The Sheffield Story (1993) - Steel City history

[shizzle]

Documentary i came across if anyone's interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxgDgwiOldg

[John Turner]

Thanks for posting this fascinating documentary of the decline and fall of Sheffield's once global dominance of innovative and quality steel manufacturing.

Some of the political conclusions surrounding the causes may well be controversial but the cine archive material is superb.

*I recall in the 1950's having a day of 'work experience' (aged about 9) in The Hallamshire Steelworks. Vivid memories of men glistening with sweat and covered in coal dust, pouring molten steel from gigantic crucibles, to the sound of pounding trip hammers.

Which of us do the hard and dirty work

and who the pleasant and clean?

                                                  John Ruskin

John Turner, 'Work experience in the City of Steel' in Seniors Smiling: Sometimes Seriously, (2021) 

[Lysanderix]

Nine seems a bit young for “ work experience”….probably a visit?

Crucible steel making became obsolescent in the 1940s when electric , high frequency, furnaces began to be introduced by tool and high speed steel manufacturers. By the mid 1950s , according to Alderman Pollard, the number of crucible furnaces operating in the City could be counted on one hand. As a nine year old the crucible may have looked gigantic…but in truth ,a single man could lift one out of the furnace.

There are many reasons why the City lost its dominant position, indeed, virtually losing all of its steel manufacturing.

Ps….your book looks an interesting read🙂

[John Turner]

Thanks for correctly pointing out that Crucible Steel was largely a product of the numerous small scale Sheffield workshops. I think the image captured by my nine year old brain was more similar to the large ladles of molten steel depicted in the attached picture of a scene from Firth Brown's large scale operations (courtesy of Sheffield Libraries). I have also attached a poster of Hallam Steel (Hallamshire Steel & File Co. 1946) featured in Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. 

Oh yes, I did put 'work experience' in inverted commas but the scenes witnessed in my childhood visit certainly had a powerful and long lasting impact.

 

[Lysanderix]

As a young man ,my first job was with a small Sheffield steel company who were competitors ,in certain fields ,with Hallamshire Steel …notably the hand rolling of steel sheets…..a sweat inducing process!