Images of Industry

Women employed during the First World War to unload railway trucks of pig iron at Pontardawe Steel Works owned by William Gilbertson & Co Ltd.

Large numbers of men working in industry volunteered to join the Forces, resulting in labour shortages in vital industries. Women entered industry in unprecedented numbers to redress the labour shortage and made a vital contribution to the war effort. This photograph was taken in the pig iron sidings adjacent to the melting shop. The steel sheet in the foreground has the chalked inscription 'Munition Workers at Messrs Gilberston [sic] Pontardawe, King and Country'. The manufacturers’ inscription 'Trent' has been chalked in on two pigs. The Trent Iron Works at Scunthorpe was owned at this time by the Trent Iron Co. Ltd. It is not known whether Pontardawe Steel Works used Trent pig as a raw material prior to or after the war – it may have been a war time-only supplier due to disruption of normal supplies. Each pig weighed around 50kgs – unloading and stacking pig was hard and unglamorous work. During the war, Pontardawe Works continued to produce its regular grades of steel for making tinplate and galvanised sheets, as well as turning to producing special steels for making artillery shells. The identities of two of the group are known: bottom right is Annie Davies of Rhos, and back left is Jack Williams.