The lyrics above corresponded with the Ron's own recording and as I have them in a book entitled "Out of the Sun - Original Songs and Tunes from Cleveland". There are only the first three verses and it gives the date of the song as 1972. On the recording there are four additional verses (probably written between 1989, the date the songbook was produced, and the date of the recording).

STEELMEN
(Ron Angel)

Chorus:
Hammer it, weld it, roll it to and fro.
Cleveland steel is of the best I'd have you all to know.
Forge it, cast it, mould it how you like,
Neat as a Geordie hinny bird and tough as a Yorkshire tyke.

There's men that work below the ground where daylight never comes
And some grow food upon the land and only get the crumbs.
Some stand by the assembly line and wish the time would fly.
But gimme the lad to roll the slab and bounce the sparks up high.

The cold Northeaster from the Gare'll freeze your very soul.
Then it's the open hearth for me or where the ingots roll,
Where thunder shakes the walls about and trembles all the floor
And sparks jump out the soaking pits and sweat runs down galore.

Take iron by the wagon load and burn it till it's white.
Then blast it through with jets of gas until your mixture's right.
Then shovel in your lumps of lime and set the sky aglow.
Add some spit and lots of sweat and make your steel to flow.

We sold our steel across the world and they all came to buy
Then someone bought the firm up, now they say we're going to die
They didn't even talk to to us to tell us of their plan
And then we heard it on the news, we're going down the pan

They said it's not a buy-out, just a merger that is all
But the orders come from Holland now and we're up against the wall
They only mean to rationalise, the excuses are well meant
But shareholders anonymous gains 24 percent

The workshop of the world one time, they used to call us here
Now the ships are gone, the pits are gone and steel won't last a year
We used to manufacture things, proud to be high grade
But soon we'll just assemble stuff that other folks have made

The skills and the experience, the reputation too
Not valued anymore it seems, get rid of all that crew
Crack teams of men will be dispersed, never to be replaced
They'll swap this hive of industry for industrial bloody waste