When Horden Welfare Park was refurbished, as a regeneration project, we were asked to replicate the original railings around the bandstand. The originals were assumed to be of wrought iron, but the condition of the surviving piece was not good, and the majority had been replaced with welded steel, itself in poor condition.
Investigation in the workshop found the cause. The original railings, made in 1929 were in fact a mixture of wrought iron and steel components, doubtless all sold as iron at the time, but time has found them out, as the wrought iron components remained in very good condition, while the steel were advanced in corrosion, in the salty seaside atmosphere.
