The industrial legacy of Northwich, a market town in Cheshire, was sealed in Roman times with the discovery of salt in the first century AD, when the settlement was known as Condate. This would seal its future as a centre for chemical production, munitions and implements of war – and would leave a legacy of contamination.
Brunner Mond
In 1874, John Brunner, a British chemical industrialist, and Ludwig Mond, a German-born British chemist and industrialist, founded Brunner Mond in Winnington and started manufacturing soda ash using the Solvay ammonia-soda process. This process used salt as a main raw material, but produced enormous amounts of waste products that were deposited in sites in and around the town. The ‘Lime-Beds’, as they are locally referred to, still form part of the physical make-up of the area.
Brunner and Mond’s partnership proved successful, and the company expanded its operations, acquiring other chemical companies and diversifying its product range. By the early 20th century, Brunner Mond had become a major force in the British chemical industry. The first world war (1914 – 1918) created an enormous demand for explosives and war-related chemical products, and Brunner Mond contributed to the war effort by producing ammonium nitrate and purified TNT (Tri-Nitro-Toluene), which combined were known as Amatol. Brunner Mond became a leading player in the production of explosives.
Munitions sites in Northwich
By the early 1900s, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) had established plants and works in the Northwich area at Winnington, Wallerscote, Lostock and Wade and specialised plants at Plumley and Gadbrook, employing thousands of local people. Brunner Mond became a producer of sodium nitrate, a key component in the production of explosives. The ammonium nitrate production process became centred on pre-existing plants in Cheshire, particularly that at Lostock Gralam, near Northwich. The raw material, calcium nitrate, was derived by treating sodium nitrate with calcium chloride, and was produced at an experimental plant that was established on behalf of the Ministry of Munitions alongside the Ammonia-Soda plant at Plumley. Between 1916 and 1918, the Plumley munitions plant produced 62,110 tons of calcium nitrate and 91,210 tons of calcium nitrate tetrahydrate.
One of the most important munitions sites in Cheshire during the first world war was Brunner Mond’s Gadbrook Works in Northwich. The site was one of the most active producers of TNT during the war, with an output of 60 tons per day by the end of the war. From its opening, the Gadbrook Works was “manned” almost entirely by women, with 545 female employees. However, TNT production was a deadly profession. In May 1917, Florence Gertrude Gleave, a Northwich resident of only 20 years old, became one of 104 women to die nationally from TNT poisoning, in her case from her exposure to the chemical at the Gadbrook Works. She was dubbed the `Heroine of the Factory` in the Northwich Guardian.
Construction of The Victoria Works, at Wincham, was started in February 1916 by Brunner Mond and opened in August 1916, extending to an area of some 50 acres with a factory area of 461,802 sq ft. Managed by Salt Union Ltd. and Factories Branch of Explosives Department, it produced munitions, ammonium nitrate and calcium nitrate tetrahydrate.
The main Wade Works site was developed between 1939 and 1940. During the second world war, the factory produced Thiodiglycol (TDG) – a Chemical Weapons Convention Schedule 2 chemical used in the production of sulphur-based mustard gases that were transported to Runcorn. (ABB Risk Assessment Methodology and Remedial Works Strategy for Wade works March 2004 P14 obtained by FOI request). The site is now being developed with over 360 dwellings. However, environmental consultants have identified that the site is still contaminated by traces of Thiodiglycol (ABB Risk Assessment)
The nuclear connection
The recent 80th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has focused the world on the development of nuclear weapons. Tube Alloys was the codename for the initial British-led, with Canadian participation, wartime project to develop nuclear weapons during the second world war. It was established before the American Manhattan Project and involved clandestine research and development, even within high-level government circles. Ultimately, Tube Alloys was integrated into the larger Manhattan Project, but the UK continued its own nuclear weapons program after the war. ICI played a significant part, with its research director, Wallace Akers, leading the Tube Alloys directorate. ICI also had a role in uranium production and gaseous diffusion research within the project. The results of experiments to produce pure uranium led to the building of the gaseous diffusion factory at Capenhurst, Cheshire. ICI pilot plants for producing 1 long hundredweight (51 kg) of pure uranium metal and 50 to 100 kilograms (110 to 220 lbs.) of uranium hexafluoride per day commenced operation in Widnes in mid-1943.
The actual amount and types of waste products littering the area of Mid-Cheshire are difficult to quantify. Suffice it to say that the environmental concerns of the last century fell well short of the understanding of how chemical contamination can impact on the health and well-being of individuals. As more sites are identified for development, more contaminants are being identified by environmental consultants, and the risk of illnesses generated by carcinogen contamination could increase exponentially. (ABB Risk Assessment)
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