Llanwern Steelworks was opened by Richard Thomas and Baldwin's Ltd as the Spencer works named after named after H F Spencer, managing director at the time. When it was completed in 1962 the plant was the first oxygen-blown integrated steelworks in Britain. Richard Thomas and Baldwin's was britains largest steel maker which had been Nationalised in 1951 long before the rest of the steel industry which joined the company in goverment ownership to form British Steel in 1967. Llanwern was one of three huge steel works which made up the south wales division of british steel but when it joined with the dutch steel giant Koninklijke Hoogovens to form Corus the new company had excess production capacity and the search was on for steelworks to close. Llanwern was protected for a while by the companies cheif executive John Bryant eho had supported the Welsh Steel industry investing in new blast furnaces at Port Talbot and Llanwern however the new furnace at Llanwern had not realised the expected return on the investment so when he resigned Llanwern found itself on the choping block and Steel production ceased on the site in 2001 with the loss of 3000 jobs the furaces ect were demolished in 2004 . The Plants remaining facilities included a hot strip mill, a cold strip mill, and a hot dip galvanising line processing 2 million tonnes of steel coil for automotive, construction industries. But with the global down turn hitting both of the plants target industries, In January 2009 Corus announced that it was mothballing the hot strip mill, with the loss of over 500 jobs.
Excellent explore with Immortal owl never expected you could just walk in to a steelworks, Scores 3.5 on the Sinnerman scale again no nography brings down the score infact not a lot of any relics but the industrial vastness and the adrenaline rush of walking about in a semi live plant dodging workers made up for it. We were very lucky on the way in there are cctv cameras inside the building hidden behind little windows cut in the walls so the couldnt be seen from outside, We found them completly powered up like the rest of the plant and saw how close our route in was to the field of vision of three cameras pheeew. Quite a different experience wandering round a plant where the panels are all lit the electrics humming away and there are loud puffs of steam being vented every now and again. anyway here's the pics. and to sum up the place F'in Huge makes Stantons look tiny the cranes are at least 1 and a half times bigger than the mahoosive crane at Stantons.
Poor attempt at a pano the place is huge.
Disused line up of Crucible transporters look like they havent moved in 10 years or more There modern replacements were hanging about as well.
The Pre Processed Pickle Plant
The Hot Rolling Mill
Control room decommisioned when steel working ceased in 2001 and the pre pickle plant became a glorified loading bay for the slab plant
Signalman or Banksmans flags