Place:Corby District, Northamptonshire, England

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Corby is a town and borough in the county of Northamptonshire, England, located 23 miles (37 km) north-east of the county town, Northampton.

The borough had a population of 61,300 at the 2011 UK Census. Figures released in March 2010 revealed that Corby has the fastest growing population in both Northamptonshire and the whole of England. The Borough of Corby borders onto the Borough of Kettering, the District of East Northamptonshire, the District of Harborough in Leicestershire and the unitary authority county of Rutland. The town was at one time known locally as "Little Scotland" due to the large number of Scottish migrant workers who came to Corby for its steelworks.

The Borough of Corby consists of the town of Corby, as well as the villages of Weldon, Rockingham, Gretton, Cottingham, Middleton, East Carlton and Stanion.

History

The local area has been worked for iron ore since Roman times. An ironstone industry developed in the 19th century with the coming of the railways and the discovery of extensive ironstone beds. By 1910 an ironstone works had been established. In 1931 Corby was a small village with a population of around 1,500. It grew rapidly into a reasonably sized industrial town, when the owners of the ironstone works, the steel firm Stewarts & Lloyds, decided to build a large integrated ironstone and steel works on the site. The start of construction in 1934 drew workers from all over the country including many workers from the depressed west of Scotland and Irish labourers. The first steel was produced in October 1935 and for decades afterwards the steel works dominated the town. By 1939 the population had grown to around 12,000, at which time Corby was thought to be the largest "village" in the country, but it was at that point that Corby was re-designated an urban district.

The Corby steelworks made a notable contribution to the World War II war effort by manufacturing the steel tubes used in Operation Pluto (Pipe Line Under the Ocean) to supply fuel to Allied forces on the European continent.

In 1950, with a population of 18,000, Corby was designated a New Town The town now underwent its second wave of expansion, mainly from Scotland.

In 1967 the British steel industry was nationalised and the Stewarts & Lloyds steel tube works at Corby became part of British Steel. In 1973 the government approved a strategy of consolidating steel making in five main areas – South Wales, Sheffield, Scunthorpe, Teesside and Scotland – most of which are coastal sites with access to readily available supplies of iron rich imported ores. In 1975 the British government agreed a programme that would lead to the phasing-out of steel making in Corby. By the end of 1981 over 5,000 jobs had been lost from British Steel in the town, and further cuts took the total loss to 11,000 jobs, leading to an unemployment rate of over 30%. Steel tube making continued, however, initially being supplied with steel by rail from Teesside and later from South Wales.

New industry was subsequently attracted to the town in the 1980s when the government designated it as an Enterprise Zone. By 1991 unemployment had returned to the national average.