History
“36DD is a culverted section of The Porter / Little Don River in Stocksbridge, Sheffield. The culvert runs beneath the Tata Steelworks, and also the new Fox Valley shopping centre. The name 36DD is presumably a nod to 80’s page three model Sam Fox, on account of her namesake’s involvement in the steelworks in the area. The presumably less well endowed industrialist Mr Samuel Fox”
Wiki
“Samuel Fox acquired the old cotton mill in 1842, at first renting it from its then owner, Joshua Newton. Nine years later, in 1851, he purchased the mill outright from Joshua’s son, Thomas Newton. Fox converted the place to use as a wire mill, and built much of the infrastructure of Stocksbridge, primarily to house his new workforce and to supply their needs. The wire was initially for textile pins, but around 1848 the business expanded to include wire for umbrella frames which led to Fox developing the “Paragon” umbrella frame in 1851.
In October 2006, Corus was taken over by the Indian company Tata. Corus Engineering Steels (Stocksbridge site) was renamed Tata Steels Speciality. During the 2008 recession Stocksbridge works reduced its workforce and output, focusing on producing lower quantities of high-value product for the aerospace and oil and gas markets. After the recession the company returned to profitability and began investing once again. In 2011 £6.5 million was invested in boosting the site’s ability to produce aerospace steel, and further developments were planned for 2013.
However in December 2015 Tata came under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office in connection with the alleged falsification of certificates guaranteeing the quality of its speciality steels. This was then followed in early 2016 by an announcement from Tata that they would be selling their entire steelmaking interests in the UK, due, they said, to crippling electricity prices in the UK which are more than double the price in the European Union and in other competing countries, and to large volumes of cheap steel which are being exported to the west by China. If a buyer could not be found, then steelmaking in the Stocksbridge valley would finally end, after almost 160 years.
However on 9 February 2017 it was announced by Tata and by the Liberty House Group, that the latter had purchased Tata’s entire UK steelmaking operation for GBP 100 million. This has secured the continuation of steelmaking in the Stocksbridge valley.”
Sources:
1) https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/36dd-stocksbridge-may-2018.113328/
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocksbridge
