Plan to forge ahead with tribute to steelworkers

A MEMORIAL is to be erected to commemorate the workers who lost their lives in the Scottish iron and steelmaking industry.

The decision to raise funds for the memorial comes 20 years after the closure of the Ravenscraig steelworks site in North Lanarkshire, which brought an end to 120 years of bulk steelmaking in Scotland.

The Scottish Steelworkers Memorial Fund is being co-ordinated by Supercounty, the Lanarkshire civic pride campaign, which was created after the closure of the site in 1992 and hopes to raise £200,000 for a monument which will be unveiled next year.

Depute Lieutenant of Lanarkshire Terry Currie, a former British Steel employee and a founding member of the Supercounty board, said: “The iron and steel industry revolutionised the Scottish economy and we plan to erect this memorial to the brave workers who faced grave danger producing the steel which allowed Britain to become the workshop of the world.

“The exact number of people who died in the Scottish steel industry has never been recorded, but the total will amount to several hundred over the decades. The memorial also honours all who devoted their lives to the Scottish steel industry.”