Ravenscraig steelworks

The Ravenscraig steelworks, operated by Colvilles and from 1967 by British Steel Corporation, consisted of an integrated iron and steel works and a hot strip steel mill. They were located in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Motherwell was noted as the steel production capital of Scotland, nicknamed Steelopolis. Its skyline was dominated by the gas holder and three cooling towers of the Ravenscraig steel plant which closed in 1992. The Ravenscraig plant had one of the longest continuous casting, hot rolling, steel production facilities in the world before it was decommissioned. Construction of the integrated iron and steel works started in 1954. The steel mill, which was built shortly after, was one of four in the United Kingdom. In 1992, when it closed down, it was the largest hot strip steel mill in Western Europe.

The former steelworks and strip mill have now been cleared, and the site is in the process of becoming the new town of Ravenscraig.

On 15 February 1951, as a result of the Iron and Steel Act 1949, the nationalised Scottish iron and steel companies came under the ownership of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain. However, a change of Government and the passing of the Iron and Steel Act 1953, gradually returned the former nationalised Iron and Steel companies to their original owners. This was to be achieved via the Iron and Steel Holding and Realisation Agency, which was charged with creating an efficient industry.Stewarts & Lloyds was returned to its former owners in 1954; and Colvilles in 1955. Shortages of strip steel led to the need to increase the capacity for producing strip steel and tin plate, the first strip mill in Great Britain having been opened at Ebbw Vale in the late 1930s.

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