After leaving work I headed up to see my girlfriend and a few days later ended up sat on the beach next to the pier just below this site.
You can see the chimney from miles around but it’s the various tanks that catch your eye when you visit the site, shame that some of them are half filled with fridges/baths/mattresses and other sh*te.
After wandering around for an hour we walked down to see a security cabin on the site with a 4x4 Pajero/Shogun parked beside it, we didn’t pay too much attention to this as a group of locals walked straight past them.
After looking at the drains running out to the sea we headed back towards the car via the chimney, with the ladders looking sketchy and with one single rope hanging down I set out looking for more rope and then threw a brick&rope parcel through the rungs of the ladders. After a small struggle and the navigation of the sketchy metal walkways I had taken a few photographs and had made my way back down covered in dirt...
History;
‘Steetley Magnesite is also known as Hartlepool Magnesia Works and Palliser Works and is located in Hartlepool.
Originally known as The Steetley Lime and Building Stone Company it was named after the small village of Steetley which is located in Nottinghamshire.
New processes in the steel industry in the mid 18th century had caused the company to change direction. In 1937 the 24 acre coastal site at Hartlepool was purchased. £10,000 was invested in building a similar plant which was known as the Palliser Works made up from some of the fortifications left over from the first World War. The British Periclase Company was drafted in to build and operate a full scale magnesite plant.
In 1939, World War II was underway, Hartlepool was the only source of magnesite available to Britain and it was marketed under the brand name of Britmag. The demand for the magnesite was huge, war production of steel expanded tremendously and the expansion of the Hartlepool site was of paramount importance.
In the early 1960's its capacity was increased yet again with new settling tanks and a 2,000ft pier built to provide fresh seawater to the plant. This helped the company to produce roughly 250,000 tonnes a year, much of this was high quality grade Magnesia.
In the 1980's, recession hit the steel industry hard with many companies collapsing. The Steetley company met a similar fate and was finally bought out by Redland Plc in 1992. They ran the plant at Hartlepool for about five years until it was sold in 1997. The new company called Britmag could not compete after this and went into administration in 2002. A solution was found to keep the plant open and the company CJC Chemicals was born but they closed the plant in 2005’
Steetley Chimney Video
It’s a shame the pier had been split but it looked like fishermen were having a small fire about ¾’s of the way down.
Massive thanks to my girlfriend for coming with me and being a rubbish co-driver, Gone...
Last edited:
