A lasting legacy for Middlesbrough’s iconic era

A fascinating image-based book detailing the history of Middlesbrough’s iconic iron and steel industry has been put together by a Teesside University academic.

Dr Joan Heggie, a Research Fellow in the School of Social Sciences & Law, has spent years carefully analysing and researching thousands of images from the British Steel Collection, an extensive archive of photographs, maps, ledgers, deeds and other documents relating to the area’s iron and steel industry, which is held at Teesside Archives in Middlesbrough.

Her book, Middlesbrough’s Iron and Steel Industry, contains almost 200 images dating from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s. Some of the images, however, are prints of older photographs and date back much further to the early days of the industry on Teesside.

The book illustrates the development of the industry along the Rivers Tees, from the old Ironmasters’ District, through Port Clarence, North Ormesby and Cargo Fleet, down to South Bank, Grangetown and Eston. All the images have been painstakingly digitised and each photograph also contains a detailed description written by Dr Heggie.

'A lot of time and effort has been invested in this book and there is a great sense of achievement now it is finished,' said Dr Heggie, who was the British Steel Archive Project Manager from 2008 to 2011.

'The photographs paint a picture of what the industry and the area looked like and allows people to reminisce as well as learn something new - I think that is important.'

Middlesbrough’s Iron and Steel Industry is published by Amberley Publishing and, as well as paperback, is also available as an e-book, which opens up Middlesbrough’s heritage to people from around the world.

Dr Heggie added: 'This has been a fascinating project to work on. I don’t come from this area and when I first started looking into the industry it was all new to me. In a way that helped, as I did not have any pre-conceived ideas and had to go and find everything out for myself.'

So does Dr Heggie have a favourite image from the book? 'I don’t think I do – every single photograph in the book is unique and tells a special story about the heritage of this area.

'The photographs were all chosen, not just on the quality of the image, but because of the significant information they provide about the industry, the area, the people and the companies of this era. They can be looked at time and time again and each time you discover something new.'

Middlesbrough’s Iron and Steel Industry is available now from good bookshops. To purchase a copy online, www.amazon.co.uk or www.bookdepository.co.uk

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