The Social Worlds of Steel. Re-thinking Industrial History and Heritage

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This project explores how the steel industry shaped lives and communities in twentieth-century Britain. Based in Swansea, and using newly-catalogued archival material, the researcher will use Wales as a regional case study to examine the corporate influence of leading steel firms over the workplace behaviours and social lives of employees and their families. Through their role as providers of amenities, housing, sports facilities, transport and services in towns like Shotton, Ebbw Vale, Newport and Port Talbot, the reach of large steel companies extended well beyond the workplace. This research project aims to better understand the social impact of steel by considering how workers and their families responded to corporate culture in four key spaces of interaction between steel firm and community:1. NeighbourhoodAmbitious, steel industry-related housing initiatives such as the planning of Sealand Garden City in Shotton from 1917, and the construction of Sandfields Estate in Port Talbot in the 1950s had a profound impact on the urban landscape as steelworks and their labour forces grew in the twentieth century. Combining company and local authority housing records with evidence from oral interviews and sociological surveys, this part of the project will ask: how effective were steel firms in meeting the housing needs of their workers; and how were these new residential neighbourhoods viewed by the intended occupants?2. Social Interactions in the WorkplaceSteelworks were highly segmented workplaces. Employees were differentiated into craft, process and white collar divisions as well as a host of different production departments. How did steel employees respond to the compartmentalised nature of their workplace? How did the provision of canteens, washing and changing spaces and toilet facilities reflect status divisions in the workplace? How were differences of role and status signalled through conventions such as clothing and forms of address? What resilience, if any, did employees show in response to these practices? Company records, including minutes of Works Councils will be used to examine how these workplace structures were challenged and tested by employees.3. Leisure SpacesSteel companies invested heavily in sports and leisure facilities for their employees, but what did these investments deliver? Company-generated publicity represented steelworks sports and social clubs as well-supported institutions which fostered workplace identity and company loyalty. Using oral evidence and minutes of internal meetings, the accuracy of this picture will be questioned. What motivated steel firms to invest in these facilities? Did steelworkers embrace corporate social life, or were the alternative attractions of home or neighbourhood social clubs more compelling? 4. Domestic SpaceIn the years after 1945, changing worker identities and the growing importance of the home (over the club or works institution) as the main space occupied by the steelworker outside working hours, led steel companies to attempt to extend their reach into the domestic and family lives of their employees. Evidence from company newspapers and oral testimonies will be used to ask: what measures did firms use to connect with the families and social worlds of their employees? How did workers and their families respond to this corporate presence in the world of their home? By investigating the social worlds of steel, the research aims to transform the way we understand the role of the industry in our past, moving away from more dominant economic perspectives which rarely position people and places centre stage. Through a range of outputs and engagement activities aimed at public audiences and heritage professionals, the project findings will inform new thinking on representations of steel in museums, and give the residents of steel communities, past and present, a greater sense of their place in industrial history.