Building the Iron
A Lincoln factory apprentice remembers
Swansea town centre in the aftermath of bombing. Picture by kind permission of West Glamorgan Archive Service.
A celebration of the rebirth and rebuilding of our town.
A Swansea schoolboy who chased the diggers rebuilding his bombed out town, then spent five years building the iron at Ruston Bucyrus in Lincoln.
“Hello and greetings from my long-ago days of boyhood, when machinery mechanics roamed the land fixing diggers, bulldozers, tipper trucks and anything else wot’ needed fixin’.”
Geoff Lewis
A Welsh Schoolboy RemembersRuston Bucyrus Cranes & Excavators on Swansea Building Sites
Lever and latch: Geoff on the digger
Lever and latchfor dirt to dispatch,bell cranks that rangwhile the gears all sang,with brake bands that squealedas the ropes outward reeled.
“The poetry of it all was enough to turn any aspiring young engineer’s head.”
Inside the works
“Follow me around and I’ll show you things you would not normally see.” The Ruston Bucyrus works, Beevor Street, Lincoln.
Explore the machines up close
No 3 Bay It was without doubt “just one hell of a place to work”. 
The boring machines Main revolving frames and truck castings, machined square and true for assembly. 
The clutches Those teeth will draw blood in no time at all if you put your hands on them. 
Machinery decks Out down the famous No 3 Bay ramp and into Beevor Street, heading for the test ground. 
Truck build Ready to float across the service road to truck build for the marriage ceremony. 
The 54-RB Plenty of room for a dining table and chairs for the crew.
Read the stories
Stories in Geoff’s own words, a couple of minutes each. Four are background he wrote for this website; the rest come from the world of the book.
Swansea A boyhood on the bomb sites.
01AftermathThe place I called my home: Swansea, 1943, forty acres of town centre in rubble, and the machines that came to clear it.
02 · Written for the websiteWest CrossDruslyn Road, Collier’s Farm and a gang of kids with the run of the hill.- 03 · Written for the websiteRadio ShowMrs Dale, Dick Barton and the BBC Home Service: growing up with the wireless.
- 04 · Written for the websiteSaints & SinnersA new house in Brynmill, and the Baptists came for us.
- 05 · Written for the websiteThe UnforgivenA fire-and-brimstone lay preacher, and the old lady in the red hat.
06The Adventures BeginChasing the diggers round post-war Swansea, and the 10-RB that hypnotised a nation.
Lincoln Five years building the iron.
What the reviewers said
“A long and engaging read that will bring back many memories for anyone who served a traditional engineering apprenticeship, and give a real flavour of the time to anyone who was not there.”
“A fascinating read that’ll be greatly enjoyed by anyone with an interest in industrial heritage, heavy engineering or life in Britain during the 1950s and ’60s.”
“Geoff takes you bay by bay around the Bucyrus works. If you had a relative who worked there, read it to see if they get name-checked.”
Get your copy
£20 + £4.85 UK postage per copy
- About 190 pages, A4, packed with period photographs
- Posted by Geoff in a protective wallet
- Pay by card or PayPal
A signed copy or postage abroad is by request: email Geoff before you order.
Geoff Lewis
Born in the West Cross district of Swansea in 1943, Geoff grew up as his bombed out town was rebuilt, and spent his schooldays chasing the diggers from site to site.
At sixteen he left on the steam train for Lincoln and a five-year apprenticeship at Ruston Bucyrus, on the factory floor where the machines were built. He’s back in South Wales now, and Building the Iron is his salute to those years and the people he was lucky enough to work with.
“So bring some spanners and I’ll introduce you to a few of them along the way.”
Ask Geoff
Signed copies and postage abroad are by request, so ask Geoff before you order. And if you have a memory of Swansea or the Bucyrus works to share, he would like to hear it. Email is the best way to reach him.