Consett & District Heritage Initiative’s plaque, at the main entrance to Blackhill & Consett Park, remembers the 11 men who died on 1 July 1950 after being poisoned by a Carbon Monoxide leak in a blast furnace at Consett Iron Company. Nine of the men who died were awarded the Carnegie medal for bravery.
The drawing was made by the well known local artist Oswald Bage, who worked at CIC and was there when the disaster happened. Permission was given by Beamish Museum to reproduce his sketch for a flower bed plaque, in memory of the men who died.
A larger Memorial Wall next to Tesco Extra, near Starbucks, where blast furnaces once stood was erected and opened in Sept 2020 by Project Genesis and on Saturday, July 1, 2023, the History of Consett Steelworks hosted a commemoration event to mark the 73rd anniversary of the 1950 gas accident.
For more information follow these links:
1950 Consett Steelworks Accident [History of Consett Steelworks]
Memorial for those who died at Consett steelworks [The Northern Echo]
Memories of Consett – Citations [Visit Consett]
Kathleen Rymer’s Story [History of Consett Steelworks]
Consett Blast Furnace Memorial [Absolute Engineering]
History of Consett Steelworks Commemorates 1950 Gas AccidentConsett Magazine]
