There are a couple of aerial images which were taken after the works closed in 1930, possibly taken on the same occasion.
220ft chimney that overshadowed the town for years has already gone. It was the first structure to go.
The shell of the boiler house has gone, exposing a line of four Stirling and ten Lancashire boilers.
Gas cleaning plant from about 1903.
Blower House resembles two separate buildings aligned in a T shape. The roof top water tanks are empty and there are a series of vertical chimneys for exhaust steam from the blowers.
Redundant chimney from the steelworks.
Mystery vessel. This looks like an additional Ford and Mancur stove but it is not accounted for in the 8 hot blast stoves that were listed in the closing down sale.
3a furnace 1500 tons per week capacity. Bucket hoist
2a furnace 1500 tons per week capacity. Bucket hoist
1b furnace 2500 tons per week capacity. Skip hoist.
10 High Line. The railway tracks and steelwork have already been removed.
Ponds, which might already have drained away by this time.
There were fifty internal wagons included in the sale and there are about fifty visible.
A line of coke wagons, at least forty.
A Cupola Furnace for melting iron. There was a bridge between the high line and the loading platform of the Cupola, which eased charging of coke, iron ore,and limestone. It most likely served to melt pig iron for steelmaking (and may never have been used).
Evidently there are more wagons in sight than the fifty sold on closure. There are more visible within the works internal system. Perhaps those at (12) belonged to the railway company and were just being stored or formed part of demolition activities.
Lancashire Boilers.
Works entrance and General Office (with bell tower on the roof) which still stands today.
Cooling pond (1915)
Remains of two wooden cooling towers.
Site of the steelworks already being colonised by nature. The back wall survives along Warton Road. The original row of houses "Bessemer Terrace" was here. It was demolished to make way for the steelworks.
That mystery vessel.
Carcase of the gas cleaning plant has been removed, revealing the internal equipment.
Workshops
Warton Road and the present day F&MJR curve leading to Leeds via the former Midland Railway. In 1868 the Furness Railway built a short branch in to the works along the alignment shown. In 1880 it was abandoned when the F&MJR curve was built.
This layout of the works is useful in showing the slag ladle tracks, two serving each furnace.
The two chimneys, three furnaces and eight stoves are all easy to pick out.