Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has this week welcomed Hartlepool-based In Studio on site at Teesworks, the latest in a long line of local businesses securing work at the UK’s largest Freeport.

Film and design specialists In Studio have been tasked by the Mayor, with capturing time-lapse camera footage of the former steelworks. The 4,500-acre site is of huge historic and local importance to many generations of families across the Tees Valley and this work will help secure vital footage of some of the site’s final moments.

Iconic structures such as the Redcar Blast Furnace, its Coke Ovens, Sinter Plant and the steelmaking facilities have been part of the Teesside skyline for decades. Now, a programme of demolitions, ground remediation, earth clearance and constructions are well under way to create a site primed for investors.

Work is progressing at pace with several cameras already positioned to capture the site changing over recent months.

Mayor Houchen said: “The Teesworks site is of massive local industrial and historical importance that I know resonates with generations across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool. It is only right that we capture the site as it is today for the generations of tomorrow.

“But we must make way for the future, the site is home to the UK’s largest Freeport, Net Zero Teesside and the £142million wind turbine blade manufacturing facility for GE. Thousands of jobs were lost when these steelworks closed, now we’re clearing the old works and building anew, delivering thousands of jobs for local people.

“It’s great to be bringing yet another local company, from Hartlepool, on site. They have an important job of recording our progress and I look forward to sharing with you the works that are ongoing, and the real change were making on site.”

Karl Brown In Studio Director said: “It’s a real privilege to be here on site with the task of capturing such important development and demolition work. Looking across the water from Hartlepool, we know only too well the iconic structures that have been part of our skyline for years. The sheer scale of the site is phenomenal and I’m looking forward to getting many cameras up to record the massive changes on site.”

Led by the independent Teesworks Heritage Taskforce, Historic England and local photographers the full site is being catalogued using film and photography. This will ensure that a comprehensive register of the site is captured for use commercially, historically and for the education of future generations.

The Taskforce’s co-chairs Jacob Young MP and Kate Willard OBE said: “Capturing the cultural, economic and industrial heritage of Teesworks was central in our initial recommendations to the Mayor with regard to the site, so we’re delighted to hear that a local company will now be recording its transformation.

“This important footage of the site’s extraordinary industrial heritage will be used in a number of different ways – from being played in exhibitions to education and installations. It will also show our young people how far we’ve come in redeveloping the site. The vast scale of the regeneration task at hand can’t be understated and so it’s fantastic we’ll have something inspiring to look back on, so we never forget just how far we’ve come.”