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Monday 10am - 3:30pm Wednesday 10am - 3:30pm Friday 10am - 1pm

Ebbw Vale Works Museum, Steelworks Road, Ebbw Vale (2026)

17/06/2026

Enthusiasm and Health & Safety!:

Most of the photographs in the museum from the RTB era are well identified, but our main photo on this post, just had a date - July 1960. The photo appeared to show a crowd of onlookers getting a bit too near a Steel Convertor, wearing limited PPE ( Personal Protective Equipment), when the crane driver was pouring 25 tons of molten Iron at 1500 deg C from a ladle into a Convertor!
It needed a bit of research and the answer was found in the Ingot News, the RTB Company Newspaper. This must have been the first cast of a new Steelmaking operation in Ebbw Vale, the LD process.
Ebbw Vale had produced Steel in Ebbw Vale since 1868 and one of the processes used throughout that period was the Bessemer Process. That process involved blasting air through holes in the bottom of a vessel containing Molten Iron and in simple terms, this burnt off the excess Carbon to produce Steel. It had always had a couple of disadvantages compared to other Steelmaking methods, one of which is that the Steel picked up Nitrogen from the air, which is a disadvantage, when trying to produce steels required for Deep Drawing applications. Since 1957, Ebbw Vale had tried to circumvent this issue by using a Steam & Oxygen mix rather than Air i.e No Nitrogen. This was a move in the right direction but the improved Bessemer process could still not produce the Deep Drawing Steels produced in the Open Hearth process. The issue was that the Open Hearth process was a much slower process and Ebbw Vale needed more tons and significantly, more “High Quality Tons”!
So RTB turned to the LD (Linz Donawitz) Process, invented by a Swiss Engineer and introduced in a Steel Plant in Austria, the process being named after the two Austrian towns at which it was first installed.
The primary difference was that the LD process introduced the Oxygen from the top of the convertor, through a Copper based Lance at “supersonic” speeds! In addition, Lime could be introduced through the lance, solving another Ebbw Vale problem , the reduction in Phosphorus, which was present in Ebbw Vale Iron from the Blast Furnaces, due to its use of UK sourced Iron Ore that tended to have higher Phosphorus contents than imported ores.
No plant in the UK had introduced LD Steelmaking, but RTB had made the decision that it would their Steelmaking process of choice at their new Steel Plant at Newport, Spencer Works, which was due to be commissioned in 1962. Therefore introducing it in Ebbw Vale in 1960 would solve an Ebbw Vale problem and also gain some experience in the use of the process before its introduction at Spencer Works.
The end result was that it was introduced successfully at both Ebbw Vale and Spencer Works. At Ebbw Vale, the old Bessemer Convertors were removed one by one, and new LD Vessels installed. The process at Ebbw Vale ended in 1975 with the closure of Iron & Steelmaking.
After 1960, LD would become the Steelmaking Process of choice in the whole of the UK for the next 50 years, but the first plant in the UK to use it was
- Ebbw Vale!!

Photos.
1. The first LD cast with a lot of very interested onlookers!
2. Section from the August 1960 edition of Ingot News detailing the successful commissioning of LD Steelmaking at Ebbw Vale.
3. For those interested, we have included a couple of photos that in simplified form show the difference between Bessemer & LD Steelmaking.

Sent from Sky Yahoo Mail for iPhone

12/06/2026

Henry F Spencer, Managing Director of RTB:
For this post, we return to our occasional series on men, who shaped Ebbw Vale works. When one now travels down the valley between Ebbw Vale and Cwm, it is difficult to imagine that a 3-mile-long Steelworks, once dominated the site. Similarly, the men, who shaped the works over 200 years are mostly forgotten, but fortunately, we have their life history retained in the Works Museum.
We return to the Ebbw Vale’s Golden Era, the 1950’s & 60’s, when Ebbw Vale Works was the flagship plant of RTB (Richard Thomas & Baldwins) and the man at the helm as Managing Director of RTB, Henry F Spencer.
Henry Spencer was born in 1892 and his career in the industry started when he was very young and in a very lowly position. At age 13, he started working in a Foundry, “throwing sand” for the Moulders, making Iron Castings. But he was capable and ambitious and aged 22 he started his own business in Wolverhampton as an Iron & Steel Merchant, specialising in Steel Sheets and the business grew, presumably driven by the burgeoning car industry in the Midlands. This brought him into contact with the Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron & Coal Co (EVSIC) promoting the manufacture of high-grade sheets for the car industry. In 1935, his company H F Spencer, was purchased by the Steel Company, Richard Thomas Co and the astute William Firth, then Chairman, invited Henry Spencer to join the RTB board as Sheet Sales Controller. He was about to buy the assets of the EVSIC Co and build the biggest Sheet & Tinplate Works outside the USA and Henry Spencer was the man to sell everything the new Ebbw Vale Mills could produce. His career advanced within RTB, and he was eventually appointed Managing Director in 1952. Ebbw Vale Works was the RTB Flagship plant, and he was seen as a strong supporter of the works and its people and was in charge during a time of expansion, with much new plant commissioned and new products produced. Significantly, he was the man, who guided the Spencer Works project from its inception in 1956, to accompanying the Queen on the plant’s official opening in 1962. Again it was his foresight in seeking new orders / markets for the significant increase in RTB capacity that ensured Llanwern could keep rolling.
It is very significant that Henry Spencer was actively involved in the two most significant Strip Steel developments of the 20th century in the UK. Ebbw Vale was the first Continuous Hot Strip Mill in the UK and during his tenure it grew to a Million Tons a year plant, while Llanwern was the largest, with the Hot Mill capacity of 4 million tons a year, which unfortunately, over 60 years later, looks as if it will never be exceeded within the UK. He was knighted in 1963 but sadly died at the age of 72 in 1964, while still the Managing Director.
Sir Henry was held in high esteem by all in Ebbw Vale works and the people of the town, and it was the Trade Union representatives on the Works General Council that proposed that a lasting memory to him be erected. This resulted in the er****on of Memorial Gates at the entrance to the Works Club. There was a large crowd present to see them unveiled by his widow, Lady E Spencer, in August1966.
Unfortunately, there is now no memorial to Sir Henry in Ebbw Vale, the gates going the same way as the Works, demolished, as was the adjacent Lever Hall, named after Sir Ernest Lever, who was Chairman of RTB during the tenure of Henry Spencer.
So, in addition to losing the works, we lose the small number of memorials to those that help build the works. In fact, probably the only one remaining is the Sir William Firth Gate at the entrance to the Rugby Field (Welfare Ground).
To make matters worse, when RTB became part of BSC in the wider Nationalisations of 1968, the name of the works he nurtured and built gradually changed from Spencer Works to Llanwern Works. So, he would be shocked to see the modern sites he once managed. No sign of Ebbw Vale Works and just a small section of Spencer works that is literally reducing day by day as demolition proceeds. The company he set up before joining RTB, H F Spencer Co Ltd continued operating very successfully as steel stockholders, under that name as part of RTB until that was also absorbed by BSC.
Attached are photos of:
1. Sir Henry Spencer
2. Sir Henry opening the Ebbw Vale College of Education in 1962.
3. H F Spencer speaking at the 1958 Ebbw Vale Metallurgical Society Dinner – In that era, the Dinner was used as the venue to announce significant plans for the works, such as significant investments.
4. Sir Henry Spencer with the Queen & Prince Philip at the official opening of Spencer Works.
5. Screenshots of Ingot News showing the significance of Spencer Works to his career.
6. Ingot News report on his Memorial Service.
7. Photo of the opening of the Memorial Gates at the Works Club by his widow.
8. We have included a photo of the opening of the Firth Gates, as we suspect that not many people have heard of Sir William Firth and his significance in the history of the town. See post on this site from 25 July 2025.
If anyone is interested into learning more about any period in the 200 year history of Ebbw Vale Works, then please call into the Museum and I am sure we can help.

08/06/2026

This coming Saturday, 13th June, will see the last opening of the Museum on a Saturday in the six monthly sequence.
The Museum will be open from 10:00 to 16:00.
We look forward to welcoming visitors.

05/06/2026

Advance notice that the Saturday of next week - June 13th will be the final opportunity for a while to visit the museum outside the normal Monday to Friday opening days.
As with previous Saturday openings, both the Ebbw Vale Works Museum and Gwent Archives will be open between 10am & 4pm.

31/05/2026

RTB Dramatic Society:
The postwar era 1945 - 70 has been defined as a Golden era for the both the town of Ebbw Vale and the Ebbw Vale Workforce with high levels of relatively well-paid employment and the company supplying & supporting outside activities for the workforce and the youths of the area. Much has been written about the Works Club, the Lever Hall, Youth Club and Sports Fields, but they also supported more artistic interests such as Drama.
We have little information on what was organised during the WW2 period; the Company Newspaper only commenced in mid 1946, but articles from that early period indicate that the first RTB Drama group was set up soon after the end of the war. They did not sit on their hands and in 1946 organised a Drama Festival in Ebbw Vale with seven local amateur dramatic groups from across South Wales taking part in a competition. This was well before the works had its own Concert Hall, so they used the Workmen's Hall in Ebbw Vale.
Plays were regularly held there, until the works built its own facility with the Lever Hall opening in 1955. From then on, the Ebbw Vale Works Dramatic Society performed plays there regularly as well as further Drama Festivals, which by then had been adopted by the Company, becoming RTB Drama Festivals, with drama groups from other works in the huge RTB organisation. We do, however, have one report, which showed that the Ebbw Vale Youth Club had 2 entries in the Competition. We have a report in the Ingot News from 1956 on a Company Drama Festival held in the Lever Hall, where 11 plays were featured, an opportunity not on offer to Blaenau Gwent residents in the modern era! The Dramatic Society continued into the 1960’s, but then seems to disappear, perhaps being encompassed in other related activities such as the RTB Variety Concert Party, the RTB Pantomime Group and regular Youth Club events, while many RTB employees were very active in the Tredegar Thespians Group, set up in 1956 ( see our post 27 February 2024).

We have attached photos from some of the Plays, and we have included actors' names, where available. Further details are available from screenshot photos of the Ingot News reports on the events.

06/05/2026

Just a quick reminder, this coming Saturday 9th May, Ebbw Vale Works Museum will be open from 10:00 -16:00. This will afford an opportunity for those working during the week, to visit the Museum on a weekend. The Museum hopes to repeat the Saturday openings in future months. The Museum Volunteers look forward to welcoming you.
The date for June opening is Saturday 13th.

02/05/2026

The link between the Ebbw Vale Works Youth Club and “The Boys’ Club Show" that was held at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 1962:
For the next few posts, we move away from our more normal content of Blast Furnaces, Steel Mills & Steam Locos, to remind followers of the support that successive works companies gave to employees and their families outside the Works environment. RTB was particularly active in this sphere with the development of Sport facilities, the Works Club, the Lever Hall and the Youth Club.
The Youth Club opened in 1958 and was very fortunate in having Sam Mutters as its first leader. His leadership and initiatives are fondly remembered by all that passed through the Youth Club in its 30+ years of existence.
We have selected one piece of its history from 1962, when two musical groups, nurtured in the Youth Club, were selected following a regional audition at Birmingham, to appear in “The Boys Club Show” in the Royal Festival Hall, organized by the National Association of Boys Clubs. They were two of just ten acts selected from the whole of the UK, a very significant achievement for one Youth Club. The show was presented by Frankie Vaughan, who those of a “certain age”, will remember as a celebrated singer and entertainer in that era!
The two groups were:
The Melody Four – a "Singing Waiters" style group, made up of Neil Jones, Hugh Daniels, Ray Jones & Barrie Caswell.
The Emeralds – A band, based on "Cliff Richard and the Shadows" comprising Robert Evans, Gary Hartsorn, Paul Dallenigra, Frankie Allen and Nat Nancarrow.
Significantly, Frankie Vaughan and the panel of judges, awarded the Melody Four the Trophy of Boys Club Entertainers of the Year. Both groups were also invited to perform with Frankie at a show at the Hippodrome in Derby.
The photographs with this post were taken at the Festival Hall together with screenshots from the Ingot News giving details of the achievement.
Mention must be made of the late David Harris, formerly a Works Finance Accountant and also the Musical Director of the Youth Club, who did much to nurture musical talent in the Youth Club.
If anyone wishes to learn more about Sam Mutters and the RTB Ebbw Vale Youth Club, there are Facebook posts on this site, dated 29 April 2020 & 23 May 2020.
David Harris wrote a book on the Youth Club that gives a detailed history of the club with lots of stories and photos. It is unfortunately out of print, but if anyone wishes to join us for an hour, to look through it, there is a copy in the Works Museum.
As a reminder, the next Saturday opening of the Ebbw Vale Works Museum and Gwent Archives is on the 9th of May, 10am to 4pm

14/04/2026

Steam Locos Nos 80 & 81:
We have noted that in our recent post on the 1950 – 56 Phase 1 Development, we did not mention that the steam loco that featured in the photos, was part of that £12M Works Development. Two new Locos were purchased and significantly, they were the largest and most powerful Steam Locos purchased in the history of the Company.
Any increase in outputs, not only meant more steel movements to be handled but also more raw material movements. Iron Ore & Coal from the North sidings to the yards at Victoria, but significantly increased Limestone from the Quarries at Tredegar, Trefil and the new Ystrad Quarry. This involved the tortuous 9-mile rail trip, with 700 feet change in altitude and gradients of 1 in 20, which is very significant for rail. In addition, it crossed 3 main roads and passed through Ebbw Vale Town Centre. There were normally 4 loads a day comprising 15 hoppers with a total weight of 350 tons per journey. The locos in use before this purchase had all been delivered in the period 1938-42 and with the increased plant loading envisaged under the development, RTB decided to purchase more powerful locos.
The new 0-6-0 Locos numbered 80 & 81 were supplied by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorne of Newcastle upon Tyne and were specifically purchased to be suitable for the Limestone Quarry trips. One slight mystery to the Steel buffs of the museum, is that while RTB are seeking locos to pull 350 tons, the photo of the locos, published by RS & H, indicates that they were designed to satisfy a requirement to pull 150 tons? Perhaps someone from the legion of Steam Loco lovers amongst our readers can help us with that anomaly?
The demise of Steam in favour of Deisel meant that the two locos had a particularly short life. Significant purchases of Deisel locos in the early 1960’s, culminated in a mass scrapping of Steam Locos in 1965. The Diesels were not required to take over the Limestone run from the Quarries, because this route was closed in 1963 due to pressure from the local Council, with the task transferred to lorries.
Much more of the history and a number of photos of the locos at work can be found in the photos with this post. We do have a substantial number of photographs and the history of the many Steam & Deisel locos that operated within the works available to view in the museum.
For those unable to visit the museum during the working week, there are two more Saturday openings already arranged, in conjunction with Gwent Archives – 9th May & 13th June.

07/04/2026

Just a quick reminder, this coming Saturday 11th April, Ebbw Vale Works Museum will be open from 10:00 -16:00. This will afford an opportunity for those working during the week, to visit the Museum on a weekend. The Museum hopes to repeat the Saturday openings in future months. The Museum Volunteers look forward to welcoming you.
The date for May opening is Saturday 9th.

04/04/2026

Hello all,
Please see below for information on the next Blaenau Gwent Heritage Forum talk to be held in Bedwellty House Tredegar.

Ebbw Vale Works Museum

17/06/2026

12/06/2026

08/06/2026

05/06/2026

31/05/2026

06/05/2026

02/05/2026

14/04/2026

07/04/2026

04/04/2026

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