Teesside Iron and Steel Memories Interview: Ivan Wetherall

Background & early work:
Born 7/8/1942 at Stockton
Dad in the Army, so travelled around a lot as a youngster
Back in Stockton as a 13yr old. Grandmother died, and mother came home to look after grandfather
Attended Mill Lane Boys school
Father's family lived in Redcar & 1st experience of steelworks was seeing from train on way to visit.
Left school @ 15yr to go to Stockton & Billingham Tech. college for 1 year
Got a Technical apprenticeship with Quayside Engineering in Stockton
Moved around depts. for experience, but settled in Drawing Office
Day release 1day/wk for 3 yrs to ONC Mech Engineering while in the drawing office
Finished apprenticeship @ 20/21 yr old after 5 yrs
Deferred National Service, but this was abolished by the end of apprenticeship
Joined the Merchant Navy@ 21yr (Had decided to do so in preference to military service, and decided to stay with the decision even though Nat Serv had been abolished)
By end 1962, had a job with Esso working on tankers
Spent 4yrs in the MN on various tankers
Didn't see much of the world except oil terminals unless the ship had a problem & had to put into port for repairs
Learned a lot about engineering
Met his wife @ Redcar Jazz Club, eventually saving enough to leave the MN, come home @ get married.

Employment after leaving the sea:
Secured a job a@ ICI Wilton as a fitter (had to obtain Union Card based on MN experience first)
Living at Stockton, travelled to work on ICI transport.
Worked on unfamiliar diesel engines, but then moved to the power station where the work was more suitable - 'Similar to a giant ships engine room'.
Personnel reviewed his record & offered a job as Development technician @ British Visqueen @ Stockton
Having moved to Middlesbrough by then, now had to provide own transport back to Stockton
After 9 months, moved to Ashmore, Benson & Pease as a Dev't Technician on better money for 2½ years
Then on to Foster Wheeler John Brown Boilers @ Hartlepool as a Development Engineer
Most people in the dept were ex Royal or Merchant Navy engineers, so IW fitted in well
In 1971, at age 29yr, was offered a job at British Steel Corp'n @ Hartlepool South Works in Brenda Rd (next door to Foster Wheeler)
MM2 middle management job in the Tubes Division, NE Coast Pipeworks Research Dept, working on engineering issues in the 20", 44" & 84" Pipe Mills at Hartlepool & Stockton
The product mix covered a wide size range of pipe products:
The 20" Mill used coil plate feedstock from Lackenby, continuously formed & welded into pipe <20" diameter for oil & gas and constructional uses. Some of this was then hot-formed into RHS (Rectangular Hollow Sections)
The 44" Mill used individual steel plates forming these by a U and O forming process, then welded along the seam to produce individual pipes for the newly expanding gas transmission market
The 84" Mill at Stockton (the old 'Malleable' plant) rolled individual plates to cylinders, then welded them to large diameter (<84") pipes for various uses, including water transmission.
The job mainly involved problem-solving in the Mills, or at external customers' premises - answering complaints, analysing causes of problems etc. IW would consider engineering issues, metallurgists would look at materials' problems and then come to a considered view of the solution.
While working @ Foster Wheeler, IW had car-shared to travel to Hartlepool, but at BSC he was independent
Travel expenses for moving between the various sites helped with costs here
After IW had been 2yrs at Hartlepool, BSC opened a new Research Centre @ Ladgate Lane in Middlesbrough (which subsequently became the Cleveland Police HQ) and had vacancies for new staff, and he secured a transfer to work there
This was very close to home & he could then walk to work
This was the end of the interview, though IW noted that he had 27yrs more service in British Steel, to be explored at a future time.