In 1895 brothers and iron-masters Harry and James Summers put it to their four younger brothers to extend the family business founded by their father, John, by buying 40 acres of Dee marshland to start production of galvanised steel sheeting. Shotton Steelworks, a subsidiary of John Summers and Sons, quickly became associated with producing some of the finest steel in the world. It grew so rapidly that at its height of operation became so big that articulated buses with benches for seats were used to ferry staff around the works which was once said to be up to eight miles wide. There was also a fleet of cars that traversed the steelworks with registration numbers from 1 to 100, and at one time there were 30-plus steam engines working on-site which hauled 17 million tonnes of ore to the works before diesel locomotives took over. As one of the 14 largest steel companies representing about 90 per cent of the UK's steel making capacity, the company was brought into public ownership as part of the 'British Steel Corporation' - a dying industry. It is said that computer technology led to changes, plus, with government plans to modernise the industry, the so-called heavy end iron and steel making operations were closed. The site is now permanently remembered as the place where 37 years ago, 6500 jobs were lost - the biggest industrial redundancy on a single day ever to happen in Western Europe. British steel production has never recovered, and the derelict state of this once proud building overlooking the River Dee is a sobering reminder of a world leading industry that the country will never reclaim.
