A history book examining the relationship between the steel industry, the pits and the railways has been published by a former Consett steelworker. Gavin Havery met Garry O’Hagan, author of The Conside Trilogy.

IT is more than 30 years since the last steel was tapped in the former industrial town synonymous with the cloud of red dust that once loomed over it.

The airborne iron oxide has cleared and no evidence of the steelworks remains but locals are still passionate about their industrial heritage.

Garry O’Hagan, 68, who is originally from Stanley, worked in the electrical department of the steelworks in the mid-Seventies.

He said: “This is possibly the only book which combines all of the Consett Iron Company’s activities “It covers the growth of the company from its inception as the Derwent Iron Company, right the way through to its demise in 1980.”

The Company, as it is known in Consett, was founded in 1840, three years after Queen Victoria began her 64- year reign.

The town grew around the works as people were attracted to the area to find employment.

Steelmaking and the associated industries became part of the townsfolk’s everyday lives.

Mr O’Hagan, who has four grandchildren in Australia, where he now lives most of the time, said: “It was a progressive company which owned collieries in the area, which in turn supplied the coal required to make coke for the steel-making process.

“There was also the need to get the raw materials in and the finished products out, so that was where the railways came in. Any one of those three parts was dependent on the other two.

“The Conside Trilogy, which is what Consett was called in those early days, Conside-cum-Knitsley, is a combination of those three elements and follows their development from the start.”

The formation of the Derwent Iron Company was based on the discovery of local iron ore by Victorian entrepreneurs.

When this had been exhausted they brought it in from Cumberland and then Cleveland, before rising prices made them look further afield to the Basque region of Spain.

Mr O’Hagan, an electrical engineer who has worked around the world, but still has a house in Annfield Plain, said: “Without the formation of the Derwent Iron Company, there would not be a Consett.

“It would be a small village dependent on who knows what. When they took the steelworks out, it had a devastating effect on the area.

“I hope this book will be a tribute to all of the people who worked there and those who built the works to show there are still people who appreciate what was carried out.”

Mr O’Hagan has spent the past 18 months researching his 200-page book, which includes history, explanations of industrial systems, pictures and diagrams.

He has spoken to local experts and spent time looking though Durham county and Tyne and Wear archives, as well as various libraries and trade magazines.

Two years ago, Mr O’Hagan published a book, The Collieries of Beamish, about the pits of north Durham and the mining methods used.

Mr O’Hagan said: “It is not a social history with a lot of people in it, but more of an industrial history, written both for someone who knows nothing about steelworks to people who may have worked there.”

He has had 500 copies printed.

The book costs £12 and will be available from Bookcase Bookshop, in Chester-le- Street, Stanhope Visitor Centre, in Weardale, Beamish Museum and Castleside Local History Society.

It will be launched by South-West Durham MP Pat Glass at the Steel Club, Consett, on Tuesday, September 20, at 5.30pm.