PEOPLE are being encouraged to help create a personal record of Hartlepool’s iron and steel making history.

Photographer Ian Macdonald is working with Hartlepool Council’s museums and heritage service to produce a series of new photographs of the sites and the people who worked there.

He is keen to photograph former employees in the locations where they worked and to interview them about their experiences.

This archive will then be added to the museums and heritage service’s collection.

Mr Macdonald said: "The project is very much about the story of the men and women who worked in these industries.

"There are many photographs of the blast furnaces and the steelworks themselves, but very few pictures or details of the people who actually worked in them.

"To make our project a success we need people to come forward and share their recollections."

He is particularly keen to hear from people who worked at South Durham Iron & Steel Company’s North Works, near Seaton Carew, and the South Works, near Greatham.

For more information please contact Ian Macdonald on 01947-895360 or e-mail irmacdonald@supanet.com or Emma Hamlett, the council’s museums manager on 01429-523428 or e-mail emma.hamlett@hartlepool.gov.uk