm announced plans to close the mill and move the
Sheffield order book to Sweden with the loss of 100 jobs and 100 family
incomes.
I regret to say that Avesta is only one of a string of steel companies
instituting closures and cuts. Even BSES, a world-class and internationally
competitive company, is reducing capacity. However, it is still holding on
to its work force, still investing and still looking to the upturn, but the
danger lies with downstream companies in South Yorkshire. It lies with the
damage that is already in the system but which is still to work through.
Supply chains are long, especially in engineering steels.
The local challenge is to do what we can to help people living with the
threat of redundancy. In Rotherham, we have pragmatism and resilience, and a
proud track record of partnership involving organisations responding to such
problems. That has been the root of our recent regeneration efforts, and it
is the reason that we want pathfinder area status for Rotherham and the
pilot scheme for the new deal for the over-25s.
Although I welcome the efforts of the Minister and his colleagues to set up
a rapid response team in the Department of Trade and Industry, and while I
applaud the efforts of similar rapid response teams in the borders and in
the north-east to deal with large-scale company closures, Rotherham already
has such an operation in place. It has an effective partnership to tackle
the immediate problems of retraining and resettlement for steel workers who
are losing their jobs.
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TODAY
Today there still is a giant presence in the steel production at Thrybergh
and Aldwarke. Corus Engineering Steels In 1999 British Steel and Koninklijke
Hoogovens merged to create one of the world’s largest and most capable metal
manufacturing and service organisations - Corus. Corus is a metals
manufacturer. Corus produced around 20mt of crude steel in 2000, which
represented approximately 12% of total EU production and positioned the
Group as Europe’s fourth largest steel producer. The group produces carbon
steel by the basic oxygen steelmaking method at five major steelworks
However in a article 2003 was this disturbing news in the Sheffield Star.
700 STEEL JOBS AXED
Seven hundred workers are to lose their jobs at two South Yorkshire
steelworks. Crisis-hit Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus is to axe 350 jobs at
its Stocksbridge plant that employs 920 people and is to end a long history
of steelmaking in the town. A further 350 jobs will be lost at Corus's
Rotherham (Thrybergh) works, which employs 1,470 people with the closure of
the Roundwood Bar Mill. MPs from across the county have lash/d out at the
decision and have vowed to fight the redundancies. Corus have said that
steelmaking and hot rolling at the Stocksbridge plant will stop "in due
course". Corus is shutting down its 150-tonne furnace along with the plant's
continuous billet caster and primary rolling facilities at Stocksbridge but
it plans to continue making hi-tech aerospace steels, feeding its steel
remelting and refinishing furnaces with ingots made in Rotherham. Corus
currently makes straight bar and coiled bar steels on different mills in
Rotherham, but, following the closure of Roundwood, both types of bar will
be processed by the Thrybergh bar mill. Corus is also closing its Tipton
mill in the West Midlands with the loss of a further 90 jobs. Corus has more
than 100 sites across the UK and Stocksbridge is the seventh largest. At one
time, the plant employed over 7,000 people
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memories of the steel industry here |
