| Scunthorpe | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
  Scunthorpe Location withinLincolnshire | |
| Population | 81,576 (2021 Census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SE893102 |
| • London | 145 mi (233 km) S |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Areas of the town (2011 census BUASD) | List
|
| Post town | SCUNTHORPE |
| Postcode district | DN15 – 17 |
| Dialling code | 01724 |
| Police | Humberside |
| Fire | Humberside |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
| |
Scunthorpe (/ˈskʌnθɔːrp/) is anindustrial town inLincolnshire, England, and the county's third most populous settlement afterLincoln andGrimsby, with a population of 81,286 in 2021.[2] It is the administrative centre and largest settlement of theNorth Lincolnshire district. Scunthorpe lies north of Lincoln and is between Grimsby to the east andDoncaster to the west, whileHull is to the north-east via theHumber Bridge.
The town appears in theDomesday Book of 1086 asEscumesthorpe, which is from theOld NorseSkumasþorp meaning "Skuma's homestead",[3] a site which is believed to be in the town centre, close to Market Hill. Today Skuma’s homestead means ‘A secondary settlement, a dependent outlying farmstead or hamlet’.[4]
Scunthorpe as a town came into existence due to the exploitation of the localironstone which began in 1859; iron production commenced in 1864,steel smelting in 1891.[5]
Scunthorpe's population grew from 1,245 in 1851 to 11,167 in 1901 and 45,840 in 1941. The boundaries of Scunthorpe expanded to include the former villages ofBottesford,Yaddlethorpe,Frodingham,Crosby,Brumby andAshby. Scunthorpe became anurban district in 1891, merged as 'Scunthorpe, Brumby and Frodingham Urban District' in 1919, and became amunicipal borough in 1936. Scunthorpe was originally dominated, socially, politically and culturally, byRowland Winn, the most significant landowner in the district. By the First World War local working class culture, drawing on trade unions and the Labour Party had emerged to challenge the Conservative Party's hegemony.[6]
Scunthorpe is located close to an outcrop of high-lime-content ironstone (~25% iron average) from a seam of theLias Group strata which dates from theEarly Jurassic period and runs north–south through Lincolnshire. Ironstone was mined byopen cast methods from the 1850s onwards, and by underground mining from the late 1930s. In the 1970s the steel industry in Scunthorpe began to use of ores imported from outside the UK with higher iron content. Underground mining in the area ceased in 1981.
Scunthorpe was close to the epicentre (atMiddle Rasen) of the2008 Market Rasen earthquake, the second largest earthquake experienced in the British Isles, which had a magnitude of 5.2. Significant shocks were felt in Scunthorpe and the North Lincolnshire vicinity. The main 10-second quake, which struck at 00:56 GMT on 27 February 2008, at a depth of 9.6 mi (15.4 km), was second only to a 1984 quake, with a magnitude of 5.4, inNorth Wales.
Scunthorpe forms anunparished area located within theborough and unitary authority ofNorth Lincolnshire.[7] The town forms six of the borough's seventeen wards, namely Ashby, Brumby, Crosby & Park, Frodingham, Kingsway with Lincoln Gardens and Town. The Scunthorpe wards elect 16 of the borough's 43 councillors. As of 2018, 26 are members of theConservative party, and 13 are members of theLabour party.[8] The councillors form thecharter trustees of the Town of Scunthorpe and they continue to elect a town mayor.[9]
North Lincolnshire Council was based inScunthorpe Civic Centre off Ashby Road (formerA159) next to Festival Gardens. It was designed by Charles B. Pearson, Son and Partners and was completed in 1962.[10] It was the home of Scunthorpe Borough Council until 1996. It was named Pittwood House after Edwin Pittwood, a local Labour politician, who worked in the opencast ironstone workings near Normanby Park.[11]
In 1889 the area was included in the Lincolnshire,Parts of Lindseyadministrative county. Separate local government began in 1890 when the Scunthorpelocal board of health was formed. In 1894 the local board was replaced with anurban district council. At the same time the neighbouring townships of Brumby and Frodingham were also constituted anurban district. The two urban districts were amalgamated, along with theparishes of Crosby and Ashby in 1919 to form an enlarged Scunthorpe urban district.[12] Scunthorpe received a charter incorporating the town as amunicipal borough in 1936.[13]
Local authority boundary changes brought the town into the new county ofHumberside in 1974, and a newnon-metropolitan district, the Borough of Scunthorpe was formed with the same boundaries as the old municipal borough. The opening of theHumber Bridge on 24 June 1981 provided a permanent link between North and South Humberside but did not secure Humberside's future. To the relief of its many detractors, the county of Humberside (andHumberside County Council) was abolished on 1 April 1996 and succeeded by fourunitary authorities.
The previous Humberside districts ofGlanford and Scunthorpe, and that part ofBoothferry district south of the northern boundaries of the parishes ofCrowle,Eastoft,Luddington, Haldenby andAmcotts, now compose the unitary authority ofNorth Lincolnshire.[7] On amalgamationcharter trustees were formed for Scunthorpe,[9] and they continue to elect a town mayor.
When Scunthorpe was incorporated as a borough in 1936, it also received a grant of acoat of arms from theCollege of Arms.[14] These arms were transferred to the new borough council formed in 1974,[15] and are now used by the town's charter trustees.
The green shield and golden wheatsheaf recall that the area was until recently agricultural in nature. Across the centre of the shield is a length of chain. This refers to the five villages of Crosby, Scunthorpe, Frodingham, Brumby & Ashby linking together as one. At the top of the shield are two fossils of the speciesGryphaea incurva. These remains of oysters, known as the "devil's toenails", were found in the rock strata from which ironstone was quarried.The crest, on top of the helm, shows a blast furnace. This is also referred to in theLatin motto:Refulget labores nostros coelum orThe heavens reflect our labours popularly attributed to the glow observed in the night sky from the steelmaking activities.[16]
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Scunthorpe lies on an escarpment of ridged land (theLincoln Cliff) which slopes down towards the Trent. The surrounding environs are largely low-lying hills and plains. Although the town itself is heavily industrial it is surrounded by fertile farmland and wooded areas. In terms of general location it lies a mile east of theRiver Trent, 8 miles (13 km) south of theHumber Estuary, 15 miles (24 km) west of theLincolnshire Wolds and 25 miles (40 km) north ofLincoln. The town is situated at the terminus of theM181, 42 miles (68 km) fromSheffield.Nearby towns and cities areHull (18 miles northeast),Doncaster (20 miles west),Grimsby (22 miles east) andYork (46 miles northwest).Scunthorpe is approximately 10 miles (16 km) east ofSouth Yorkshire and 8 miles (13 km) south by south west to theEast Riding of Yorkshire.
Like most of the United Kingdom, Scunthorpe has anoceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb).
Average temperatures are around 20 °C (68 °F) in the summer, and can be as low as −2 °C (28 °F) in the winter.
The Iron industry in Scunthorpe was established in the mid 19th century, following the discovery and exploitation of middle Lias ironstone east of Scunthorpe. Initially iron ore was exported to iron producers inSouth Yorkshire. Later, after the construction of theTrent, Ancholme and Grimsby Railway (1860s) gave rail access to the area iron production in the area rapidly expanded using local ironstone and imported coal or coke. Rapid industrial expansion in the area led directly to the development of the town of Scunthorpe, eventually incorporating several other former hamlets and villages, in a formerly sparsely populated entirely agricultural area.
From the early 1910s to the 1930s the industry consolidated, with three main ownership concerns formed – theAppleby-Frodingham Steel Company, part of theUnited Steel Companies; theRedbourn Iron Works, part ofRichard Thomas and Company of South Wales (laterRichard Thomas and Baldwins); andJohn Lysaght'sNormanby Iron Works, part ofGuest, Keen and Nettlefolds.
In 1967 all three works became part of the nationalisedBritish Steel Corporation (BSC), leading to a period of further consolidation – from the 1970s the use of local or regional ironstone diminished, being replaced by imported ore via theImmingham Bulk Terminal. Conversion to theLinz-Donawitz process (or "basic oxygen" process) of steel making from theopen hearth process took place from the late 1960s onwards and was complete by the 1990s. Both the Normanby Park and the Redbourn works closed in the early 1980s.
Following privatisation in 1988 the company, together with the rest of BSC, became part ofCorus (1999), laterTata Steel Europe (2007). In 2016 thelong products division of Tata Steel Europe was sold toGreybull Capital with Scunthorpe as the primary steel production site.
In May 2019, after a drop in future orders,[17] and a breakdown in rescue talks between the government and the company's owner, Greybull,British Steel Limited entered insolvency.[18]
Industries associated with the steelworks include metal engineering as well as aBOC plant.
Although the historical predominance of the steel industry made Scunthorpe a virtualmonotown, there are other industries in the town. These include food production, distribution and retailing. North of the town next a waste management firm, Bell Waste Control, which services the majority of industry in Scunthorpe and the surrounding areas. On the Foxhills Industrial Park, north of the A1077 northern bypass, are many distribution companies, notably a large building owned by theNisa co-operative typemutual organisation which has its UK headquarters there. Also on the Foxhills Industrial Park is a 500,000 square foot factory occupied byWren Kitchens, employing 350 full-time workers.[19]
2 Sisters Food Group have a large chicken processing plant in the town. Key Country Foods produces meat products on an industrial scale. The Sauce Company produces sauces, soups and other foodstuffs for the catering and supermarket sectors. In 1947, Riley's Crisps was created in the town, moving to Colin Road before becomingSooner Snacks in 1981.[20] The factory is still operational manufacturingGolden Wonder crisps.[21]Ericsson Mobile Platforms produces printed circuit boards for the telecommunications industry. There are a number of other firms, mostly involved in manufacturing and light engineering.
In the 2001 census 19.3% of the working age population were economically inactive.[22]
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Scunthorpe has two major shopping centres, effectively a single site: the Foundry Shopping Centre and the Parishes Centre. The former was constructed in the late 1960s/early 1970s during a wholesale reconstruction of the old town; the latter was constructed in the early part of the 2000s decade on the site of the town's old bus station. There are also many well known retailers on High Street.[23][24] On 6 January 2011Marks and Spencer closed their High Street store after 80 years of trading,[25] but a new Marks and Spencer store opened near the football ground in 2014.
However the size of the remaining retail units reflects the size of the area's population and with larger shopping facilities within reasonable travelling distance inGrimsby,Hull,Doncaster,Lincoln,Leeds and atMeadowhall,Sheffield.
The once-thriving market, mostly under cover in market halls just to the north of the Central Library, at the eastern end of the High Street, had shrunk noticeably in the last ten years, and has now moved to the new St John's Market, close to the Bus Station. The opening date was 22 March 2019.[26]
All of the big food retailers are represented in the area. There is aTesco Extra, and an Aldi (in the former Toys R Us unit) opposite the football ground, whileSainsbury's (formerly aSafeway) have their store on the site of the old Scunthorpe United stadium, The Old Show Ground.Morrisons have a store at the bottom of Mortal Ash Hill (known locally as "Motlash") (A18 road) at the Lakeside Retail Park, on the eastern entrance to the town, whileAsda have a store on Burringham Road.[27] In 2011 Asda opened another store in the former Netto, on Carlton Street.
On 24 October 2014 Marks and Spencer's returned to the town after almost a 4-year absence. The store is housed in a purpose-built location at the North Lincolnshire Shopping Park, beside Glanford Park. The shopping park also includesBoots, B&M Bargains,Costa Coffee andSubway.
Scunthorpe railway station is on theSouth TransPennine Line which has trains from Liverpool Lime Street toCleethorpes. Scunthorpe station (SCU), has two platforms and is serviced by two train companies,TransPennine Express andNorthern Trains. TransPennine Express eastbound trains to Cleethorpes call at platform 1, whilst TransPennine Express westbound services to Liverpool Lime Street and the Northern westbound stopping service to Doncaster use platform 2.
TheM180 passes five miles (8.0 km) south of Scunthorpe and connects to the town via theM181 and theA1077M. Before the M180 was opened in 1979, all east–west traffic took theA18 overKeadby Bridge.Humberside Airport is a short drive to the east along the M180. The town's bus station is off Fenton Street. The bus station is predominantly used byStagecoach in Lincolnshire that operate services within and out of the town along with Hornsby Travel.East Yorkshire operate services toHull andGoole.
According to the2021 Census, Scunthorpe had a population of 81,286,[28] while theurban area, which extends to the nearby village ofMessingham to the south of the town, had a population of 84,665.
At the 2021 Census, the local population was recorded as being 90.4%White British, with 6%British Asian, 1.4%Mixed-race British, 1.2%Other ethnic minorities and 0.8%Black British, making the town roughly 90% White and 10%BAME. According to the census, the town's religious composition was 51%Christian, followed by 42.1% who werenon-religious and 5% followingIslam. Other religions and not stated respondents were recorded at 2.9%.[29]
Scunthorpe is also home to the largestBritish Asian community in the county of Lincolnshire, followed by bothLincoln andGrimsby.[citation needed]
TheNorth Lincolnshire Museum is on Oswald Road, near therailway station.[30] The former church of St John the Evangelist is now the 20–21 Visual Arts Centre.[31] ThePlowright Theatre, named afterJoan Plowright, is on Laneham Street (off the west end of High Street and also near therailway station). It was built in 1958 as Scunthorpe Civic Theatre.[32] TheBaths Hall, reopened in 2011, a 1,700 capacity venue also hosts visiting musical and theatrical events.[33]
TheScunthorpe Co-operative Junior Choir from Scunthorpe won the title ofBBC Radio 3Choir of the Year 2008 at the Grand Finals on 7 December 2008 at theRoyal Festival Hall, London. The main choir is made up of 90 members aged between 9 and 19 years whilst also having two training choirs taking children as young as 3 years old. They have made several CDs, performed numerous concerts in the area and further afield, have been subject of documentaries and are internationally renowned as having travelled the world.[34]
Scunthorpe was the setting of a2012 Cultural Olympiad community opera calledCycle Song, about past steel-worker andOlympic cyclistLal White. It was composed by Tim Sutton and the librettist wasIan McMillan. TheScunthorpe Co-operative Junior Choir, Proper Job Theatre Company and over a thousand locals participated.[35][36]
The local newspaper is theScunthorpe Telegraph (formerly theScunthorpe Evening Telegraph) with an online version atwww.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk.
Scunthorpe has a leisure centre (The Pods) next to Pittwood House, museum, galleries, craft centres, several clubs, pubs and bars, aVue multiplex cinema adjacent to the bus station. TheBaths Hall in Doncaster Road was a popular music venue, before it was closed because of the costs of bringing the building up to scratch, and dealing with industrial contamination on site. The Labour Council prevented the Baths from being demolished in 2007 and commenced a major rebuild of the venue, which has involved demolishing all but the facade of the building. The building re-opened in November 2011.
Primary schools include: Frodingham Infant School; Scunthorpe CofE Primary School; Oasis Academy Henderson Avenue; Bushfield Road Infant School; Crosby Primary School; Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy; Berkeley Primary School; Oasis Academy Parkwood; Lincoln Gardens Primary School; Priory Lane Community School; St. Bernadette's Catholic Primary Voluntary Academy; Westcliffe Primary School; The Grange Primary School; Oakfield Primary School; Willoughby Road Primary Academy; Enderby Road Infant School; Leys Farm Junior School; St Peter and St Paul CofE Primary School; and Holme Valley Primary School[37]
Secondary schools within Scunthorpe include: The St Lawrence Academy; Engineering UTC Northern Lincolnshire; Outwood Academy Brumby; Outwood Academy Foxhills; Melior Community Academy; St Bede's Catholic Voluntary Academy; and Frederick Gough School[37]
John Leggott Sixth-Form College (JLC) is on West Common Lane andNorth Lindsey College is close by on Kingsway (A18).
Scunthorpe's only university is UCNL, which offers undergraduate courses to approximately 1,500 students.[38]
There are three schools within this category: St Luke's Primary School; St Hugh's Special School; and Trent View College (which is yet to be inspected)
The area is served byHumberside Police. According toHome Office data the area has crime rates higher than the national average, especially in the categories of violence against the person, sexual offences, burglary and theft of motor vehicles.[39]
The town has a formerFootball League club,Scunthorpe United (nicknamed "The Iron") who play atGlanford Park. For most of its existence in the professional game (since only 1950) it has been in the lower leagues of theEnglish Football League. At the end of the 2006–07 season they won promotion to theFootball League Championship as champions ofLeague One, with 3 games to spare, when they defeatedHuddersfield Town at home. They amassed a total of 91 points, and never trailed from January on, despite being outsiders earlier in the season. The last time they had played in the second division was for 44 years previously. The club were relegated on 12 April 2008, with three games to spare, away toCrystal Palace. However, they returned to the Championship after one season, winning the League One playoffs in May 2009.[40] At the end of the 2021–22 season, Scunthorpe for the first timegot relegated from the Football League. A further relegation in the 2022–23 season consigned Scunthorpe United to the National League North.
England starsKevin Keegan andRay Clemence both played forScunthorpe United in the early 1970s before signing forLiverpool, where they made their names. FormerEngland cricket captainIan Botham played a number of games for the club, being a resident of nearbyEpworth at that time and in an attempt to keep fit during the winter months. The team mascot is called the "Scunny Bunny".[41]
Semi-professional sides within the Town or greater town boundaries includeAppleby Frodingham andBottesford Town. Local teams play in theScunthorpe & District Football League.
Scunthorpe Rugby Club[42] play in theNational League 2 North, the fourth tier of theEnglish rugby union system. Their home ground is at Heslam Park, close to Brumby on Ashby Road.Scunthorpe Barbarians playrugby league also at Heslam Park.
Scunthorpe also has aspeedway team known as theScunthorpe Scorpions who compete in the British Premier League, the sport's second tier in Britain.
The speedway team has been running since 2005 and won a grand slam of the Conference League trophies in both 2006 and 2007 before claiming the Premier League title in 2012, alongside this Speedway world championTai Woffinden was born in Scunthorpe, riding for the Scunthorpe Scorpions in his youth. It runs at theEddie Wright Raceway, which is a mile north of the town on Normanby Road (B1430).
TheEddie Wright Raceway is also host to the sport ofstock car racing, the town has featured stock car racing at two other venues in its past, 2009 saw a return to the town of the oval racing sport
The Appleby-Frodingham Athletic Club[43] uses the 34-acre (140,000 m2) site near the Civic Centre for many types of sport. They have a clubhouse and also use Brumby Hall next-door. The site includes a 3G football pitch and an artificial Astro hockey pitch, along with several grass football pitches and an area for cricket. There is also the Scunthorpe and District Athletics Club.[44] They train at Quibell Park Stadium,[45] Scunthorpe's athletic track on Brumby Wood Lane named afterDavid Quibell, the town's former Labour MP. Around the running track is acycle track used by Polytechnic Cycle Club.[46]
The leisure centre was on Carlton Street[47] opposite thebus station via afootbridge. After The Pods opened this was demolished. TheScunthorpe Anchor swimming club are based at the Riddings Pool on Enderby Road next to South Leys School.[48]
The Pods, aleisure centre near Central Park, opened in 2011 costing an estimated £21 million. Facilities include an 8 lane 25m pool and a separate shallow pool, a state of the art gym, adance studio, a large sports hall with climbing wall, a creche and a cafe.[49]
As part of the project, Central Park is being improved. These expensive improvements are also in their final stage. North Lincolnshire Council's website regularly show photographs and videos of how the work is progressing.[50]
Scunthorpe has twoparkruns. One inCentral Park and another atNormanby Hall[51]
TheScunthorpe Alphas who were formed in 2018 play their home games atQuibell Park Stadium and for 2021 will complete in theBAFA National Leagues Division One.[52] The town's previous American football side was the Scunthorpe Steelers who folded in 1990.[53]
In 1996 there was controversy whenAOL'sobscenity filter (among others) refused to accept the name of the town due to its embedded word 'cunt'. Some online forums such asUltimate Guitar forums displayed the name as Scumthorpe, whileFark would display it as Scoonthorpe. This form of censorship overreach is known in the computing world as theScunthorpe problem.
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