An 11-part history of Britain at work 9: The Inheritance
Making steel depended on the trained eye of the men who ran the furnaces. For melters like Don Owen there was a special satisfaction. 'It was your achievement. You made the steel up to a specification, and when it was running out it was money in your pocket.' But the old craft skills were not enough to keep the steelmaking lead that Britain once held. Other countries built huge new plants, close to cheap raw materials. Britain was tied to the Victorian inheritance with too many small and outdated works. Though many saw the need for rationalisation, little was done about it.
Steel managers and workers describe the boom times when they could sell everything they could make, and the painful upheavals of the past ten years, as change was forced on them.
Music by CARL DAVIS. Film editor DAVID HEAD Producer GLYNN JONES
Executive producer PETER PAGNAMENTA
+ Subtitles on Ceefax page 270