Sponsored by
Show your support for our Women of Steel
They kept our WW2 forces armed, endured gruelling shifts, looked after young familes and worked on as bombers targeted Sheffield. It's time to pay tribute to our Women of Steel.
Sheffield steel is famous across the world and its factories were key to wartime success - but the women who kept them running have never been acknowledged.
READ MORE: Prime Minister says 'thank you' to our Women of Steel - VIDEO
VIDEO: Women Of Steel battle for recognition at Number 10 - VIDEO
But memories of those days still burn bright for scores of South Yorkshire women.
DID you work in South Yorkshire's steel industry during the war? Do you have family stories or photos to share of women's experiences in the works? Or do you want to show your support for The Star's Women of Steel campaign? Add your comment below , contact Nancy Fielder on 0114 276 7676 x 3524, email nancy.fielder@thestar.co.uk or write by post to Nancy Fielder, The Star, York Street, Sheffield, S1 1PU.
Julie Berrisford has researched the history of women's roles during the war as projects coordinator at South Yorkshire Women's Development Trust.
She said: "This area was key because in wartime we needed steel. The women were absolutely crucial because everything would have ground to a halt without them.
"The women in the steelworks were doing what the men had done before.
"Now, people don't know what they did and even the women themselves downplay it, but if they hadn't been drafted in to do these jobs we wouldn't have had aircraft or bullets."
Kathleen Roberts was one of many who tackled back-breaking roles in Sheffield steelworks while the men were away fighting.
Now aged 87, she feels her colleagues worked incredibly hard for no recognition at all.
"The Land Army girls were praised for feeding us but we did the same by keeping the boys supplied with what they needed. If we hadn't done that they wouldn't have got the tanks and the fighter planes needed," she said.
"The girls in Sheffield were the absolute raw end of it. It was all heavy work and long hours, but we were forgotten."
Kathleen recalls the end of the war and how it signalled an end to most women's careers in the steelworks.
"As the men returned they started getting rid of us. We got no thanks whatsoever for all the years we put in, we just got our cards and that was it.
"We were just thrown on the scrapheap with no thanks whatsoever.
"I feel the girls who were in heavy industry should have received some recognition for what we did. What we did was important and I was proud of that."
The work carried out by thousands of Sheffield women has gone unrecognised for decades but their lives were changed forever by their wartime experiences in the city's steelworks. This is Kathleen Roberts' remarkable story.
IT was the rats that really used to scare Kathleen.
They would scurry into the steelworks from the neighbouring canal and appeared to be the size of cats.
Yet to most, the vermin would seem nothing compared to the agonising injury that could have left her crippled or the fear of working knowing the bombers were on their way and her factory was a key target.
"We didn't go to the air-raid shelters when the sirens went. The tannoy used to take on this noise and let us know they were over the coast but we had to keep working," Kathleen said.
"We couldn't go until it went to red alert and they were dropping bombs by that point. It felt awful but you really couldn't close the machines down. It was scary but you sort of got used to it.
"If they were pouring molten metal the whole place went red and you could see it miles away but there was only one occasion when we went to the shelters. That time we just had to take our chance and run.
"If I was on nights and the siren went during the day I wouldn't get up, I was just too damn tired."
Kathleen, now 87, has hundreds of stories to tell of colleagues who put on a brave face to arm their men on the frontline at the same time as keeping their homes running.
One of her friends took just a week off work when she gave birth, then returned to the usual 12-hour shifts, carrying her newborn to the works' creche and using her breaks to feed the baby.
"We must have been the first liberated women. We lost our youth very early. We had to grow up very quickly and take life into our own hands.
"A lot of the ladies had children, their husbands were away in the Forces and they had to work.
"They were having a really tough time but we all helped each other out along the way."
One time Kathleen injured her back following orders to move an enormous steel coil and was taken on an excruciating journey to get first aid.
"They fetched a Lister truck and put an ingot either side of me to stop me rolling off. We had to cross rail tracks and a main road - the pain was awful."
She returned to work before being fully fit because that was what was expected.
Women were changed by their time in the works. They had little choice but to harden up if they were to survive at all.
Kathleen said: "It made me tougher. I had to learn to take knocks and I certainly wasn't used to the language. They were dangerous days.
"It was the most frightening thing to go into a steelworks. It is a terrible noise and so frightening."
Kathleen started work at Metro Vickers on Attercliffe Common in 1938 - she was just 17 years old.
She believes the parts she made were used to build Spitfires and, if faults were found during testing, the women simply didn't get paid.
"After the Sheffield Blitz I walked to work on the Monday morning and when I got there half the glass roof was missing. We kept on working though and we used to see dog fights through the missing panes in the roof.
"We got it at the rough end. The steel came in massive sheets and we had to do things with it so it could be passed on to other companies. We were at the heavy end."
Kathleen married Joe at St Hilda's Church in Firth Park in February 1941. A few months later Kathleen asked permission for a few days off work to visit her husband who was on leave.
Despite national rulings that such visits must be allowed, her boss warned her that her job would not be there when she returned.
True to his word she was fired on her first morning back.
Instead the Labour Exchange offered her a role at Brown Baileys, as their first female crane driver.
"I knew I couldn't do it because I have no head for heights at all but I knew I had to have a go. I got up as far as the ceiling and then I froze. What a performance to get me down - but at least I'd shown willing."
So the bosses found Kathleen other roles at the works but, being from the 'posh end' of town, it took a while for her to fit in.
At her lowest point she tried to join the Wrens but was turned away because her job in the works was too important to give up.
Luckily, Kathleen soon made good friends with Ruth, the woman who took on the crane driver's job, and she taught her to toughen up.
"I had a bit of a rough time because it was so different to Metro Vickers. The girls who came in lived in Attercliffe and Darnall. I lived in Firth Park and they considered me a snob.
"Ruth taught me to give as good as they gave me, to stand on my own two feet and fight back. Eventually we all became quite friendly."
On D-Day Joe was in the first wave of soldiers to hit the Normandy beaches. His injuries were so severe he was transported back to
Sheffield, possibly the only member of his battalion to have survived.
His right arm was completely shattered and he was peppered with shrapnel in his back, neck and head.
Joe still had shrapnel in his body when he died of Alzheimer's last year, just a week before the couple's 67th wedding anniversary.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
