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Scunthorpe history

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Scunthorpe’s Indutrial Past

Scunthorpe is an ancient town, recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Escumetorp, which means “Skuma's homestead” in Old Norse. Scunthorpe is also known as the “Industrial Garden Town”. The town has a long and rich industrial history.

Ironstone has been mined here from as far back as the time of the Romans but this industry floundered, until it was revived again in the nineteeth century when, in 1859, Rowland Winn and his father rediscovered iron ore on their land. It is mainly thanks to this rediscovery that Scunthorpe developed its iron and steel industries and that the population expanded rapidly.

Iron ore was originally mined in Scunthorpe in 1860. As the town had no railway at the time, the ore was then sent to Gunness (otherwise known as Gunhouse) wharf. From there, a narrow-gauge railway took it away to Keadby to be distributed by barges or the main railway line.

Winn realized that a railway had to be built if the town’s iron ore reserves were to be fully exploited. So, after his tireless campaigning, construction on a railway started in 1860 and finished in 1864. Winn also talked the Dawes brothers, who wanted the ore for their ironworks, into building an ironworks right beside the Scunthorpe iron ore fields, bringing more jobs to the area. Several other ironworks were built during the nineteenth century and the final one to be built,  John Lysaght’s Iron and Steelworks was begun in 1911.

Even Lincolnshire’s coat of arms reflects the importance of ironworks to the county. Its motto “Refulget labores nostros coelum”, or “The heavens reflect our labours” in English, is a reference to the glowing in the sky from historic steelmaking activities when it grew dark.


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