Teesside Steelworks Teesside Steelworks The Teesside Steelworks was a large expanse of steelworks that formed a continuous stretch along the south bank of the River Tees from Middlesbrough to Redcar. At its height there were 91 blast furnaces within a 10 mile radius of the area. By the late 1970s, there was only one left on Teesside. Opened in 1979 and located near the mouth of the River Tees close to the river's outfall into the North Sea, the Redcar blast furnace on Teesside was the second largest in Europe. The majority of the steelworks, including the Redcar blast furnace, Redcar and
Teesside University merger with Teesside College of Education took place in the 1970s along with the purchase of Flatts Lane. The Clarendon Building was added in 1973, as was the Stephenson Building in 1976. Both of these buildings remained in use for the Polytechnic's long-awaited conversion into a university. That happened on 16 June 1992, when Teesside Polytechnic became the University of Teesside, one of the UK's first new universities following that year's Further and Higher Education Act. By the 1990s, the institution had almost 8,000 students. In 1997 the old Polytechnic's library was replaced with a Learning Resource Centre. Subsequent additions