In February 2024 we had a lecture on East Moors and the South Wales Steel Industry from Professor Louise Miskell.  It was well attended, not just by our members but also by people who had connections with the steelworks including ex-workers themselves. The audience shared their recollections and a discussion ensued about how best to capture those memories. People were encouraged to write down their experiences and recollections.  Geoff Harris took up that challenge and has been busy recording his memories of working as a Steelworks Electrician.  Even better, he has agreed to share his memories with us in the form of an evocative document entitled ‘Memories of a Steelworks Electrician’.  Evocative may seem a strange word to use in connection with a steelworks but Geoff has certainly captured not just the history but the feeling for what it was like working there, the heat, noise and dusty environment. 

Geoff began life in Grangetown.  His father was in the merchant navy before he suffered an accident.  On recovering he got a job in the steelworks .  Geoff followed him into the steel works in 1961 began his career as a humble mail boy.  It wasn’t long before he commenced a 5 year electrical apprenticeship attending college at the same time, which finished at the age of 21. 

After training he declined a job in the drawing office preferring to be an electrician on the steel manufacturing plant itself.  Geoff became shift foreman, the youngest foreman they had ever had in the Engineering Department.

As an electrician Geoff worked throughout the steelworks, visiting every stage of the steel manufacturing process as equipment needed maintaining and repairing.  Geoff has a good clear memory.  We are taken on a virtual tour of the East Moors works from unloading of raw materials at the wharf through to the finished product via such stages as the coke ovens, blast furnaces, melting shop, various steel milling operations. We learn about the various pieces of electrical equipment including giant motors that need repairing or replacing in areas hard to access with hostile working environments.  Safety, or lack of it, is a concurrent theme as are environmental conditions.

Geoff’s memoirs begin with his memories of attending Ninian Park School before work and then a very successful career after leaving the steelworks in 1974 when the steel works closure was imminent.

Thank you Geoff for sharing your memories with us. We hope people get as much enjoyment out of reading them as we did.  Just click the link below.

Link to Memories of a Steelworks Electrician by Geoffrey Harris