Standing at the Sky's Edge actor Robert Lonsdale visited Sheffield Forgemasters to research his role as a steelworker.

Robert plays Harry in Standing at the Sky’s Edge, our Sheffield-made musical which tells the story of three sets of tenants from one flat at Sheffield’s Park Hill estate. The show begins with Harry and Rose, a young married couple, who move in to their new home when it first opened in the 1960s, and follows their lives and the challenges faced by steelworkers through the 1970s-1990s.

Robert’s tour of the 64-acre site gave him first-hand views of steel being melted in the company’s electric arc furnace and large ingots being forged under a 10,000 tonne press.

Robert Lonsdale said: “Looking around Forgemasters left me pretty speechless. The sheer scale of what they do there is incredible. I’ve never seen such precise work done by such huge and brutal looking machinery. It was clear to see that apart from health and safety, infrastructure and output - the process of making steel is timeless.

The alchemy of it hasn’t changed hugely, and the people who do it all are the same as they ever were. Thank you so much to Billy and all at Forgemasters for letting me learn about what they do. It’s given me a deep and detailed understanding of the life of a steel worker.”

Gareth Barker, Chief Operating Officer at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “We were pleased to be able to talk to Robert and show him some of the processes which his character may well have been part of sixty years ago.

“Although things are radically different from a technology point of view, the ethos which drives our employees, to be the best at what they do, hasn’t changed and the company is still a valuable employer for the city.”