An archive for all to explore

The British Steel Collection, a £1.6 million joint archival project between the University and Teesside Archives, has been launched.

Included in the Collection are the original plans for the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge, images showing the construction of the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland, the Auckland Harbour Bridge in New Zealand and the Bangkok Memorial Bridge in Thailand.

In total, the Collection contains over 600 feet of unsorted material drawn from over 40 iron and steel companies active in the Teesside area between the 1840s and the 1970s. This material has until now been virtually inaccessible to the public.

A vast variety of sources for the public The Collection was gifted to Teesside Archives by Corus in the 1990s and remained unexplored due to a lack of resources until a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) bid was devised last year by the University and the Archives. The bid was successful, with the HLF awarding a grant of £250,000 which, together with other funding raised, will allow the Collection to be explored, conserved and catalogued and provide a vast variety of sources for the general public. 

Speakers will include Corus’ Managing Director Jon Bolton, the University of Teesside’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Henderson and Dr Joan Heggie, Project Manager of the British Steel Archive Project.

Dr Heggie said: ‘This Collection belongs to the people of the Tees Valley and tells the story of how the iron and steel industries shaped the growth of Teesside. It emphasises the historical importance and influence of this region both nationally and around the world.

A sense of pride and identity ‘This project will build on the sense of pride and identity which already exists in this area and give the people of Teesside and the wider public the opportunity to become involved, thereby shaping how the Collection will be used in the future. Everyone in the team has worked very hard to make this happen and now we can begin to put the plans into action.’

Guests will include representatives from the business community, sponsors and groups who wish to access the Collection. In addition, national and local government will be represented, including Vera Baird QC, MP for Redcar, Dr Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland and Councillor Victor Tumilty (Hartlepool BC), Chairman of the Teesside Archives Management Committee.

The Collection has already attracted international interest from Professor Yasumoto of Komazawa University in Toyko, Japan, who is researching the development of the iron and steel industries in nineteenth century Middlesbrough. Also, Caroline Mackaness from the Historic Houses Trust in Sydney, Australia and editor of the book ‘Bridging Sydney’, which marked the 75th anniversary of the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, has been in touch with Dr Heggie to lend her support to the project.

For more information, visit the British Steel Collection website

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