United Structural Steel Company Limited : catalogue : Scunthorpe : The United Steel Companies Ltd. : nd [ca.1955] : Keadby Generation Station : British Electricity Authority : architectural perspective

A stylish hardback book illustrating the work of the United Steel Construction Co. Ltd., a branch of the United Steel Companies Ltd. that had been set up as an independent entity from the Constructional Department of the Appleby-Frodingham Iron & Steel Company of Scunthorpe. This had grown from its origins in 1903 and had evolved into a plant capable of fabricating, supplying and erecting steelwork for almost any branch of construction from domestic properties, through commercial buildings and up to and including complete factories, power stations and bridges. The Structural Company had a speciality in the form of the patent "Castella" beam, a form of lightweight structural unit.

 

The United Steel Companies, based in the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire area, were formed in 1918 by the amalgamation of Samuel Fox and Company of Stocksbridge; Steel, Peech and Tozer of Templeborough and Ickles in Rotherham and the Appleby-Frodingham Steel Company of Scunthorpe. The company were also integrated in that they owned various collieries and traded in coal and coke by-products. The company was Nationalised in 1951 but rapidly returned to private ownership in 1954.

 

The book looks at a range of building types and illustrates them with drawings and photographs showing specific projects the United Structural Steel Co. Ltd. had been involved in. It is not dated but there is what is possibly a print code dating this to 1955. These pages show the construction of Keadby Power Station in Lincolnshire. The coal powered station was authorised in 1947 with work commencing in July 1948 under the then Central Electricity Authority. The first of six turbo-alternator sets was commissioned in 1952 and the station was fully commissioned by 1956. The architects were Farmer & Dark, the consulting engineers were Ewbank & Partners Ltd. and the construction was by Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons Ltd. The station was decommissioned in 1984.

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