Ian Smith

Mr. Ian Smith,  b 1955, recorded 2/8/2013

(Interviewers John Ashley and Rob Hulme)

Ian Smith is the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Industry at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea.He was born and brought up in the Dublin Arms in the Hafod and had his first job at Yorkshire Imperial Metals. Later he was involved in clearing the Lower Swansea Valley.

Ian talks about his childhood in the Hafod, playing on wasteland industrial sites and in the river, and his early working life.

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  • Born in the Hafod.
  • Playing in the river – swimming, inner tubes, rafts and wrecks.
  • Floating up the river.
  • Chemicals lying around.
  • Work at Yorkshire Imperial Metals.
  • Health and Safety (in the breach).
  • Personnel records of staff who died in the Wars.
  • Life in the Dublin Arms.
  • Saturday night fights.
  • Sunday closing.
  • Move to the Hanbury and the King’s Arms in High Street.
  • Bus trips to Dynevor School.
  • Lower Swansea Valley clearance – driving a JCB.
  • Copper slag and other waste.
  • Ruins and what was in them.
  • Building roads in the Enterprise Zone.
  • Tree planting on Kilvey Hill.
  • Travellers’ diaries.
  • Slag and waste forty feet deep.

jda

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