IT'S thirty years ago this year that the vast steel rolling mill at Gartcosh in Lanarkshire fell silent. It was the beginning of the end for steel-making in Scotland.

Months before the March closure steel workers and politicians marched from the gates of Gartcosh to the steps of 10 Downing Street to fight the closure. And they were backed by The EveningTimes. I should know as the then Evening Times editor George McKechnie sent me with the protestors in one of the coldest winters in memory. We were travelling in three caravanettes with a day's marching divided up so that each walker would do 10 miles in the snow, with another walker up ahead, so that the whole route was covered.

Tommy Brennan, shop stewards' convener at Ravenscraig, who led the march, explained to me: "I said to George that whichever reporter was sent, he would have to do his share of the walking. He agreed on your behalf which was awful nice of him, but I suspect he didn't tell you."

My morning would start at seven when I would trudge through the snow to find a phonebox, check of course that the handset was still attached and that the box had not been used as a toilet, and phone a story before returning to start some walking. But it wasn't really a hardship, particularly as I knew I still had a job at the end of the march, unlike the steelworkers.

Looking back, that Scotland now seems like a foreign country. For almost the whole of the 1980s and 90s there was a Tory Scottish secretary. There was no Scottish Parliament.

In Lanarkshire, it was what was under your feet that made the area: coal and iron ore. The coal drove Scotland's industries and when combined with the iron ore it produced steel. The largest steel plant was Ravenscraig, near Motherwell. British Steel, which ran it, was owned by the Government, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wanted to sell the whole thing off. But there were five steel plants in Britain, and one of them had to close to make the remaining company more attractive for buyers. Ravenscraig was the likely candidate for closure, despite a workforce which had been slimmed down, had adapted to new working practices and which consistently produced some of the best steel in the world, sought after by foreign car manufacturers.

Then came the rumour about Gartcosh's proposed closure. A quarter of Ravenscraig's output went by train to Gartcosh where the rolling mill flattened the steel to the products buyers wanted. Removing Gartcosh would damage Ravenscraig's economic case.

So the march to London captured the support of many back in Scotland. Even Tory MPs felt that Ravenscraig should be backed, even if Gartcosh was closed.

And so it was that Ravenscraig remained open for another six years after Gartcosh was shut down - six years that took older workers nearer their pension, and six years for younger workers to make their plans for a life outside steel. Scots Tories, unable to stop the closure, ensured as much help should be given to Lanarkshire as possible, fearing a backlash from the electorate. Iain Lawson, a former Tory parliamentary candidate on the march to London, argued: "If Ravenscraig closes, the Tories will be wiped out in Scotland." In the 1992 General Election the Tories had 11 Scottish MPs. In the 1997 election they returned precisely none.

Thirty years after the Gartcosh closure I catch up with Tommy Brennan. He is dismayed that much of the Ravenscraig site is still undeveloped, but he is also optimistic. "There has been a lot of gloom and doom talked about Lanarkshire but since the closure biotechnology companies, food distribution companies and many small enterprises have started up, giving the area a much healthier economy. If any one company closed now it would not have such a devastating effect that happened with Ravenscraig."

We chat about Baroness Thatcher. "I was speaking at a local school recently about steel-making, and a girl put her hand up and asked me what I thought of Mrs Thatcher. I could see the teacher stiffen. I rejected the first few thoughts that came to mind then told her, 'I think you should always try to find the good, no matter how small, in everyone.

"So for Mrs Thatcher I will say she brought the salmon back to the Clyde. By shutting the industries on either side of the river she cleaned it up. There you are."

But Tommy's laudable mission to talk up Lanarkshire's recovery does not convince everyone, as many well-paid jobs that the steel industry provided have not been replicated by the jobs that have been created. Gartcosh steel mill might have been replaced by the police's Scottish Crime Campus, but its closure is still criminal.