Collection

This collection includes: material relating to formation; general meeting and committee minutes and papers; subject files; membership records; newsletters; circulars; product group records. Material is held in box files which may include a number of smaller files and loose papers.

488 boxes (485 [MSS.383], 3 [1032])

The Iron and Steel Act of 1967 brought the 14 largest steel companies, representing about 90 per cent of the UK's steelmaking capacity, into public ownership as the British Steel Corporation. The other companies within the industry, numbering about 140 and representing about 15 per cent of the total industry (the remaining steelmakers plus the processors), responded immediately to the inevitable disappearance of the British Iron and Steel Federation by forming the British Independent Steel Producers Association (BISPA). In 1988, after a period of profound rationalisation, British Steel Corporation was privatised to become British Steel plc. Many of the supplier/competitor tensions between the previous private sector and the new private sector had by now been removed. As a result, BISPA and British Steel worked ever closer together with government, Europe and in many other areas, culminating in 1993 in British Steel joining the Association, which then changed its name to the British Iron and Steel Producers Association. In 1997, because of an increased emphasis on promoting the success of the UK steel industry to the public, BISPA changed its name to the UK Steel Association. Under the name UK Steel, it later became a national division of the Engineering Employers' Federation. Reference: Ian Blakely OBE, A History of UK Steel Industry Associations (http://www.uksteel.org.uk/history.htm). Accessed May 2002

Material deposited as MSS.383 was selected by UKSA. A preliminary sorting was supervised by Mr E.J.G. Good, a former director of UKSA. He weeded out duplicated and ephemeral material, and arranged and catalogued the material. The record descriptions are largely taken from that catalogue, although its structure has been amended. In most cases item descriptions cover more than one file. The records were further appraised following the full cataloguing of the archives of the British Iron and Steel Federation and related bodies, which contained much closely related material.

Prior written permission to consult unpublished records in this archive is required. Researchers should apply to Debbie Sheppard, UK Steel, Broadway House, Tothill Street, London SW1H 9NQ (e-mail: dsheppard@MakeUK.org), and will be required to complete a research agreement.

Open

Deposits from the UK Steel Association also included records of the British Iron and Steel Federation, the Pig Iron Producers' Conference and constituent associations, the North East District Steel Anglemakers' Association, the North East Coast Steel Makers' Association, the Midland Steel Anglemakers' Association, the Midland and Welsh Steel Makers' Association and the British Joist Makers' Association.

English