Steve wrote
The three blast furnaces of Consett Iron Works.
I was assigned there as a Blast Furnace Fitter.
In the forefront is the Goliath gantry crane, that was some piece of engineering.
The gantry trundled left or right in the picture. The cabin moved forwards (towards the furnaces) or backwards (towards the photographer).
In this way it could travers the vast stockyard and pick up the raw materials and fill the hoppers in front of the furnaces.
On the days I was assigned to the crane for maintenance we would take our bait and spend the entire day on it.
We clambered all over it, sometimes on the gantry and sometimes riding the huge cabin.
It took a good while to walk to the end of the gantry.
One day the fitter I was assigned to had to climb down the chain to stand on the huge grabber to perform a repair there. I was glad it was not me.
One day we were having a bit of craic in the cabin and one of the older guys said “you’re Dick Thompson’s grandson aren’t you”? I said I was and they all started telling stories about him.
One guy described him as very musical and quite crazy. There you go folks, it skipped a generation but you know where “crazy and musical” landed.
They blamed this on a very bad motor cycle accident he and my grandmother had. After the accident he ceased singing popular hits and took to singing opera in the pubs and clubs.
He also took to walking around Consett wearing a top hat, spats and a silver topped cane.
Additional notes
Steve was part of a band called the Bullfrogs who performed locally and practiced in the band shed at Leadgate just over from where Leadgate Community Centre is now. The band shed ended up being demolished after a fire
Steve also worked with Tom Kelly to produce a show about the Steelworks that was performed at the Empire Theatre
History of Consett Steelworks 