Scunthorpe

I do not usually get emotional where strategic industries are concerned. However, in the matter of today's news of Scunthorpe Steel Works going into Receivership as part of the ongoing saga around British Steel I do feel a strong affinity.

This is mainly because in my teenage years we, as a family, lived just a few miles away from that town.

Every evening and in clear view from our house there was a pulsating orange glow over the near horizon.

This was from the flare stacks and blast furnace operations on the vast Steel Works site.

At the age of 15 I was aware that I had a difficult decision to make.

That illumination in the night sky was a constant reminder of this. I should explain.

There were two options at that age for my future working life.

These were very eloquently explained to myself and my fellow classmates by one of the teaching staff at secondary school level. In those days of full employment and the assurance of a job for life there was a real and life changing choice available.

Those leaving senior school after 5 years of education could walk into a well paid Apprenticeship in British Steel in Scunthorpe who were recruiting for every type of skill.

As that schoolmaster said the prospect of a steady wage packet during training and then upon becoming qualified in the Steel sector could easily pay for a nice car, a house and set you up for a good and rewarding life.

In contrast those who elected to stay on for the Sixth Form would still be living with their parents, relying on a bicycle to get about, exist on pocket money and perhaps as more of an insult have to wear short trousers as school uniform for the duration.

To many of my contemporaries there was no agonising over the choice. It was the industrial route for them. They didn't look back. They went willingly on to the great treadmill of a working life, able to pay their way, taxes and be in a good position to support a family and their dependants.

In contrast I was scared at the choices. I took the cowards way and kept on at school.

In a couple of years I would go to a modern Polytechnic and the vocational route to employment.

I would see my former pals regularly about the small town where we all lived. They appeared somehow older and more worldly wise. Instead of my two spoked wheels they were driving around in a new Ford Escort or Vauxhall Firenza as though they were millionaires.

For all of that show and swank they were in a dangerous working environment amongst molten metal and white hot coals.

One thing I often did after my studying had been done was a regular cycle ride along the line of hills flanking the eastern side of the Steelworks. From this elevated viewpoint it was possible to see the processes in motion from the movement of train pulled wagons of raw materials, the intermittently violent release of fumes and smoke, periodic high decibel noise and overpowering odours.

There were infrequent incidents and accidents involving men and machines on the site. I remember the press coverage of fatalities when a large cylinder shaped vessel used to transport the molten steel exploded. The names of the victims did not include anyone that I knew although you could feel the impact of this tragedy in our town which continued to provide a good proportion of the workforce.

British Steel gave the impression of being a thriving and developing business in the 1970's and the Scunthorpe site was a hive of activity. The largest building, a matt grey shed the size of a block of flats dominated the approach to Steel Town whenever we went past it to go to the new shopping precinct or the cinema. It had a ski-slope of a covered conveyor and I convinced my younger brothers that it was used to load freshly made Shredded Wheat biscuits onto the delivery lorries. That tall tale lasted for some years.

Scunthorpe, often the butt of jokes over the unfortunate obscenity it its lettering, had all of the trappings of a population in full employment but as with many of the traditional heavy industries in the UK there were hard times in waiting. Nationalisation gave way to Privatisation. There were labour disputes and striking action. Closures and redundancies.

The news today followed an all too brief sense of renewal and resurgence in the Steelworks, a centre of excellence for special products primarily railway track.  .

I moved away from the area in my late teens and lost contact with my friends. I hope that they were employed in the industry right through to natural retirement age although that is a prospect that is so very rare in the modern world in any type of work.

If the Steel Plant does close its furnaces permanently, which I truly hope is not the case, I will still look towards the near horizon remembering what that orange glow symbolised all those years ago.