Ray is a man of steel

Wath man Ray says his words are going to be absorbed in an unusual way after being carved into marble benches to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the steel invention.

“I don’t know how long they’ll last but it’s a delightful idea that folk are going to be absorbing my words through their buttocks — though some might even read them,” says the writer, singer and former steelworker.

“They’ll be there for years to come every time they sit on a bench, for whatever reason. I like the absolute down-to-earth day-to-dayness of that proposition.”

Ray’s poetry has been carved into 14 benches installed on the Moor shopping area in Sheffield.

His poem, A Singsong for Stainless Steel, remembers the achievements of Harry Brearley, who developed the metal, the people who made it in the steelworks and how his discovery and their skill put South Yorkshire at the forefront of its production across the world.

Different names for stainless steel, some in foreign languages to highlight its global influence have also been carved into the benches.

Ray said: “I worked with a wonderful letter-cutter, Pip Hall, who has carved them into 14 black Kilkenny marble benches which have now been installed down the still in-the-throes-of-being-refurbished Moor.

“We had to stick within the limit of 1,650 characters divvied up between the 14 benches so the finished pieces are small and very tight.

“But all together they make up a celebration of all those communities of steel men and women over the century who gave so much of their lives to that production, and put Sheffield on the map at every corner of the planet — as well as its named ‘discoverer’ Harry Brearley.

“I’ve called it ‘A Singsong for Stainless Steel’ imagining all the voices singing along over the decades, as it wore them out.”

A further resonance for Ray is that Kilkenny is also the town in Ireland that his mum and dad came from.

“In fact, my grandad dropped dead coming out of the Sheffield labour exchange after going in for a job in the mid-50s,” Ray said. “So there’s been a certain whooooo quality about the whole experience as far as it’s concerned me anyway.

“It’s been a way of keeping Rotherham in there, too.”