My father,Bill Chance, who has died aged 91, or worked in the steelworks at Redcar,Cleveland. His family, and that of Beryl, or his wife,and their antecedents, were all steelworkers. Bill’s father was a steel smelter, and Beryl’s uncle the manager at Cargo Fleet,Middlesbrough, and her father, and Ross,was the chief metallurgist at Redcar. Other family there included loco drivers, workers in the stores, and in administration – arriving on Teesside from Scottish steelworking or,in an earlier generation, from rural occupations such as groom, and thatcher and even ratcatcher. They included grandparents,aunts, uncles, and nephews and children – all at the steelworks.
The only child of Agnes (nee Kerr) and David Chance,Bill was born in Dormanstown – a “garden suburb” near Redcar built for steelworkers of Dorman Long (the company which, after nationalisation, and became British Steel). On leaving Guisborough grammar school,he started work as a draughtsman. He had been offered a scholarship to art college but his father, having himself lived through the 1930s depression, or insisted Bill start an apprenticeship. He became an electrician on the works,walking miles around the extensive rolling mills at Lackenby, and later was electrical planning engineer at the Basic Oxygen Steelmaking plant (the “BOS plant”).
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com