QUOTE (FirstCitizen @ Jun 26 2008, 2:02 pm) 
Fair point, but I don't think that's a reason to be dismissive of how significant they are.
Sure, Suadia Arabia is significant too, doesn't mean i'd want to live their
/happy ex-new yorker.
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Share some info about your hometown
Stories, memories, photos, weblinks, etc.
Sure, Suadia Arabia is significant too, doesn't mean i'd want to live their
/happy ex-new yorker.
Erm, Saudi Arabia isn't a city
This building is owned by one of the major newspapers in my hometown.
Top of building
Top of building
Well I didn't have much joy searching for good before and after photos of where I spent most of my youth before going off to university in Glasgow. Although the town has a population of over thirty thousand it doesn't seem to have a real website of its own. Anyway, this site has a pretty good description of the town and it's history Consett .
The town's main claim to fame used to be the local Steelworks, Consett Iron Company. Founded in 1840 CIC went on to become a major figure in world steel production, producing high quality steel, which was used amongst other things, in the Blackpool Tower, the Sydney Harbour Bridge (and its prototype predecessor, the Newcastle Tyne Bridge), as well as providing the special steels for the UK nuclear submarine fleet and many of the UK's nuclear reactor vessels. However, high quality alone was not enough to guarantee survival and although still running at a profit, the plant (part of British Steel since 1967) was finally closed in 1980, ripping the heart out of the town. There again, if you were starting from scratch today you wouldn't choose to build a steelworks 900 ft up on the edge of the penines, with the resulting lousy logistics. However, the result was an unemployment rate of 36% in 1981, which only very slowly reduced. The steel works was completely demolished and turned into a green landscape of rolling hills. There isn't even a museum to record the history of the works and even the development plan implemented to re-build the town - Project Genesis - has a 'Year Zero' name which suggests there was nothing worthwhile before.
Useless facts about Consett, not all of which I knew when I started digging, apart from the steel highlights:
Probably the only town in the country to have red snow - they never managed to get the filters working properly so the whole town was constantly covered in a fine rust-red dust.
Wilkinson Sword was founded in Shotley Bridge now part of Consett, in about 1840.
Rowan Atkinson, Mr. Bean, was born in Consett
Consett was the first town in the World to have a Salvation Army Corps Band.
For those who might be interested in the rise and fall of the North East steel industry, this BBC site has six video-clips. Unfortunately, I can't try them out at work, but perhaps they will show how you can reduce a massive industrial complex (and very impressive skyline) to a few grassy mounds, if you put your mind to it!
The town's main claim to fame used to be the local Steelworks, Consett Iron Company. Founded in 1840 CIC went on to become a major figure in world steel production, producing high quality steel, which was used amongst other things, in the Blackpool Tower, the Sydney Harbour Bridge (and its prototype predecessor, the Newcastle Tyne Bridge), as well as providing the special steels for the UK nuclear submarine fleet and many of the UK's nuclear reactor vessels. However, high quality alone was not enough to guarantee survival and although still running at a profit, the plant (part of British Steel since 1967) was finally closed in 1980, ripping the heart out of the town. There again, if you were starting from scratch today you wouldn't choose to build a steelworks 900 ft up on the edge of the penines, with the resulting lousy logistics. However, the result was an unemployment rate of 36% in 1981, which only very slowly reduced. The steel works was completely demolished and turned into a green landscape of rolling hills. There isn't even a museum to record the history of the works and even the development plan implemented to re-build the town - Project Genesis - has a 'Year Zero' name which suggests there was nothing worthwhile before.
Useless facts about Consett, not all of which I knew when I started digging, apart from the steel highlights:
Probably the only town in the country to have red snow - they never managed to get the filters working properly so the whole town was constantly covered in a fine rust-red dust.
Wilkinson Sword was founded in Shotley Bridge now part of Consett, in about 1840.
Rowan Atkinson, Mr. Bean, was born in Consett
Consett was the first town in the World to have a Salvation Army Corps Band.
For those who might be interested in the rise and fall of the North East steel industry, this BBC site has six video-clips. Unfortunately, I can't try them out at work, but perhaps they will show how you can reduce a massive industrial complex (and very impressive skyline) to a few grassy mounds, if you put your mind to it!
Stef6788 post has given me the urge to give this a bump.
Coitus Tower at night
Is that Michigan? It looks like Michigan.
San Francisco, Coit Tower -- Bay Bridge in the background. We locals like to call it Coitus Tower.
Here is the more famous bridge.
Here is the more famous bridge.
I dont know looks like Michagain or could be Glasaglow both look the same to me.
Trust me, it's San Francisco, the best city in America.
Although SF is a nice city, it's too much for this cow-town raised country gal.
My hometown is quite literally known as the "Olive City" because it produces more olives from its orchards than any other city in California.
woop-dee-doo.
My hometown is quite literally known as the "Olive City" because it produces more olives from its orchards than any other city in California.
woop-dee-doo.
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