The Manufacture of Steel - 1945 - CharlieDeanArchives / British Council Archival Footage

Proud to say that no safety equipment was harmed in the making of this movie.

The Forge Master was like a conductor. He and his team deserved a standing ovation for their skill. I suspect they wouldn't want bouquets.

Narrator was John Laurie who had a long career as an actor but is mainly remembered now for the part of James Frazer, the undertaker in the TV comedy series Dads Army.

This is such a beautiful film. The color, darks in contrast to the fiery sparks, the narration, Muir Matheson's musical direction. It's an industrial film, but it's also a work of art. Love it.

Fabulous film, worthy tribute to all involved in our departed iron and steel industry - and they were all bloody magnificent heroes.

My grandfather worked in the steel works of Teeside up to just before WW2. Built into his wages was a beer allowance to keep up the hydration. He lived to be 84 which I suspect was above the average.

"We need to move the molten steel from this place to that place. . What's the best most efficient and modern way to do that?" "How about we make channels out of piles of dirt along the floor? And if the dirt channels start to break or crumble, we can pay a guy a penny a day to stand there with a shovel and repair it?" "Very well! That sounds reasonable!"

It weren't that much different in the early 1970's, when I first started in the steelworks of Rotherham. Almost all gone now, and soon will be.

I had 3 relatives on my dad’s side who worked at Holwell Works. One was a driver in the foundry, they found a small piece of steel in his eye when he was older during a cataract surgery. Another worked in the engine sheds overhauling the locos and the third was a joiner making the moulds for the molten steel. He used to take a sack of loco coal home and every so often had to get a new fire grate cast as the coal would melt and distort the fire grate. It’s nice to see what it would have been like where they worked.

Having done an apprenticeship in (very) light engineering, we "learnt" about converting ore into iron, iron into steel but the huge scale of how it actually happens (in the UK happened) is made clear by such truly educational films. Wonderful. The workers were very skilled but the work was dangerous, backbreaking and terrible for their long term health. I'm glad my path led to a world of Hi-Tech.

Fascinating..! My deep respect to the workers..

At one time Britain use to be known as the workshop of the world. Now look at us!

Stunning. Very direct commentary. Outstanding camerawork. I learned so much.

In some ways technical advanced for 1945, but still incredible skill was needed without automated or computerised controls of proces parameters. In the part of rolling of armour plate the throwing of tree branches on the steel wasn't done to remove the scale, it was done to raise the carbon content of the outer layer of the plate to make it hard and more difficult for rounds to penetrate, yet the inside stayed softer and therefore less brittle to prevent the armour from shattering on impact.

So much done just by eye - incredible!

Wonderful video. So amazing to see how things were done back then

Beautiful movie! Wonderful piece of industrial history!

Awesome video. Thx

Fascinating. Thank you.

This video is so enjoyable to watch. I’m always amazed at the work it takes to produce, cast and forge steel into the numerous products that we use in our day to day lives.