Consett Steel works from the air c.1975


The Fell Coke Works and Consett Iron Works, Consett, 1929 1929

From 1840 the Derwent Iron Company transformed the hamlet of Conside with a population of 195 into the iron and steel town of Consett with a population of 4,953 recorded in 1841. By 1875 the works were owned by the Consett Iron Company which employed up to 6,000 men and was by a long way the largest producer of iron ship plates used in the ship building yards of the Rivers Tyne and Wear.

By 1923 the site as shown on the ordnance survey map had grown to cover some 45 hectares (112 acres). Economic pressures eventually lead to the plants closure and total demolition in 1980. Today the site has been totally reclaimed leaving little if any trace of the industrial past.