Consett

Consett is a former steel-manufacturing town in the north-west Highlands of County Durham, England. The town is one of the highest in England, with a maximum altitude in excess of 1,000 ft a.o.d. The iron (later steel) works were opened at the remote moorland location of Berry Edge in the early 1840s and expanded rapidly, served by the settlments of Berry Edge, Blackhill, Shotley Bridge and Leadgate which have grown together to form a thriving regional metropolis which has survived the closure of the steelworks in 1982. Key elements in the town's regeneration (named 'Project Genesis' by the local authority, Derwentside District Council, which is notable in English local councils for having strong Independent Christian representation) have been the establishment of a major industry in the manufacture of cereal-based snack foodstuffs, and the opening of Consett International Airport on a former zone of industrial dereliction which has provided the northern counties of England and southern Scotland with a new gateway.