My Blog

Hillfoot.

The next five years of my working life were to be spent at Hillfoot Steels in Sheffield. Hillfoot are a major independent stockholder of engineering steels and producer of forged products. Established way back with one forging hammer, they have consistently grown until they were recently bought out/taken over by Murrays from Scotland.

I was taken on to drive a sideloader.

 The steel was in racks about 15 feet high and the lighting was poor at best. This made for a very interesting time down the aisles.

All the job entailed was fetching steel bars out to feed the saws or for orders for the whole bar, and returning the balances from the saws and new material to stock. Pretty mind numbing at times but by and large the lads were a good bunch to be at work with ranging from Pete, who had been there for ever and a day, and refused to take a driving test for his VW Camper because he never drove it anywhere without his wife at his side, who did hold a full licence, to Colin who could only be described as the dippiest sawman in the country. When his daughter was just a few months old he kicked a soft ball on the landing of his house as hard as he could only to find out it wasn't a soft one, it was very hard. His DiY skills appeared to be somewhat lacking. He once complained that tiling his bathroom took an age as it took so long for the cement to dry. It transpired on further investigation that he started at the top !

At some point I came to be moved from the sideloader in to the 'Small Bar' department, for the life of me I can't remember why. This was the area that handled all the black bar to a maximum of 70mm diameter and all the bright bar. When the company purchased the old bus garage next door, the small bar was moved in to the newly created warehouse which for myself and my oppo Daz became a licence to toss it off on the afternoon shift. As we were the only two working in the new building after 17:00, we would work like dogs in the early part of the shift completeing the amount of work we knew was expected from us and then spend the last couple of hours playing cards.

It was while I was at Hillfoot that the first Mrs Ross was to bugger off with another fella to Cornwall. She literally left me holding the babies. By this time we had four daughters ranging from 15 years to 4 years old. After working for a month on a day shift I questioned the DSS about whether I would be penalised for giving up my job to look after my kids. The advice I got was that I would be far better off on benefits and I wouldn't be penalised at all. Decision made, I put my notice in and at the end of that I came as close to a nervous breakdown as I have ever come. I have to give credit here to my next door neighbour who not only had the kids after school but also fed them and had food prepared for me when I got back from work. The Dragon was to play a major part in my life from that time on, as friends I'm sure are aware.

Shortly after I finished, my wife's favourite aunt was to pass away, and I made the trip with my second daughter, Becky, from Sheffield to Penzance and back in a day. I told her that I would get her back to Sheffield but in no way was she coming back to me. Now that she was back in Sheffield the kids went back to her and I found myself needing to find work again. Through an agency I went driving on VOR runs for Gefco on nights which I hated, but I contacted Hillfoot and as soon as a vacancy came up I was taken back.

By this time I had realised that Gordon Noble, who had been such a good boss at GME Steels, had quite frankly turned in to an arsehole. I suspect this was due to the pressure brought to bear on him by the directors. I was to find out how bad he had become when I was to have an accident with one of the sideloaders.

Having located three 90mm diameter bars needed for an order in a top rack, I lifted them out and only on clearing the rack did I see that there was a smaller diameter bar behind which unknown to me was bent. On putting this extra bar back the bent end of it caught on the arm of the rack which made the other three bars roll up it at one end, thus shifting the weight to the other end and allowing them to tip off the forks of the sideloader. Two bars missed the truck, the third was to enter through the top engine cover and exit through the side panel. Typically for Hillfoot they were lucky in that the only damage to the engine was one sheared off exhaust bolt. Had the bars gone forward rather than back the bar that hit the truck would have probably gone through the cab. In the subsequent meeting Noble said "Tony [Lillee] (the groups health and safety scapegoat) will be carrying out a full investigation as to why the accident happened." In virtually his next breath he said "We have decided to give you a written warning." I'm sure that this had nothing to do with me being the union rep ! He was gobsmacked when I outlined in very precise detail what he could do with his written warning until such time as the investigation proved that I was at fault. I never did receive a written warning and I regret to this day not demanding an apology.

About the time that this happened I was also going out through an agency for a local refrigerated delivery firm. This was purely for the extra money and was only a few hours each week mostly on Transits but occasionally driving a 7'5 tonner. When I was offered a full time job with this firm I put my notice in at Hillfoot and while working my notice I was talking to 'Roy the Boy' a driver from Shepherd Distribution Services, who did most of Hillfoot's transport, who suggested I try them. As I was virtually passing to get home, I called in on spec and the next day got a phone call offering me a job starting the very next week. This was to drive a 7.5 tonner (Iveco) and as it was nine miles closer to home than the other job and the pay was a bit better, I jumped at the chance.