| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Manufacturing |
| Founded | 1875 |
| Headquarters | Northamptonshire, UK |
| Key people | David Dyer (Managing Director) |
| Products | Bridges, Heavy lifting equipment |
| Website | www.dormanlongtechnology.com |
Dorman Long, based in Middlesbrough, North East England, was a major steel producer, which diversified into bridge building, and is now a manufacturer of steel components and construction equipment for bridges and other structures. The business has been involved in the construction of many major bridges including the Tyne Bridge and the Sydney Harbour Bridge as well as elements of the Tsing Ma Bridge and the Sutong Bridge. The Company was once listed on the London Stock Exchange.
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The company was founded by Arthur Dorman and Albert de Laude Long when they acquired West Marsh Iron Works in 1875.[1] In the 1920s Dorman Long took over the concerns of Bell Brothers and Bolckow and Vaughan and diversified into the construction of bridges. In 1938 Ellis Hunter took over as Managing Director: he continued to lead the business until 1961.[2]
In 1967 Dorman Long became part of British Steel.
In 1982 Redpath Dorman Long, the engineering part of the business, was acquired by Trafalgar House who in 1990 merged it into Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company in Darlington.[3]
In 2000 there was a management buyout of Cleveland Bridge which led to the formation of Dorman Long Technology (DLT) in August 2000. DLT was formed as an amalgamation of the Cleveland Bridge engineering office with an outside construction consultant (Lowther-Rolton) and a heavy lift contractor (Zalcon), both of whom had been working closely with Cleveland Bridge throughout the 1990s. DLT is now an independent company, registered in the UK, carrying out bridge design and construction engineering together with design and supply of heavy lifting equipment for the construction of bridges, refineries, power stations, wind farms, offshore drilling rigs, large roofs and other large pre-assembled structures.[4]
Iron-making has been known in Cleveland since the Romans found iron slags in North Yorkshire, with small-scale iron-making known to have taken place at Rievaulx and Whitby Abbeys and at Gisborough Priory in the 17th century.
Some of the key events connected with iron-making in Cleveland:
1837: The first Cleveland ironstone mine opens, at Grosmont.
1841: Bolckow and Vaughan open the first ironworks in Middlesbrough.
1850: 8th June - The Discovery of the Cleveland Main Seam of Ironstone at Eston by Ironmaster John Vaughan and mining engineer John Marley both of Bolckow & Vaughan. The Cleveland iron rush begins.
1855: 30 blast furnaces operate within six miles (10 km) of Middlesbrough.
1865: One million tonnes per annum (TPA) of iron are produced to make the area one of the world's major centres of iron production.
1875: Number of blast furnaces increases to 100, producing two million TPA.
1879: Sydney Gilchrist arrives in Cleveland and introduces the first commercial steel.
1902: The first integrated steelworks, involving conversion of iron ore to finished rolled steel shapes, is built at Cargo Fleet.
1917: The Redcar steel plant is opened, making steel in the 'open hearth' process.
1918: Cleveland Works opens.
1924: Dorman Long wins the contract to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
1946: Dorman Long purchases 600 acres (2.4 km2) of land between the Redcar and Cleveland Works to build the Lackenby development.
1967: Dorman Long, South Durham Steel Iron Co, and Stewarts and Lloyds come together to create British Steel and Tube Ltd.
1967: The steel industry is nationalised and the British Steel Corporation is born.
1973: The existing Redcar Ironworks site development begins.
1979: The number of blast furnaces drops to one - producing 3.3 million TPA.
1989: Company is privatised becoming British Steel plc.
1990: Merged with The Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company, Darlington.
1999: British Steel merges with the Dutch steel and aluminium company Koninklijke Hoogovens to become Corus Group.
2000: Dorman Long Technology Ltd formed as an independent company as part of a management buy out of Cleveland Bridge in August 2000.
The most famous bridge ever constructed on Teesside was Dorman Long's Sydney Harbour Bridge of 1932. This was partly modelled on the 1928 Tyne Bridge, a construction regarded as the symbol of Tyneside's Geordie pride, but also a product of Dorman Long's Teesside workmanship. The greatest example of Dorman Long's work in Teesside itself is the single span Newport Lifting Bridge (a Grade II Listed Building). Opened by the Duke of York in February 1934 it was England's first vertical lift bridge. With a lifting span of 270 feet (82 m) long by 66 feet (20 m) wide, it is constructed from 8000 tons of Teesside steel and 28,000 tons of concrete with towers 182 feet (55 m) high. The electrically operated lifting mechanism allowed the road to be lifted 100 feet (30 m) in one and a half minutes by means of ropes passing through sheaves in the four corner towers. Newport Bridge is no longer raised or lowered; it is a permanent road crossing the river Tees.
The following is a list of some of the bridges built by the Dorman Long: it is not however fully comprehensive.
In 1904 Sir Arthur Dorman of Dorman Long gave the Dorman Museum to Middlesbrough in honour of his youngest son, George Lockwood Dorman, an avid collector who was killed in the Boer War. Amongst the museum’s many exhibits, is a collection of ceramics from the local Linthorpe Pottery,[5] which was renowned for its iridescent glazes, that at the time were not produced anywhere else in Europe. The museum has one of the largest collections of these highly distinctive ceramics in the world.