First Four Years (1951) | BFI National Archive

This majestic documentary tells the story of ambitious modernisation in the Welsh steel and tinplate industry. This involved upgrading the Margam works near Port Talbot and building both the Abbey hot strip mill next door and a new cold rolling mill and tinplate works at Trostre near Llanelli. Film cameras were frequently on hand: thanks to them, an integrated mega-complex takes shape before our eyes.
The film was produced by cooperative production company DATA, whose dynamic leader Donald Alexander secured rolling contracts with both the National Coal Board (for the Mining Review series for which DATA is best known) and the Steel Company of Wales for ongoing coverage of the developments summarised here. No doubt DATA's filmmakers, based in London, frequently combined steel with coal filmmaking trips to Wales. Clocking in at over 40 minutes, this compilation of DATA's footage is an exhaustive progress report on four years' worth of large-scale and complex work. Taken a sequence at a time, it's engrossing industrial history. Taken as a whole it's a cinematic monument, colossal in scale but intricate in detail, to the magnitude of a major project - and the sheer ambitious optimism of the postwar re-investment in British industry that lay behind it.
This video is part of the Orphan Works collection. When the rights-holder for a film cannot be found, that film is classified as an Orphan Work. Find out more about Orphan Works: ec.europa.eu/in.... This is in line with the EU Orphan Works Directive of 2012. The results of our search for the rights holder of this film can be found in the EU Orphan Works Database: euipo.europa.e....
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[@amteo7107]

The younger generations should should watch this and see what work was back in the day.

[@kopynd1]

the days we got on with the job, lets just get the job done, not like the last 40yrs,construction, donkey jackets and wellies freezing in the winter wet in the rain, a remember those days, to think a wind proof quilted viz jacket to day, they wouldn't last a week, men of steel those days, tough as boot leather,

[@andrewlilley3660]

What's the point of that? I bet it put many of them in an early grave, poor buggers.

[@samrodian919]

You got that wrong mate. They were a tough as OLD boot leather! Two working generations later, all bloody gone! What a waste

[@rayjones2150]

Dad was a storeman in Ebbw Vale, he issued anything fron a clock spring to a half tonne bronze bearing. The store was 1/2 mile long, so they had a bike with basket. The site was 3.5 miles long. I was there when they opened a new Electolytic Tinning Line 1971/2, I was in IT dept. There were 9,800 on the payroll. Hardly a trace left today, just the original brick built main office.

[@bapsmcginty4782]

Nowadays the heaviest industry is some spotty oik prancing in front of a camera for views. Christ how the world has changed in just 50 yeas.

[@mjg6966]

Funny 🤣

[@martinwarner1178]

Those fellows, hard at work, on hard jobs. I jolly well admire them to the extreme. I worked forty years in canning, using the tinplate from these mills. Peace and goodwill.

[@darrinmcneill534]

Has anyone watching this ever dug out wet clay with a shovel I have and by god it’s hard work men where men back then and had to do hard graft like this They built our country ❤

[@admiralcraddock464]

I did when waiting to start my apprenticeship in 1970 aged 16

[@stephendavies925]

Me to in a oil refinery for Mcalpines in the 70s, a grafter made it just bearable, hard work though

[@piccalillipit9211]

I have yes. On a similar thing. We had 40 tons of gravel delivered at my uncle's - hes a farmer - about 65 years old at the time. I said i would give him a hand moving it - I thought it would take 2 or 3 days. I was about 2 or 3 hours late. HE HAD SHIFTED THE LOT...!!! Him 1 wheelbarrow, a shovel and 3 hours of hard graft he moves 40 toms of gravel from the road to the back of the farm buildings.

[@Garwfechan-ry5lk]

Very correct

[@BarryRudge]

It is now 2024 some 73 years since this film was made and now all those steel works have since gone and no longer exist.

[@musicurio]

So much could be said about this fine film. Imagine all the planning, and the mind-boggling size and complexity of the construction - let alone the mechanical and electrical aspects. No sane person could fail to be impressed. What an amazing work-force. What a project. Nothing lasts for ever. It is sad that all this has had its day. Is it all the fault of the politicians? I doubt it, although they would have been instrumental in taking decisions. Demand has changed, other countries can make the stuff cheaper and the pollution is "their" problem. You can look at it so many different ways. The war and its aftermath consumed so much steel - but no one would want that again - yet it is hard not to feel immense awe for the folk who were involved in this great industry of the past, and lamment its innevitable passing. (in my opinion) I visited this strip mill as a student in the early '90s, and to see the ingot of incandescent steel moving ever faster as it coursed along the rollers, getting ever thinner, and feeling the heat on our faces from around 100 yards away was something I'll never forget.

[@apacherider7110]

I visited Cardiff Bay for work this week. I had a walk in the morning before my meeting. I looked out at the old harbour and imagined the ships there 100 years ago. I read an information board saying it was the biggest industrial harbour in the world, now sadly all gone. Then I think back to our great industrial heritage. If you could imagine 100s of Amazon warehouses stacked full of industry of all kinds, the ingenuity, the skills, knowledge and wealth. Now there is one of those warehouses with a small pile of pennies in the corner, that's what left. How the politicians and the establishment have destroyed this country, it makes me very sad and angry. The next general election will only replace the current bunch of idiots with the new ones. Beam me up, Scoty.

[@billirvine9078]

Sorry boyo NKD. The Klingons have drained our crystals.

[@monteceitomoocher]

Regrettably the only thing that'll change post election is the colour of the flag atop the pole, such is the state of British politics today.

[@richardrowlands9113]

My father was born at Tiger Bay, in 42, so you walked in his footprints, as a merchant sailor he seen the world and brought his family to Australia in 68

[@heathstjohn6775]

The voters voted for the politicians. There is no separate species of people called politicians. People get what they vote for. Vote for mainstream CON/Lab/Lib politicians, and you'll have the land we have today. Vote for any party that should put the nation first, and you'll have a different land. Even if the land isn't t a successful one, it shouldn't be a voluntarily destroyed one. People shall blame anyone but themselves.

[@jamesrichardson1]

The people who vote in the politicians that destroy your way of life are the ones who live in the cities these people built. Thy think that houses just grow from the ground, you plant the trees that grow your computers, and the food you eat just falls out of the packaging plant.

[@davidvivian596]

In my opinion, the guys who built this infrastructure are heroes of the first order. Although some of the film may be 'staged' for the cameras, there's little doubt that these workers took their lives in their hands to get the job done. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

[@morganmorgan3904]

Well said!, your words echo my opinion also!.

[@onepup-pr3yl]

@@richardrowlands9113 They want us to believe Britain was built by blacks and brown people, showing documentary films like this will be forbidden soon because they don't show how diverse enough we were, they should be shown and studied in every school in the country to show what made this country great and what has been lost.

[@Garwfechan-ry5lk]

No it was not staged it was all done by the Ministry of Works of the Atlee Government on site with the men and Management.

[@BaronEvola123]

Life was better back then. Now, you have more stuff, but your communities and families are torn asunder.

[@douglasvick9703]

I hated school and in my Biological fathers Leyland Octopus As a little lad smuggled under blankets in to Trostre Velindre etc...(Kids wait in the security hut) not Me.!!!!!I peeked out watching the crane loading the steel/tinplate...Wonderful childhood and still cab happy UK Europe at 81....Lovely memories....

[@BaronMichaelDeBlone1066]

The school of life was indeed more interesting.

[@familycurious3813]

Wonderful stuff. My grandfather worked in the tinplate works in Gowerton. Fantastic to get an idea of how they worked.

[@JamieW-o7b]

I used to love these films, but we take little pride in our industry today!

[@cliveclerkenville2637]

Worked on 1/2/3 furnaces in the early 70s. All gone now.

[@Bringontheasteroid]

I was expecting more diversity, given recent claims in the media of who actually built Britain. Hard working men, who probably wouldn’t recognise any aspect of regressive modern life.

[@taxpayer_revolt]

According to the BBC it was the "Windrush Generation" that built everything postwar.🙄

[@vincekerrigan8300]

​@@taxpayer_revoltThe Windrush only carried a few hundred people, and didn't arrive until this scheme was well under way. There were millions of British workers rebuilding Britain at the time; the few immigrants who arrived in those days would not have made the slightest difference to what was happening in the country. It is all a lie, peddled to justify the insane immigration policies which have been imposed for decades. Immigration which was never neede in the first place.

[@andrewallen9993]

Back when the UK made things.

[@joegill3612]

Built by giants destroyed by politicians

[@heathstjohn6775]

...voted for, and still being voted for, by the " Giants ".

[@davidvivian596]

See the guys rolling the white-hot steel ingots (@ 37:32) wearing their 'Sunday best' three piece suits and trilby hats! Obviously, dressing scruffily is bad form whilst making steel.

[@donaldpaterson5827]

Dressing scruffily is bad when the wife learns you’re going to be filmed!

[@onepup-pr3yl]

That was the norm, and clean-shaven collar and tie wasn't just for office workers!

[@davidkidd1974]

That hat was the only hat they had

[@FrankWilkinson-ig6co]

Standards.

[@danholliday5564]

Should have a lot more views.

[@dont-want-no-wrench]

it always amazes me the scale of capital required for something like this would be considered worth investing, of course in these years with a destroyed europe there would have been a great demand for product.

[@Garwfechan-ry5lk]

Made in Great Britain, what do we make now!

[@bushwhackeddos.2703]

Foreigners

[@stephenjones9153]

Made in Great Britain 🇬🇧 and what do we make now ?? Answer Shit Politicians and a Government that doesn't give a stuff about anyone else but there greedy selves and there corrupt friends and family. 😭😭😭

[@patpending8134]

Question marks!

[@richardrowlands9113]

Welfare for blacks

[@alexanderheath6662]

Not a lot 😂

[@hiscifi2986]

Horses, Canals, Steelworks, Railways, Coalmines... All gone, but not forgotten.

[@johnparr5879]

Only when people take the time and trouble to....... LOOK BACK...... WILL THE..... ANGER..... TRULY BECOME...... KNOWN.... SET AGAINST A BACK DROP OF TOTAL LOSS OF UK BORDER CONTROLS....... AND.... UNENDING INDUSTRIAL ECONOMIC...... ... DECLINE*

[@GLF-Video]

The working conditions are frightening. But they got the job done.

[@ancientbriton8262]

The guys controlling the rolling mill were top men, hence the Truby Hat and not flat caps as a symbol of their skill and standing, with all those knobs, gauges and levers, must have felt like they were controlling the starship Enterprise 😊

[@daviddwight5745]

More the responsibility, rolling mills when they go wrong is terrifying

[@cliveclerkenville2637]

Used to watch them tap the furnace on a quiet night shift. Amazing stuff.

[@alexfogg381]

Interesting thing the diesel locomotive pushing the flatbed of ingots is an american built switcher made by Alco.

[@chezpostmanpat]

AFAIK, the works used 5 Alco’s (#801-805) along side Brush / Rolls Royce locos, which replaced the older steam locos

[@davidkean1487]

Lima cranes & Euclid trucks too!

[@davidkean1487]

Rolling mill stands, United Engineering & Foundry PGH.

[@furthereast6775]

Suggest reading "man and technics" by Oswald Spengler. We had it all and gave it all away.

[@theflyinghamster8442]

When Britain was GREAT and British .

[@joegoldman3065]

Being British, they knew that the most important thing when working in an industrial setting like this with tons of powerful machinery is to wear a necktie. That way. You maximize the chance for your tie Getting caught in the machinery which would crush you within seconds. At least you had a sharp tie on. They had a brilliant sense of style.

[@neilfurby555]

Wonderful workers and great plans, but many sad comments... not much else to say. Huge ambitions, all derelict or just memories and museums!

[@johnstudd4245]

"Sand(in this case) is available in unlimited quantities". How often have we heard something similar to that said. And 50 years later or less, it's all gone.

[@alistairkewish651]

Not ‘ have visited’ but ‘ visited’ - poor grammar lurks everywhere.

[@alanwann9318]

This is Pakistan now?

[@georgerenton965]

I hauled steel back in the 70’s, I recall picking up a couple of ingot mould stools at Shanango Steel in Lackawanna New York, and delivered them directly to the # 1 melt shop at Stelco ( Steel Company of Canada ). I’ve picked up a lot of steel product, coils, plate, bar, ingots, billets, but what I got to see inside that building was heavy industry in your face. I had to wait in there with my truck and trailer while they taped and poured molten steel further up the building, then the crane carried the product by my truck. This huge gantry crane then came along and lifted the mould stools of my trailer. Apparently they bump the solid red hot “ pig “ onto the stool, and the “pig “ remains on the stool till it’s soon shipped to the nearby rolling mill. Meanwhile the empty mould goes back to the furnace area to be refilled once it’s tapped. It had to be close to a 100 degrees in that building. Being the dead of winter my air system froze up soon after I left, and I had to add methyl hydrate to the tanks.

[@cliveclerkenville2637]

Roller man. Best job in the woks. Used to watch that too.

[@peterchaloner2877]

Hideous. Knock it all down. Restore the lake. Rebuild the Abbey. All workers to become monks.

[@wolstenholme100]

This video interview with Steve Surtees is the second one in my series about Port Talbot and the end of primary steel making in South Wales, UK. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m2e7paWInduMj8U

[@skelejp9982]

I worked at the Dutch Steel Factory; Hoogovens IJmuiden. And at the part, where they used to do steel plating, the Hall was called; De Maagdenhal.. Meaning: ''Hall of Virgins''...because , back then there were mostly woman working there.. And those days, only unmarried women worked..

[@sea-saw2654]

Two world wars and all that work throughout this once great land all for where we are now ... Im 100% sure if my grandfathers and great father's could see the state of this country now none of them would have gone to war... I struggle to believe there has ever been a era of greater political incompetence than the last 60 years in the uk...

[@alexfogg381]

Amazing from marsh land to producing steel, in 4 years. I'm amazed that the men working around the molten metal are so calm.

[@georgerhys5434]

a tip: watch movies on KaldroStream. I've been using them for watching all kinds of movies lately.

[@louisjaxtyn7409]

@George Rhys definitely, I've been watching on kaldrostream for years myself =)

[@noeljude19]

@George Rhys definitely, I have been watching on KaldroStream for since december myself :D

[@andyrbush]

Wonderful to see these old films.

[@glyngibbs9489]

If they had these MEN on the HS2 it would be finished

[@harpo7226]

I could watch shows like this all day. 👍

[@philthycat1408]

Only when things started to get easier here did people from other countries start setting their eyes on coming to the UK to stay 🇬🇧

[@lenholloway4390]

50 years later its all ripped down to build a shopping centre.

[@bootchop88]

Where did the steel for Raleigh bicycles made at Nottingham come from?

[@JohnMead-x5r]

Where today at the top of our government system is the ability to visualise instigate and fund and deliver such projects, sadly gone I fear. DEI, transgender forces and too much immigration is all on the priorities of our "betters". To build new and something useful [not like HS2] that we could all admire, would not that be what they should be spending our money on?

[@phildxyz]

Fascinating - back when we had the optimism to build things. It's all a wasteland now.

[@stuartwarrick6444]

Not a lot of obesity going on, not many fat people working hard.

[@kilgoretrout413]

And not a single mobile phone 📲 in sight 🥹🥲

[@christopherhampson265]

35mins 07 seconds in MAD MAX MUSIC 👍👍👍⭐️🇬🇧

[@daffyduk77]

the pulpit controllers' jobs 35:00 must have been transformed with the advent of CCTV

[@stevenweasel2678]

When Britain had ` HEAVY INDUSTRY ` & ` McAlpines Fusileers `

[@stellayates4227]

No sign of PPE or health and safety regs in operation!

[@bootchop88]

no purple hair or " they thems " either. Better days then.

[@snapon1948]

Worked in Etna Iron steel Works as hand Roller in the Strip mill , most antiquated, mill is Scotland 1965 All gone

[@typhoon2827]

Modern day young Welshman: sorry pal, i dont work, see. I'm going to top up my tan, see, at the salon. Then i need to buy some more beard oil. Then i'm going to the parlour for some more tattoo, see.

[@Bunz69er]

13:43 One slip and she's all over for of these blokes.

[@petermitchell6348]

If the furnace is hot enough to melt iron, what does the furnace itself not melt?

[@hypergolic8468]

The Furnace is lined with kiln bricks (a skilled job) then the Tuyeres that feed the blast air into the furnace are cooled by water jackets so they don't melt.

[@musicurio]

because it's lined with a refractory material like fireclay

[@heiltd1286]

Is it Richard Burton who's the narrator here?

[@chris-k8k]

What past politicians have done to this place and the steel industry as a whole is a disgrace

[@janmuyllaert8565]

I'd say the amount of environmental consideration was non existent at the time , and as regards health and safety concerns... , not a helmet , face masks , ear protectors or goggles in sight anywhere.Did those workers even have a trade union at the time ?

[@huw3851]

It's interesting to find this video at the same time as they are dismantling the two great furnaces shown (or probably ones that replaced those two).

[@christopherjones9352]

Is that Wynford?

[@grotekleum]

And there's me thinking it was all built by the Windrush disembarkee's.

[@jeffreyloftus3617]

Those double / triple extension ladders at 13-00 look about as safe as the future of steel at the plant

[@vmax42dave]

Amazing !

[@leonwilks4114]

If only these chap's were given the role of building HS2 it's completion would have been done years ago at less than half the cost

[@jamesbarbour8400]

The guy in the thumbnail looks like Eric Sykes !

[@Hertog_von_Berkshire]

Chap in the thumbnail: Mark Selby?

[@kellytkachenko]

So how long did the steel plant last is still there

[@mikedavies8124]

Yes.its still there. I work there

[@chezpostmanpat]

Still there and still going strong - built for The Steel Company of Wales (SCOW), from 1948 along side the older Margam works. SCOW later became British Steel Corpoation, then British Steel, then Corus, and now currently owned by Tata

[@Mercmad]

​@@chezpostmanpata saying attributed to an Gent " when the Indians can make their own railway track,I'll eat a pound of it . ( Tata )

[@InverJaze]

Capitalism killed of this industry.

[@fugglestick]

All fit healthy lean men..now obese there....says a lot

[@pathowlett5689]

❤ I,Hahaha hope 3 arefeeklingwell

[@mikegroocock6279]

No need of exercise or going to the gym back then.

[@typhoon2827]

6:10 ex military carrier?

[@3967742]

I worked at Port Talbot Works for 44 years.

[@tractors-plant-machinery]

Absolutely brilliant footage!

[@davidkidd1974]

The Humans of the future wish they would bring restore the farms to grow food for them to eat, and fix back all the coal fumes that fill the atmosphere. Dont get me wrong, my great Grandad Thomas Jones, worked in the steel mills all his life, and his dad in the coal mines.

[@justpassingby2358]

Very tough work. Men and women were lean.

[@BillDunlop-b1u]

What's the piece of music from 28:40 to 31:00. I recall Emerson Lake & Palmer performed it. I can't find it on any of the listings in the desrciption.

[@parkdigwig3447]

Aaron Copland “Hoedown” kzbin.info/www/bejne/morHdYyJiaqojdEsi=6h8dWbp7SxJmyL9l

[@nicholasbell9017]

Could it be "Pictures at an exhibition " by Mussorgsky? ELP had an album and a film with this title.

[@chrispomphrett4283]

No, not pictures at ..... It's actually Aaron Copland 'Rodeo' YT it.. enjoy.

[@bas1010]

Look up Appalachian Spring by Copland

[@geoffrundel3343]

We now in the age of the biggest landfill that's progress regaurd to Amazon u can Inheret all my chipboard and plastic

[@conormorgan6280]

Interesting map with the name Hibernian almost totally erased from the country

[@christopherhampson265]

15000 tons of coke per week 😂

[@geoffrundel3343]

Can you get radiation sickness working in a furness ,thy must have sufferd lots of burns

[@gagasmancave8859]

How the Hello you go about designing a factory like this awesome

[@michaelkinsey4649]

The environmental issues here are utterly eye watering!

[@tonydalton6756]

How did they make your pink knickers? 😂

[@bootchop88]

@@tonydalton6756 exactly!

[@sigbjrnjohansen8872]

😮😢😊 etter slike natur inngrep håper jeg fabrikken fortsatt er i bruk og att folk ser verdien i stål

[@tjm3900]

No, all is gone :-(

[@heathstjohn6775]

Magnificent what self-belief can do.

[@TC2020-w8u]

Imagine doing all this without an environmental impact survey😂

[@mjg6966]

So labour intensive great video 💪💪

[@darrenspear4257]

Try and find men like this now!

[@brianchislett2699]

I am saying nothing. (Yawn)

[@martinworkman8669]

And there is was.......Gone

[@adrianaaraujo8634]

Nice record!

[@NeilStamper-j4x]

Old times.

[@mountainmantararua8824]

All this going on and before diversity. Perhaps it may have been built faster, if we had. How did GB manage without it.🤣🤣

[@jameshogg4625]

What happened to it

[@tomcoleman4207]

Churchill warned against socialism….

[@Yaketyyak21]

Health and safety wasn’t much back then,now you can’t go to the toilet on a construction site without permission..

[@colliecandle]

What a nasty scar on the landscape. Port Talbot itself on a windy, wet winters day - if feeling suicidal, visiting that place will 'clinch' it ! i used to have to deliver to the place - what a depressing hole, i could never understand why anyone would want to live there.

[@davidvivian596]

You may be right, but we all owe the people who work (and live) there, a huge debt of gratitude

[@Deepthought-42]

@@davidvivian596And the guys in the pits. Eternal respect to the people of South Wales whose communities were destroyed by Thatcher and her ilk.