Teesside Iron and Steel Memories Interview: Don Whitfield

Background & early work:
Born 22/2/1928 in Whitley Bay
Dad worked in Newcastle & moved to Darlington in 1935 (out of work in the 'slump' & got a job in Darlington in 1934)
Attended Grammar School in Darlington & left at 16yrs during WW2
Went to work in Robert Stephenson's locomotive works in Darlington where his father & brother worked
4 years shop experience, mainly on jig & tool work making jigs & tools for the various shops, then moved to the Drawing Office at 20yrs old
Left at 22yrs old when steam locos were in decline
Moved to Carlisle to an engineering foundry company for a year, then on to Vickers Armstrong at Scotswood
Stayed 3 years - excellent experience on design work
Then moved nearby to a satellite factory of Aveling Barford
Main plant was in Grantham, but could not expand there, so established a facility in Newcastle. DW was soon moved to the R&D Dept in Grantham
Expected to be there 3 mnths, but stayed 3 years - didn't like Grantham (too flat & boring) but the work was excellent.
Decided to move back North & planned to go to Head Wrightson at Stockton but never made it and joined Ashmore's (Ashmore, Benson & Pease) instead, who designed & built blast furnaces & other heavy steel-works plant
This was in 1956 when he was 28yrs old
Plenty of work then - lots of opportunities for mechanical engineers
Speculative interview - needed people like him & ended in the Blast Furnace Department where he stayed for 34 years
Fortunate timing, as his boss retired 4yrs later and DW became Head of the department
Never bought a home in Grantham (lived in a caravan) so re-location was easy
Lived in caravan near the works until he built a house in Kirklevington

The Ashmore's years:
DW was used to export business
Everywhere he worked had exported ~80% of product and Ashmore's was the same
Travelled extensively during his career
About 20 countries worldwide - India, S America, S Africa, Canada, Japan etc
The Business was competitive, but people from all companies became friends
Ashmore's had been building & exporting furnaces since the late 1930's, so DW got involved when a new or replacement furnace was required
They had a licence with McKee of the USA who supplied furnaces to the Ford Motor Company, who at that time had their own blast furnaces
When the Dagenham plant needed refurbishment, they came to Ashmore's
This was typical of his work
Help Sales team with mechanical engineering issues
Advise client on what is best for him
Responsible for the mechanical content of manufacture
Maybe 50/50 in the UK and on site
Then build on site & be present for commissioning
Then associated follow-up, up-grading, new components for old furnaces etc
Generally spent about 2 months of every year away from the office
Ashmore's built the first 2 furnaces at Llanwern soon after DW joined
They then wanted a 3rd, modern furnace
DW and colleagues went to Japan to seek an alliance with one of the leading manufacturers there (Iwata) and used that design for Llanwern, and others in South Africa etc
Then in the early 1970's the Redcar blast furnace was planned to be the biggest in Europe (14 metre hearth diameter producing 10,000 tonnes of iron per day)
The charging mechanism was critical to the furnace design
Ashmore's had an existing association with a German company called 'Poor Works?' [Paul Wurth] who had what they regarded as the best design, so they chose this ahead of the Japanese option
The furnace ran for 10 years and then there was a re-build
British Steel also ordered a similar furnace for Port Talbot (which was never officially announced) and the components for this were manufactured & delivered to Redcar, and put in storage
This furnace was never built at Port Talbot and the components were subsequently used for the re-build at Redcar

Other issues:
DW always enjoyed his work - problems were always challenging
Health & Safety in many countries was virtually non-existent
Social life at Ashmore's was quite active eg via the social club in Stockton, but DW lived some way away at Kirklevington, so did not really participate
Went to social gatherings like weddings
Still socialises (to 2009) with one ex colleague, but otherwise only sees others at funerals etc
Father & brother were both in the locomotive business
Dad went down coal mine at 16yrs for 2 years, then to Hawthorn locomotive works in Newcastle and then to Stephenson's works in Darlington
DW got lots of job satisfaction from problem solving
Examples were Dungeness power station; issues with a New Zealand steel-plant; a potential new blast furnace in Venezuela that did not materialise
Often spent a lot of time waiting for access to a working steel-plant with only a short time spent actually working on the problem
Ashmore's built a big blast furnace in Canada, and six families moved there and stayed when the job was complete
He retired at 61yrs old when work was dropping off and Ashmore's were looking for early retirees