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Report - - Hickson & Welch Chemicals, Castleford. June 2010 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Hickson & Welch Chemicals, Castleford. June 2010

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Kitty

Home-breaking baker
28DL Full Member
A gay old time was had exploring with Squirrell 911, a redundant tripod and some comedy glasses. A rather concerned security guard played second fiddle. Fun was had :D

The history has been done, but I’ll chip in a lil’ bit I found:

Once upon a time, in 1915, Hickson & Partners was founded and built their chemical plant which produced TNT for the war effort. After WW1 ended, the plant was turned over to producing dyestuffs and processing acids.

In 1930, an explosion destroyed a large part of the factory and brought the company to its knees. After an inquiry and fresh finance, the new company of Hickson & Welch emerged in 1931 and rebuilt the plant so that it could concentrate on producing organic chemicals, including Dicol, Benzene derivatives and Aniline dyestuffs. At their dizzy height, they paid wage to 700+ individuals.

Other dabblings (mostly highly toxic) include: optical brighteners for soap powder, photo chemicals, timber stains, preservatives, and agrichemicals (noteably, the now illegal DDT).

Hickson’s overextended itself financially after seeing success on the international market and an explosion, killing several workers in 1992, hammered the rest of the nails into the coffin.

Link to the grim details of the 1992 explosion here: Fire at Hickson & Welch Limited, Castleford

Anyhoo, the pics…

Offices, jam-packed with paperwork
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Surely not the beer?? I 'failed' to conduct a taste-test
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I want my house designed by these people!
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Chem lab and twiddly things:
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Sorcery equipment:
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A new, old skool dinosaur… weird:
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Frankly surprised much of anything grows in the sulphuric acid room (clearly a mutant)
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Now then, back to Sheffield…​
 
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