From the time in 1896 when the innovative Summers brothers came to the banks of the river Dee in North Wales, steelmaking at Shotton has been part of a tradition that reached back through the generations. The work at John Summers & Sons was demanding. In the main, it was hot, grimy, noisy -and very exhausting. The men who pushed the coke, handed the furnaces, rolled the slabs and coiled the sheets were hard-working and tough -and justly proud of efforts that made for a top-quality product, frequently in record-breaking tonnages.

In its 1960-80s, heyday, the Shotton steelworks was a massive, fully-integrated operation. In addition to production workers at the "heavy-end", the process was supported by an army of skilled draftsmen, engineers, chemists, business managers, typists, clerks and data-processors. Shift after shift, they all needed to be refreshed and sustained, on-site.

This interview, recorded in 2017, gives insight on a function, sometimes overlooked in the annals of Flintshire's manufacturing heritage. It introduces a long-serving, steelworks employee, Kath Tellett. In conversation with volunteer community archivist, John Butler, Kath recounts her time and experiences after she joined the work's community as an eager twenty-one year old, to embark on a career as an industrial-caterer.