In BBC Radio Scotland’s new series Junior Historians, pupils from schools around Scotland delve into their local history and produce their own radio documentary. This week, taking over the microphones are the Primary 6 pupils of St Michael’s Primary school in Glasgow as they set out to discover more about the history of the Parkhead Forge.

Nowadays The Forge is best known as a large shopping centre in Glasgow’s East End but as the pupils discover it takes its name from the former Beardmore and Co Steel works site. Once a major employer in their local community, this was a place where everything from guns and ammunition to armour plate for warships were made.

As well as speaking to historians to find out more about William Beardmore and the products that his steel works produced, the pupils hear the stories and memories first hand from of some of the men who once worked in the Forge before it closed its doors for the last time in 1976. Show less