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Was a nice day for a wander last weekend, a rather spur of the moment one for me with Mr Cloaked Up, planned over a previous nights booze and Persian Meat Wallet thus meaning security would have smelt me before spotting me. The chances of an urbex poo were also quite high, luckily neither made an appearance.
John Brunner and Ludwig Mond in 1873 began producing soda ash in Cheshire using the new Solvay process. They used brine solution, ammonia and limestone to produce sodium carbonate in pure form and with lesser byproduct than their competitors.
They chose Winnington due to it sitting on a deep bed of salt, its proximity to local limestone quarries and nearby coalfields, plus it has good transport links via the canalised river Weaver.
By 1881, the partnership was well established and it became a limited company, producing 200,000 tons of soda ash each year. Demand increased, so Brunner Mond built a new soda crystal factory at Winnington in 1888, to sit alongside the existing soda ash one. By buying up their competitors, Brunner Mond established themselves as the country’s biggest soda ash producer – and they continued to expand. In time, Brunner Mond & Co. provided virtually all of Britain’s soda ash, and became the world’s largest alkali exporter.
After WW1, plans were made to build another soda ash plant, this time across the road from Winnington, at Wallerscote. At that time, the island was a muddy eyot sitting midstream. The factory produced its first soda ash on Christmas Day 1926, just in time for the Great Depression. The four plated steel silos on Wallerscote Island were an integral part of the plant, and the core of the buildings we explored date back to that time. Meantime, Brunner Mond became part of Imperial Chemical Industries, ICI, on New Year’s Day 1927, and the Wallerscote factory was one of its showpieces. It took ICI a long time to integrate its disparate founding companies – so Brunner Mond retained its own identity for years, forming the Alkali Division of ICI until 1964, after which it became the “Mond” Division.
By the 1960’s, ICI concentrated soda ash production at Wallerscote and Lostock, whilst Winnington was devoted to caustic soda.
The Wallerscote soda-ash works closed in 1984, but the silos on the island continued in use. The soda ash business was hived off in 1991, as an independent company which was named … Brunner Mond. But then it was bought in 2006 by Tata. Today, the plan is to build houses on the Wallerscote site.
Bugger, run out of text with a few more shots. Soz.
Cheers
They chose Winnington due to it sitting on a deep bed of salt, its proximity to local limestone quarries and nearby coalfields, plus it has good transport links via the canalised river Weaver.
By 1881, the partnership was well established and it became a limited company, producing 200,000 tons of soda ash each year. Demand increased, so Brunner Mond built a new soda crystal factory at Winnington in 1888, to sit alongside the existing soda ash one. By buying up their competitors, Brunner Mond established themselves as the country’s biggest soda ash producer – and they continued to expand. In time, Brunner Mond & Co. provided virtually all of Britain’s soda ash, and became the world’s largest alkali exporter.
By the 1960’s, ICI concentrated soda ash production at Wallerscote and Lostock, whilst Winnington was devoted to caustic soda.
Bugger, run out of text with a few more shots. Soz.
