Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 20777 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| GJERS MILLS IRONWORKS DEMOLITION | 1967 | 1967-01-01 |
|
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 13 mins 42 secs Genre: Industrial Subject: Steel Industry Architecture |
| Summary This film looks at the demolition of Gjers Mills Ironworks (Ayresome Ironworks), one of many of the large ironworks that were operating along the Tees at Middlesbrough during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. |
|
Description
This film looks at the demolition of Gjers Mills Ironworks (Ayresome Ironworks), one of many of the large ironworks that were operating along the Tees at Middlesbrough during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
Opening shot of a wildflower meadow but is in fact the remains of an industrial landscape around the now defunct Ayresome Ironworks.
The shot moves upwards to show the old works and pans right to reveal to old winding wheels on the ground. At the top of some...
This film looks at the demolition of Gjers Mills Ironworks (Ayresome Ironworks), one of many of the large ironworks that were operating along the Tees at Middlesbrough during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
Opening shot of a wildflower meadow but is in fact the remains of an industrial landscape around the now defunct Ayresome Ironworks.
The shot moves upwards to show the old works and pans right to reveal to old winding wheels on the ground. At the top of some steel pillars are other winding wheels, this structure could be one of the furnace hoists. Geoffrey Watson from the local museum inspects parts of the site.
Other views show old blast furnaces, railway lines, and other discarded or dismantled equipment. Geoffrey Watson inspects an old iron mine barrow that presumably was used to carry iron ore to the furnaces.
A general view shows three blast furnaces due for demolition. The camera pans right to show a small green railway engine with the letters TWW on a yellow background. The engine belongs to Thomas W. Ward, a demolition and scrap firm from Sheffield who are carrying out the demolition.
The film shows the bases of some of the old furnaces at the point where the molten iron was tapped.
A bulldozer removes spoil from the base of one of the blast furnaces.
Explosives are used to demolish half of what appears to be an old storage silo. The explosion takes place, and the film ends showing a pile of rubble.
[Ayresome Ironworks was located on what is now the riverside park area of Middlesbrough. Riverside Park Road is on roughly the position the ironworks occupied. Ayresome Wharf is still marked on maps of the River Tees.]
Context
Gjers, Mills and Co. Limited Ayresome Iron Works on West Marsh in Middlesbrough was founded in 1870 by John Gjers, Mr. Mills and Mr. Emerson. Gjers was a Swedish engineer, a native of Gothenberg, who came to England in 1851 for the 1851 Exhibition, and initially took up a position as assistant blast furnace manager at Ormesby Ironworks in 1854, later becoming the manager. In 1862, Gjers became manager of the Tees Side Ironworks of Messrs Hopkins & Co. In this position, he had a reputation...
Gjers, Mills and Co. Limited Ayresome Iron Works on West Marsh in Middlesbrough was founded in 1870 by John Gjers, Mr. Mills and Mr. Emerson. Gjers was a Swedish engineer, a native of Gothenberg, who came to England in 1851 for the 1851 Exhibition, and initially took up a position as assistant blast furnace manager at Ormesby Ironworks in 1854, later becoming the manager. In 1862, Gjers became manager of the Tees Side Ironworks of Messrs Hopkins & Co. In this position, he had a reputation as a blast furnace engineer, and also designed a new plant alongside the existing works, to be called the Linthorpe Ironworks. After further designs of blast furnaces for other firms, which were manually charged by being hoisted to charging platforms, in 1870 he began designing the building of Ayresome Ironworks (depicted within this film), which had a private wharf on the River Tees. The blast furnaces at these ironworks were the last hand charged furnaces in the north of Britain.
This film was produced as a record of the closed Ayresome Iron Works and its demolition in 1967. The gentleman in a suit wandering around the site, and carefully examining a hefty metal wheelbarrows used by the workers to load the charge into the blast furnaces, is thought to be Geoffrey Watson, Curator at the Dorman Museum, Middlesbrough. One of the wheelbarrows is still on exhibition at the museum. Iron making has a history within Middlesbrough that dates to the 1840s and 1850s. In 1840, John Vaughan was iron works manager at Walker on Tyne, and became business partners with Henry Bolckow, a German accountant that settled in Newcastle. They created Bolckow & Vaughan Co. In the same year, they were sold land in Middlesbrough starting off the company’s ironworks. Further along in 1851, the first blast furnace that was created on Teesside was built in Middlesbrough. In 1866, The West Marsh was incorporated into the new town of Middlesbrough, and was an area of developing industrial use. Within the next few years, 26 blast furnaces, 4 puddling furnace plants, and three steelworks were built, including the Ayresome Ironworks. By 1874, Middlesbrough was producing one third of the nation’s iron output, and was the number one iron town in England. It’s astounding that roughly 95 blast furnaces existed within Middlesbrough at this time. In 1967, there was a merger between differing companies, such as Dorman Long, South Durham Steel and Iron Company, and Stewarts and Lloyds, which became part of the British Steel Corporation. References: JAMES, STEPHEN (2013) Growth and Transition in the Cleveland Iron and Steel Industry, 1850 to 1914, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6957/ Harrison, J K and Almond, J K, Industrial Archaeology in Cleveland – A Guide (Cleveland County Libraries on behalf of the Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society, 1978) Harrison, J K, John Gjers: Ironmaster, Ayresome Ironworks, Middlesbrough https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1908_Iron_and_Steel_Institute:_Visits_to_Works https://englandsnortheast.co.uk/1950to1969.html |
