A heritage of welfare and caring

The Community Council was part of the ‘benevolent employer’ attitude of the Zinc Works bosses (who also wanted to avoid strikes). They set up the Council with representatives of employers and employees, to devise programs to help employees, e.g. a dental scheme, a shop, a butcher’s. In 1918 there were hardly any welfare schemes, and it was very successful.

The employers nurtured the Council, which looked very good and helped keep employees happy, and in about 1989 they asked me to write its history. I felt it was struggling to find a realistic role in the 1980s, but no one dared say such a thing. I loved working with the people at the Zinc Works, and we produced a nice history of the Council, though it includes the most boring photo of all time, of the square plain dental clinic surrounded by little pebbles, all very grey. The Council chose the title. 

Shortly after the book was launched, a new owner of the Zinc Works closed the Community Council.