# Hickson and Welch, Castleford - March 2010



## smileysal (Mar 28, 2010)

Got woken up stupidly early by Mendo informing me we were off to "that there Yorkshire today to see some huge industrialness" (his words not mine lmao). "Oh, and we're leaving at 9.30 to meet Spark, chop chop!" "you've got 22 minutes now before we set off, CHOP CHOP!". grrrrrrrrr!!!!

Eventually leave the house half an hour after we were supposed to set off in the direction of Castleford in West Yorkshire. Meet Spark in leisure centre car park, (got introduced to beef jerky  ) anyhow I digress, parked around the corner near to a public footpath, then get told to look towards the river. "that's where we're going today" I was told. WOW, talk about big.  The huge former chemical factory named Hickson and Welch. Even from where we were standing, all we could see were towers, pipes, and chimney's.  excellent. Off we start. 

Here's what their website says about them.

_We are an independent chemical manufacturing company. We specialise in organic chemistry and offer contract manufacturing services and a range of fine chemical intermediates to the crop science, health & nutrition and specialty markets.

Hickson & Welch specialises in the synthesis of organic chemical intermediates and has two principal businesses:

Contract Manufacture and

Fine Chemical Intermediates_

These are all the products they manufactured! :EEK:

_ Full Product List -Further Information

Optical Brightening Agents
Pharmaceutical Intermediates
Dyes & Pigments

Products and Markets
Fine Chemical Intermediates

99-99-0 PNT 4-NITROTOLUENE
121-03-9 PNTSA 4-NITROTOLUENE-2-SULPHONIC ACID
128-42-7 DNS 4-4'-DINITROSTILBENE-2-2'-DISULPHONIC ACID (DISODIUM SALT)
119-72-2 SEMIDAS 4-AMINO-4'-NITROSTILBENE-2-2'-DISULPHONIC ACID (DISODIUM SALT)
81-11-8 DAS 4-4'-DIAMINOSTILBENE-2-2'-DISULPHONIC ACID (POWDER)
81-11-8 DAS 4-4'-DIAMINOSTILBENE-2-2'-DISULPHONIC ACID (SOLUTION)
PHOTINES® OPTICAL BRIGHTENERS FOR DETERGENTS
106-49-0 PT p-TOLUIDINE
88-51-7 2B ACID 5-CHLORO-p-TOLUIDINE-2-SULPHONIC ACID (NH2=1)
88-44-8 4B ACID p-TOLUIDINE-2-SULPHONIC ACID (NH2=1)
108-44-1 MT m-TOLUIDINE
98-33-9 OTSA 2-AMINOTOLUENE-5-SULPHONIC ACID
25321-14-6 DNT DINITROTOLUENE
95-79-4 4COT 4-CHLORO-o-TOLUIDINE (NH2=1)
635-22-3 4C3NA 4-CHLORO-3-NITROANILINE
6283-25-6 2C5NA 2-CHLORO-5-NITROANILINE
119-75-5 ONDP 2-NITRODIPHENYLAMINE
40932-60-3 TCSA 3,5,6-TRICHLOROSALICYLIC ACID

ASHWOOD PRODUCTS OFFERED Connecting Dots

4584-46-7 DMC 2-DIMETHYLAMINO ETHYL CHLORIDE HYDROCHLORIDE
- also available as a 65% solution
869-24-9 DEC 2-DIETHYLAMINO ETHYL CHLORIDE HYDROCHLORIDE
- also available as 50% and 65% solutions
4584-49-0 DMIPC DIMETHYLAMINO ISOPROPYL CHLORIDE HYDROCHLORIDE
5407-04-5 DMPC 3-DIMETHYLAMINO PROPYL CHLORIDE HYDROCHLORIDE
- available as 65% and 70% solutions (aqeous)
4261-68-1 DIC DI ISOPROPYLAMINO ETHYLCHLORIDE HYDROCHLORIDE
645-45-4 HCC HYDROCINNAMOYL CHLORIDE
530-62-1 CDI 1,1-CARBONYLDIIMIDAZOLE
_

Some history of the site. 

_80 Years Of Chemical Manufacturing Expertise



* 1915 - Ernest Hickson built a plant for TNT and picric acid production
* 1920's - Switched production to nitrotoluenes for dyes and pigments
* 1940's - Large scale chlorination Largest UK producer of DDT
* 1950's - Ceased DDT. Phosgenation to produce ureas. Optical Brightening agents
* 1960's - Expansion of nitrotoluenes
* Tax Accountants
* 1970's - Contract manufacturing investment
* 1990's - Expansion of hydrogenation and phosgenation facilities
* 2000 - Acquisition by Arch Chemicals_

The site closed in 2005. (They do still have another site in Bradford and have extended that one).

Here's a few pics from me. 













































And lastly from me. 



Sorry there's so many, I took over 200 pics in there. :embarrassed: Visited with ThenewMendoza and Spark. 

Cheers,

 Sal


----------



## klempner69 (Mar 28, 2010)

That man sure spoils you..I mean,towers pipes and chimneys and BLUE ..I would love to see this lot for sure.You lucky lady you.


----------



## mexico75 (Mar 28, 2010)

Nice one, the bridge over the river is fun


----------



## Foxylady (Mar 28, 2010)

Oh, woooo...what a great site! Excellent stuff, Sal. 
Well worth missing a coffee or two in the morning for!


----------



## smileysal (Mar 28, 2010)

klempner69 said:


> That man sure spoils you..I mean,towers pipes and chimneys and BLUE ..I would love to see this lot for sure.You lucky lady you.



LOL, it was awesome. So many pipes of all different sizes, chemicals in bottles that said unknown on them  Gantries, walkways that are rusty so bits fall off! Was still ace. 



mexico75 said:


> Nice one, the bridge over the river is fun



At one point, I wanted to stay on the island side, and not venture over the bridge. But, in the end, I did get across it, albeit hanging on for dear life going across it. Felt more comfortable on the way back across and really enjoyed it. 



Foxylady said:


> Oh, woooo...what a great site! Excellent stuff, Sal.
> Well worth missing a coffee or two in the morning for!



Wasn't happy first thing having to only have time for one coffee, but the whole day of exploring a brilliant place made up for it.


----------



## diehardlove (Mar 28, 2010)

very very nice sal well done


----------



## Neosea (Mar 28, 2010)

Good going Sal


----------



## TK421 (Mar 28, 2010)

Nice one Sal, thats a great set of photos there mate. "Full of pipey goodness" Did you get your passport stamped for entry into the Peoples republic of 'Yarkshire'


----------



## ThenewMendoza (Mar 28, 2010)

My luck in Yorkshire seems to be changing.  Given some of the stories I heard about this place and the 'Terminators' it was a fairly uneventful explore, which was good as it's an immense place, although quite a lot has been demolished since others have visited, there's still loads left to poke about in and rummage through.

It's reminiscent of the Wallerscote Works, inasmuch as it's a load of pipes and silos connected by crumbly walkways and gantries, there's a certain smell in the air, not unpleasant, but not the kind of smell you'd want to spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week living with. Phosgene, there's an interesting chemical, it was used as a chemical weapon during the First World War, we learned that while we were there, thanks to the power of the internet:



Wiki said:


> The great majority of phosgene is used in the production of isocyanates, the most important being toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI). These isocyanates are precursors to polyurethanes. Significant amounts are also used in the production of polycarbonates via its reaction with bisphenol A.[2] Polycarbonates are an important class of engineering thermoplastic found, for example, in lenses in eye glasses.



Thanks Wikipedia - [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene[/ame] 

Stealthing about the site was fun as we headed from ladder to ladder, gantry to gantry, it felt like we had the place to ourselves and the pay-off was fantastic. Epic is an often overused word these days, but in my opinion, in this case, it really does apply .

Pics.





























































M


----------



## smileysal (Mar 28, 2010)

Seeing a strange, yet scary smile appear over Mendo's face as he said "this is better than Wallerscote" = priceless.


----------



## King Al (Mar 29, 2010)

Super pics guys, that place looks fantastic!

Bloody long drive on the cards for me I think


----------



## Seahorse (Mar 29, 2010)

That Scafftag is WAY out of date. I hope nobody did any dodgy climbing.


----------



## klempner69 (Mar 29, 2010)

King Al said:


> Super pics guys, that place looks fantastic!
> 
> Bloody long drive on the cards for me I think



I am game


----------



## sqwasher (Mar 29, 2010)

Really good industrialness goodness reportness you two peeps! Good range of photies really make this place intriging! Glad you got in & out of God's own county ok!


----------



## urbex1 (Apr 15, 2010)

excellent report I went to have a look for access recently and thought i'd have to swim across! I'll have to check again cos they're some awesome pics


----------

