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A clever sketch by someone of a Zeppelin raid over Skinningrove Ironworks, anyone know the origins of this sketch? We have been offered the suggestion (by Derick Pearson) that S. Grayson may have been the creator of this particular postcard, does anybody have any update on that. John
Taken in 1933 this shows the brick wheel and the work force on the steel works. The purpose of the brick wheel was to make bricks from molten blast furnace slag, many of these bricks can be found in most back alleys. Eic Jonson supplies the following brief description of brickmaking: ”the slag was brought from the furnaces in slag ladles adapted with a tap hole. a chute was placed between this and led down to the wheel moulds. the making of slag bricks was a very labour intensive operation, once started was continuous, hard hot work. the wheel was a steel circular construction, with the steel moulds round the perimeter they had a hinged bottom held with a catch. this can be all be seen in the photo. the wheel was driven by a geared electric motor with hand operated backup. as the slag ran down the chute into the moulds, the wheel rotated, the filled moulds cooled down and at a point near the kilns, the catch was struck the hinged bottom opened the hot brick fell to the ground. It was picked up with the large “gripes”. some of the men can be seen holding in photo, carried to the kilns and stacked inside, when full the kiln was closed. as the kiln was already hot from the previous batch the working conditions for the men can be imagined.” Second man front right is Harry Dack from Carlin How anyone know any more of the men here? (photo courtesy of Derick Pearson and updates from Robert Proctor and Eric Johnson)
Taken in the 1950’s the iron and steel works were at full production and covered a large area. The 4 large chimneys are the exhaust chimneys for the furnaces on the melting shop, on the cliff edge can be seen No. 5 Blast Furnace.
…in a place appropriately called the Stripping Sheds. The numbers on the moulds provide traceability to the cast from which the steel was made (probably the pot too). From here the ingots went to the Soaking Pits to be kept at an even temperature ready for Cogging. Thanks to Derick for spotting an error in the original post, but on going back to the image file we have discovered the ingot size to be 4.75 tons.
A fairly modern view of Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works from the Hummersea Cliff road. No. 5 Blast Furnace in evidence – and under that water tower on the cliff edge was the Day Laboratory where I spent my formative years, learning my trade under the watchful eyes (and ears) of ”Effie” Brown, Harry Burnley, Harry Grange and Norman Dale.
Well that is what it says on the back of the photo along with ’pre war’ and the names of those in the picture are Lenny Calvert, Ernie Johnson, Charlie Vodden and Tot Porrit. (image courtesy of Kathleen Hicks)
Tom Codling is standing on the left of this group. Stan Bowman kneeling on right. Who are the rest, and believed to have been taken outside the talbots laboratories Skinningrove Works? (Image courtesy of Mrs. J. Wilson. Thanks to Eric Johnson for the update.)
A picture taken without the benefit of flash and against the internal lighting, it still shows the Gas Turbine-driven alternator and in the background those beautiful Gas Motors that used to thud out night and day! This was a most beautiful building inside and although the picture doesn’t show it very well, the whole of the back wall was covered in 1900’s instrumentation. The floor was red earthenware tiles and there was lots of Victorian/Edwardian woodwork. I used to collect water samples from the feeds that were just as you came into the building, behind the photographer (who is on the balcony), walk along the tiled floor, past these monsters and out through the door within a door within the huge doors to sample the water in the brick outside reservoir tanks every morning for about six or seven months – it was a time capsule!
Here is a picture that is familiar to me, a train of slag wagons tipping their loads at the Tarmac Roadstone Plant on Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works. One wagon is already being tipped while the others wait their turn. Reg Dunning’s father worked the Bucyrus crane that fed the crusher plant that produced roadstone, that was transported in Tarmac Roadstone lorries, which my father-in-law used to service and maintain.
This is the cutting to go with the previous image. As usual the Gazette writer has forgotten that without the Steel Works ”scar” there would be no villages, just a group of farms and outbuildings, and the coastal outline would have changed dramatically due to coastal erosion (Skinningrove used to tip slag over the cliff edge at Cattersty) and he wouldn’t be talking about the new Finishing Department anyway! (image courtesy of Colin Hart) (cutting copyright Evening Gazette) |
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