Teesside Iron and Steel Memories Interview: John Chilvers

Background & Early Work:
Born 16/2/1950, one of 2 brothers, in South Bank like his father & grandfather before him
Lived for first 16mnths in his grandfather's house in Cromwell Rd
Moved a few times, but still lives in South bank
Great uncle was a fitter in the steelworks & his younger brother also a fitter, who moved around the works - relined blast furnaces, worked on power stations etc.
Grandfather was a lighthouse keeper for TCC at Barnish [Bran sands?] near Seal Sands
Father worked on the railway, then moved to ICI for better pay & conditions
Went to Eston Grammar School, passed 'A' Level maths, physics & chemistry
Went to university to study computer science, but didn't get his degree
Good with computers, but struggled with maths & physics
Had 6mnths with British Gas but didn't get full time work
Joined British Steel in 1972, sent by Job Centre
BSC were looking for someone with 'A' Level maths to work on a new product costings project
Worked on logging & recording shift outputs from the Beam Mill - product types, piece weights (input & output) with different codes for each product
These were computer inputs passed to the computer centre next door
Did this for 6 years, and in 1978 moved to a section Leader's job at Cleveland Works doing essentially similar work covering the mills there
Small group of 3 people in the invoice dept. Self-contained, not much working contact with others
Rarely went into the mills - very little reason to go
After a year or two, moved in with the rest of Works Records near the main entrance to Lackenby Works
Started there in early 1980 at the start of the steel strike
Didn't want to strike, but had no vote, so no choice
Strike decision made by the Union
No's 3, 7 & 9 Mills at Cleveland were closed at end 1979 just before the strike
JC worked on N0 12 Mill but that also closed in Aug 1980
Went to watch the last section rolled, then to Dorman's club for the last goodbye
That was the end of his association with British Steel

Working arrangements & Social Issues:
No real Health & Safety issues
Noted in the early days in Works records when women first joined the team, there were no separate toilet facilities. This changed soon as more women joined the workforce.
Works canteen was handy - one chef had been a professional pastry cook, so the food was often good & filling
Kept most of his wage records
Started in 1972 on £95/month gross basic, but then regular indexed increases were included to cope with high inflation. Gross monthly actual pay was £113
Still living at home then with his parents & younger brother
Brother started at BSC before him on the Apprentice Training Scheme
Social life was limited - never generally socialised at work or used Dorman's club etc. Met up with old school friends for a drink etc
After JC left, the Cleveland mills had closed but the blast furnaces & colliery arch plant still operated
3 Clay Lane blast furnaces plus 2 Merchant Iron furnaces ('manganese furnaces') continued to operate pending construction of the Redcar blast furnace.

Miscellaneous Recollections:
Struck by the differences between soaking pits at Lackenby & Cleveland
Lackenby was a big modern building above ground heated by gas
Cleveland was old & the pits were literally holes in the ground
One day putting documents into storage, came across old blueprints from Bolckow & Vaughan - never knew what happened to them
There was a large 1903 Collingwood's pendulum clock in one office. The office was painted shortly before closure and the clock pendulum was damaged while moving it.