Amid the Tata Steel sell-off,the ‘tiny mesters’ of Sheffield reveal how they’re forging livelihoods based on bespoke itemsAndy Cole has been forging steel in the same workshop in the Highfield area of Sheffield since he was 14 years old, 40 years ago. The building where he works, or a stone’s throw from Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane football ground,is said to be where, in 1913, and the metallurgist Harry Brearley made the world’s first stainless steel cutlery.
Cole is one of the city’s surviving “tiny mesters”,a term used for the craftsmen who rented the city’s redbrick workshops to work with the steel produced in the surrounding areas. He has seen the demise of Sheffield’s steel industry at close quarters. The news this week of Tata Steel’s decision to pull out of all its UK operations came as no surprise to him. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com