Adam Cattell
Adam researched the Stewarts & Lloyds archive at Corby Heritage Centre for WORK Records. Adam lives in Kettering and is particularly interested in social history and the history of his local area. He studied History at De Montfort University, Leicester, and has been a volunteer with Corby Heritage for over three years.
I started volunteering with Corby Heritage in May 2022 when I was looking for full-time work. I decided that working in an archive would be a good way to explore my personal interests (such as learning about the history of the local area) whilst also gaining experience and developing my skills. I’m particularly interested in social history and discovering stories I’ve never heard before, and I want to make sure these stories are shared and preserved so that future generations can learn about them too. The WORK Records project has been the perfect opportunity to contribute to a project that will share these stories in a different way whilst continuing with my regular volunteer duties.
My main tasks as a Corby Heritage volunteer have been cataloguing new donations and existing items (photographs, books, press cuttings and leaflets), as well as updating the archive inventory. I’ve also been involved in preservation work - packing items into archival boxes and organising shelves in the store – and through this, I’ve developed strong heritage skills in accessioning, interpretation, cataloguing and display.
When the WORK Records project came to Corby Heritage, my volunteering became more focused on the Stewarts & Lloyds collection, supporting project artist Saul to find out more about the company and its place in Corby. It’s been particularly interesting to focus on the Steelworks and the lives of the people who worked there and, over the course of the project, I’ve discovered many interesting items - photographs, booklets, press cuttings and posters – to help tell the story of the steelworkers.
Once we’d met with Saul and honed down some specific areas for research, my initial task was to find items in the collection relating to the social clubs and activities available for Stewarts & Lloyds employees. One of the most interesting things I discovered here was that the first ever cinema in Corby was set up by the owners of the Steelworks. It was also interesting to learn that many of the clubs for various sports teams were set up by the Steelworks employees themselves, including the first rugby team in Corby, established in 1936.
As more discoveries were made, the scope of the project expanded, and I began researching other areas of the Stewarts & Lloyds collection. Health and safety emerged as a major theme, looking at the working conditions inside the Steelworks, and I uncovered many items relating to this. There were photographs from the 1940s showing people working with dangerous machinery and hot materials without protective clothing, and danger signs showing the risks steelworkers faced every day in this highly dangerous environment.
I learned about the impact Stewarts & Lloyds had on the changing fortunes of the whole town of Corby. The opening of the Steelworks was a central factor in the development of Corby from a small rural village to a thriving new town and many houses were built by the company to accommodate the large number of workers arriving in the 1930s. A booklet I found about the Lloyds Estate, constructed to house employees of the Steelworks, even featured detailed images of the different types of houses available.
My research also revealed how the town was affected after the closure of the Steelworks in the early 1980s and how it survived this major change. Some of the posters I discovered suggest the loss of the Steelworks threatened the very existence of the town, with one comparing the impending closure to a spectre, and another referring to Corby as becoming a ghost town.
I’ve discovered so much about the town’s social history through volunteering with this project, and I’ve also developed some valuable skills including digitising, file management and image formatting. The project has been beneficial for Corby Heritage in a wider sense, helping to identify strengths and weaknesses in the collection and providing an extra resource to help with digitisation and interpretation. Focussing on one specific topic has also highlighted items and themes, which will continue to be useful in future exhibitions and projects.
Adam has also written about the many Stewarts & Lloyds sports teams, some of which still exist and continue to be an important part of life in the town today. Read more here.
Images courtesy North Northamptonshire Council Corby Collection.
