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The Decline of Sheffield & Rotherham's
steel industries
The Don Valley between Sheffield and Rotherham was once full of steelworks and many thousands of families relied on steel for their living.
The Song of Steel offers a glimpse inside the lives of men and women who worked in the industry. In its heyday the
city thumped to the sound of heavy drop forges working night and day, pub tables had guard rails to stop glasses vibrating
onto the floor, and the air was black with dirt from the factory chimneys. Interviewer Vince Hunt talked to more than forty
men and women who tell of hard shifts working alongside red-hot furnaces and the humour and stoicism that enabled them to
survive such a world. Many of the stories are about the Steel, Peach and Tozer steelworks in Rotherham, pictured above circa
1947 by Sheffield artist Terry Gorman.
Steelos
(John Tams)
I 'ad no choice and if I 'ad I'd still 'av chosen steel
They can do their worst agenst us they'll not change the way
we feel
Me father's father did it and I know it's all but gone
There were a 100,000 of us along the Rother and the Don.
Goin'
down to Steelo's
Get mesen a start
Dunna ler it cobble
It'll tear the place apart
Catch it as it's comin'
Throw
the bugger back
Keep your tongues upon the metal
And your eyes upon the track.
I got a start at Steelo's, Me
dad put in a word
His dad 'ad done the same for 'im, That's how the work got shared
The mill roared like a dragon's
den, the Tonguemen prove their power
Catchin' white-hot metal comin' 40 mile an hour.
Goin' down to Steelo's
Get
mesen a start
Dunna ler it cobble
It'll tear the place apart
Catch it as it's comin'
Throw the bugger back
Keep
your tongues upon the metal
And your eyes upon the track.
Publishing: Topic Records
Sung by John Tams and Barry Coope
Vulcan and Lucifer
(John Tams)
Vulcan sez to Lucifer, "Tha's fallen into t'neet It's me as meks this valley ring and keeps these flames aleet". Lucifer
to Vulcan sez, "I'm still the gaffa here I've signed up another demon and it's 'im you'll come to fear So it's nowt
to do wi' me owd lad." Vulcan sez "I know thee game I bet Thatcher's got a hand in this." Sez Lucifer "For shame!" "Come
on Lucy, what's the beggar called?" He answered wi a grin "Maggie sez his name's MacGregor. It wont be t'last you'll hear of 'im." Publishing: Topic Records
It's Curtains
(Ray Hearne)
Look at me curtains
I must wash me curtains
I must wash me curtains
Before he comes home
He says mine
are t'cleanest on Attercliffe Road
He hates mucky curtains
He hates mucky curtains
He says mucky curtains
Means
bugs in an 'ouse
He says mine are t'cleanest on Attercliffe Road
You can't keep 'em clean love
Wit' muck
out o't chimneys
They're yellow wi sulphur
In two or three days
He says mine are t'cleanest on Attercliffe road
When
we were first married
He'd laugh and he'd tease me
He'd swear he could see 'em
From Staniforth Road
He says
mine are t'cleanest on Attercliffe road
I told him this morning
Just last thing this morning
I'll have 'em well
fettled
By t'time you come home
He says mine are t'cleanest on Attercliffe Road
Look at me curtains
I
must wash them curtains
I'll iron 'em and hang 'em
Before he comes home
He says mine are t'cleanest on Attercliffe
road
But he's not coming home love
They've been from the mill love
A ladle of molten's
Gone all ovver t'men
He
says mine are t'cleanest on Attercliffe Road
He's covered in bruises
He bruises so easy
He's still black and
blue
From that cobble last week
He says mine are t'cleanest on Attercliffe Road
What am I thinking?
What
time is it now love?
I must wash my curtains
They'll need to be clean
He says mine are t'cleanest on Attercliffe
Road
Publishing: Voice
Sung by Kate Rusby
Crane Driver
(Julie Matthews)
Me brother said I don't believe it still
They're taking on women at the rolling mill
So I went down and I put in
me name
When I turned 18 I was a crane driver
Turned 18 I was a crane driver
With a gentle touch upon the wheel
Make
no mistakes with red hot steel
12 hour shifts, me take home pay
£9 a week for a crane driver
£9 pay for a crane driver
In
me black battle dress I was as plain as a mouse
So I sewed on buttons to match me blouse
Pink one day and blue the next
It's
warm work for a crane driver
Warm work for a crane driver
I'd tap me foot to the drop hammer
Waiting for the
whistle to move that steel
Way up here I'm the queen of the foundry
'Til the boys come home I'm a crane driver
The
boys come home I'm a crane driver
Publishing: Circuit Music Ltd
Sung by Julie Matthews
Unity (Raise Your Banners)
(John Tams)
Bound together through the land
Stand up - stand up now
Brother sister make a stand
Stand up - stand up now
Keep
the spirit keep the way
Stand up - stand up now
Unity will win the day
Stand up - stand up now
Those who stand
against all strife
Stand up - stand up now
Fight to win a better life
Stand up - stand up now
Those who stand
for liberty
Stand up - stand up now
Fight to keep the future free
Stand up - stand up now
Raise your banners
high
Strength to strength and line by line
Unity must never die
Raise your banners high
Though the struggle
brings you pain
Stand up - stand up now
Yours will be the final gain
Stand up - stand up now
Though the struggle
brings you tears
Stand up - stand up now
You shall hear the victory cheers
Stand up - stand up now
Raise your
banners high (etc)
Sung by John Tams
The pedigree for this song goes back to 1984 and the play "Six Men of Dorset",
from whence it became an anthem for the striking miners at that time - "it got sung on the picket line, which I thought was
about a big a tribute as could be paid to anybody, to be so incorporated - that was enough for me."
- John Tams
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