Introduction
I’m currently going through some of my older photos from earlier in the year. On our annual trip to Wales, me and @JakeV50 went to take another look at the old Octel Bromine Works site in Anglesey. I wanted to revisit to get a few pics with the camera as I previously only used my phone.
Information & History
This place has been done countless times so I won’t go too in-depth with the history. Octel Bromine Works in Amlwch was a large industrial plant that produced bromine from seawater. Bromine occurs naturally in the sea and the plant extracted this and then mixed it with Eythelene to produce a fuel attitude that was used in leaded petroleum.
The history of Octel traces back to 1940 when a factory opened in Northwich to produce anti-knock compounds for aircraft fuel. The plant was government-owned and was later operated by Octel.
The site at Amlwch opened in 1953 and started off with a bromine production rate of 10,000 tonnes per annum. Amlwch was deemed a suitable site thanks to the area having bromine-rich sea water. The sea water at Amlwch is also relatively clean from trash and has a low tidal range making it the perfect location.
Later, in 1989 Great Lakes purchased the Octel Bromine plant. Great Lakes was based in America and specialised in bromine chemistry. The works had a railway line for transportation of Chlorine deliveries but from 1993 all future deliveries were made via trucks and the railway closed. In 1995, a significant fire broke out in one of the blowing-out towers. The total losses from the fire reached £10 million.
Uncertainty for the future of the plant became evident at the tail end of the 90s when the UK government announced a ban on four-star petroleum fuel. Four-star fuel required Bromine for the Anti Knock Compound in the fuel but the newer standard did not making Bromine somewhat obselete. A few years after the ban Great Lakes announced the closure of the Amlwch plant. Operations ceased in March 2004 and the full decommissioning took a further nine months. Many of the original buildings were demolished but some still remain today in a ruinous state.
Today, all of the site remains derelict and has been largely out of use since closure. In 2007 there were plans to repurpose the site for a liquid natural gas storage plant but this never materialised.
The Explore
Access is usually pretty simple here and this visit was no exception. Unfortunately, it was so windy and as we were in a rush as usual we didn’t actually spend too long here. The wind was distracting when taking photos and my cheap £40 tripod did not stay steady enough for some shots so I had to delete quite a few, but I covered the main bits including the larger pump house and the locker rooms which are my two favourite parts of the site. We did see a group of explorers having a wander around aswell. The last time I visited Octel the site was a hive of activity with people flying drones, locals walking dogs and all sorts of stuff. This is because the main gate was open that day for some unknown reason. It’s been locked up for a while now though.
Photos (Digital & 35mm Film)
I only got one measly photo in the first administration building just due to the fact it is so trashed now:
Moving swiftly along to one of my favourite parts of the site which is the vast locker rooms. I still think it is very photogenic in here:
This little laundry room always makes for a great shot:
An external of one of the admin buildings:
Looking out to the Water Tower:
Old paperwork. There was a nice little office room near here which me and Jake cleaned up last time for a few photos but unfortunately it's been obliterated once again.
Before heading to the old lab, there was a few nice electrical/pump rooms tucked away, I haven't seen these before:
Nice lighting in this corridor:
The labs:
A bit of greenery coming through:
Moving on to the larger pump house and finishing with a few miscellaneous bits after that:
And that's all. I know there's a lot more to the site but I focused on the nicer and more photogenic bits. Thanks for looking!
I’m currently going through some of my older photos from earlier in the year. On our annual trip to Wales, me and @JakeV50 went to take another look at the old Octel Bromine Works site in Anglesey. I wanted to revisit to get a few pics with the camera as I previously only used my phone.
Information & History
This place has been done countless times so I won’t go too in-depth with the history. Octel Bromine Works in Amlwch was a large industrial plant that produced bromine from seawater. Bromine occurs naturally in the sea and the plant extracted this and then mixed it with Eythelene to produce a fuel attitude that was used in leaded petroleum.
The history of Octel traces back to 1940 when a factory opened in Northwich to produce anti-knock compounds for aircraft fuel. The plant was government-owned and was later operated by Octel.
The site at Amlwch opened in 1953 and started off with a bromine production rate of 10,000 tonnes per annum. Amlwch was deemed a suitable site thanks to the area having bromine-rich sea water. The sea water at Amlwch is also relatively clean from trash and has a low tidal range making it the perfect location.
Later, in 1989 Great Lakes purchased the Octel Bromine plant. Great Lakes was based in America and specialised in bromine chemistry. The works had a railway line for transportation of Chlorine deliveries but from 1993 all future deliveries were made via trucks and the railway closed. In 1995, a significant fire broke out in one of the blowing-out towers. The total losses from the fire reached £10 million.
Uncertainty for the future of the plant became evident at the tail end of the 90s when the UK government announced a ban on four-star petroleum fuel. Four-star fuel required Bromine for the Anti Knock Compound in the fuel but the newer standard did not making Bromine somewhat obselete. A few years after the ban Great Lakes announced the closure of the Amlwch plant. Operations ceased in March 2004 and the full decommissioning took a further nine months. Many of the original buildings were demolished but some still remain today in a ruinous state.
Today, all of the site remains derelict and has been largely out of use since closure. In 2007 there were plans to repurpose the site for a liquid natural gas storage plant but this never materialised.
The Explore
Access is usually pretty simple here and this visit was no exception. Unfortunately, it was so windy and as we were in a rush as usual we didn’t actually spend too long here. The wind was distracting when taking photos and my cheap £40 tripod did not stay steady enough for some shots so I had to delete quite a few, but I covered the main bits including the larger pump house and the locker rooms which are my two favourite parts of the site. We did see a group of explorers having a wander around aswell. The last time I visited Octel the site was a hive of activity with people flying drones, locals walking dogs and all sorts of stuff. This is because the main gate was open that day for some unknown reason. It’s been locked up for a while now though.
Photos (Digital & 35mm Film)
I only got one measly photo in the first administration building just due to the fact it is so trashed now:
Moving swiftly along to one of my favourite parts of the site which is the vast locker rooms. I still think it is very photogenic in here:
This little laundry room always makes for a great shot:
An external of one of the admin buildings:
Looking out to the Water Tower:
Old paperwork. There was a nice little office room near here which me and Jake cleaned up last time for a few photos but unfortunately it's been obliterated once again.
Before heading to the old lab, there was a few nice electrical/pump rooms tucked away, I haven't seen these before:
Nice lighting in this corridor:
The labs:
A bit of greenery coming through:
Moving on to the larger pump house and finishing with a few miscellaneous bits after that:
And that's all. I know there's a lot more to the site but I focused on the nicer and more photogenic bits. Thanks for looking!
