The Mapping Museum research project was created to look at the increase in the number of museums in the UK. As part of this project, Mel Warrender was interviewed about the Ebbw Vale Works Museum.

Explore more about the Mapping Museum project here and read Warrender's interview below:

Name of person being interviewed: Mel Warrender

Location of interview: Ebbw Vale Works Museum

Date of Recording: 07 March 2019

Recording Length: 01:33:42

Name of interviewer: Dr Toby Butler

Description: The Ebbw Vale Works Museum showcases the history of Ebbw Vale Steel Works, once the largest steelworks in Europe

Summary of main points in interview: Mel Warrender is a founder of Ebbw Vale Works Museum. He was an employee at the Works from 1955. He describes his career, and explains how Ebbw Vale developed from an agricultural area to an iron-manufacturing town due to local sources of iron ore and water. Ebbw Vale Ironworks brought workers to the expanding settlement, and the company built colleges and institutes. The company became insolvent in 1929, but then in 1938 a steel works was developed which reached its peak in the 1960s with nearly 12,000 employees. Warrender outlines major changes to the industry leading to the works’ closure in 2002. Approached by the Works manager about setting up a museum before he retired, he accepted and, with the help of two long-serving employees, started collecting records, photographs and objects from garages, stores and works cellars.

In 2003 they set up a trust to project the collection and were eventually offered room in the newly converted general office building. He discusses accreditation, which has given them access to funding and the finances of the charity, the visitor profile and how the archive is used by local companies as well as ex-employees and casual visitors.