Forged in Steel

Accompanied by voices recorded as a young oral historian, Alan Dein retraces his journey around the UK in search of the story of steel.

Thirty years ago Alan Dein travelled the length and breadth of Britain recording an oral history of the steel industry for the British Library. He was a Londoner in an industrial world he’d previously never encountered. From Ravenscraig in Scotland, to Workington, Redcar, Scunthorpe, Rotherham, Corby and to Port Talbot, Ebbw Vale and Llanwern in Wales: for two years he explored a new side of our nation and listened to the life stories of those who were intimately bound up with the drama and significance – the sense of community and hard graft – of steel-making in Britain.

The industry was already transforming. There were fewer workers and an ever-growing threat of international competition. The men and women Alan Dein spoke to had no illusions.

Today those steel towns are either utterly shorn of their former major employer, or living with its scaled-down remains.

The UK government recently conducted a consultation on its Steel Strategy. The report states unequivocally: “Steel is critical to the modern economy, and the economy of the future.”

Set against this assertion are on-going news stories about the fate of Port Talbot and Scunthorpe, the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the fallout over US trade tariffs.

As Alan Dein retraces his steps around the country, these contemporary issues will be the context -- and the voices he recorded over thirty years ago his accompaniment. And he has questions for the descendants of those interviewees: how do they feel about their working lives, about the intervening time - and how do the younger generation relate to their invisible past? Who are they – and we – today in a land without steel?

Featuring Billy Hayhoe, Professor Louise Miskell, Rob Pendlington, Stephen Pendlington, John Pugh, Mary Thomas and Robin Thomas. And the pupils of Nunthorpe Academy, Middlesbrough.

Extracts from 'Lives in Steel' © The British Library Board and used with permission. The Lives in Steel project (102 in-depth interviews recorded 1991-1992) was run by National Life Stories, the independent charitable trust that supports oral history at the British Library: www.bl.uk/nls

Thanks to Robbie Armstrong for recording assistance.