Round Oak Steelworks

The Round Oak Steelworks were an important steel production plant in Brierley Hill, West Midlands (formerly Staffordshire), England. It was founded by Lord Ward, later the Earl of Dudley in 1857 as an outlet for pig iron made in the nearby blast furnaces. During the Industrial Revolution, the majority of iron-making in the world was carried out within 32 kilometres of Round Oak. At their peak, thousands of people were employed at the works. The steelworks was the first in the United Kingdom to be converted to natural gas, which was supplied from the North Sea. [cite book|author=ProQuest Information and Learning Company|title=The Engineer|publisher=Morgan-Grampian|location=London]

In 1953, the steelworks was purchased by Tube Investments.cite book|author=Ronald Stanley Edwards|coauthors=Harry Townsend|title=Business enterprise: Its Growth and Organisation|year=1958|publisher=St. Martin's Press|location=New York] In September 1966, the 3½ mile long railway between the steelworks and Baggeridge closed. [cite book|author=David St John Thomas|coauthors=J Allan Patmore|title=A regional history of the railways of Great Britain|year=1973|publisher=David & Charles|location=Newton Abbot|isbn=0715362089] By the 1970s, the factory's viability and profitability began to decline due a fall in demand for its products. It finally closed in December 1982 and brought high levels of unemployment to the local area. [cite book|author=W. G. M. Salet|coauthors=Anton Kreukels, Andy Thornley|title=Metropolitan Governance and Spatial Planning: Comparative Case Studies of European City-Regions|year=2003|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=0415274486] Demolition work took place shortly afterwards.

The farmland which stood in the shadow of Round Oak Steelworks was designated by the Government as an Enterprise Zone in 1981.cite book|author=Patrick Keiller|title=Robinson in Space|year=1999|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=1861890281] Between 1985 and 1989 was developed as the Merry Hill Shopping Centre by Don and Roy Richardson. It brought thousands of jobs to the local area and spearheaded a region-wide transition from manufacturing to services as the key employer of local workers.

The first businesses did not move onto the steelworks site until 1990, when the Copthorne Hotel was opened. A former warehouse on the site has been converted into a pub, the Brewer's Wharf.

Despite the closure of the works in 1982, a steel terminal was opened on the adjacent railway in August 1986 and is still in use.

References

*cite book|author=Collie Knox|title=Steel at Brierley Hill : the story of Round Oak Steel Works, 1857-1957|year=1957|publisher=Newman Neame|location=Manchester