# Yorkshire chemicals final explores- Hunslet shed 47 Rooftop



## theoss (Jan 20, 2008)

Yorkshire chemicals was a leeds based manufacturer of dyes for the textile industry and was formed over a hundred years ago. In the 1970's, it exported dyes to 52 Countries, and has owned manufacturing plants in several parts of the world. However, cheaper imports from Asia eventually saw profits dwindle and depsite apparantly considerable restructuring the company was taken into administrative receivership during October 2004. The two Leeds sites, Head offices and manufacturing plant at Kirkstall Road and manufacturing plant at Hunslet, were purchaed by the developer Gladedale Group. 

I have made several visits to Yorkshire Chemicals redundant premisies over the last nine months but now the sites are scheduled for demolition and work is well under way at the eight acre Hunslet site, which will become known as 'the works'. I recently took what may be a final opportunity to visit the rooftop of Shed 47, the tallest of the buildings on this site. 

Shed 47 was the most modern of the two Yorkshire chemicals sites in Leeds. In was modernised to help YCL stay competitve in the dyes market by making products more technically advanced that other manufacturers were struggling to produce.







Inside shed 47, many dangerous chemicals were handled. Sulphuric acid, Hydrochloric acid, Sodium Nitrite and Pyriline and others are all present. Hence these safety rules;






Access to the roof was gained by the staircase shown in the picture. Care was needed using the stairs as the handrails were badly damaged in places, probably due to the removal of scrap metals. When the site was operational the workers would have had the benefit of a lift.






Once on the open roof, there are several machine and control rooms as well as storage tanks.






This is assumed to be fume extraction equipment;






The prurpose of this equipment is a mystery;







The site had the benefit of a borehole for water, which was pumped to the top of shed 47. This is part of the treatment equipment;






Looking down from the roof, these tanks were noticiable. They have now been cleared as part of the demolition work.






Ice was required in parts of the processes in this building. The Stal refrigeration plant was sited up here too. The refrigerant, as commonly used on industrial plants, was Ammonia. The control room for this plant is on the other side of the windows in the picture;











The night of our most recent visit was miserable as far as weather is concenened, I didn't take my tripod up and the rain is also playing a part on the lens. 

A view of Tetley's yard. It seems that around Yorkshire Chemicals was a designated blast zone in case of an accident and no residential property was allowed within that zone. A condition when the land was purchased for development was that it was not to be used for chemical production. Consequently the blast zone restriction is now lifted and I wonder what the future will hold for Tetley's brewery, since it stands between 'the works' development and Leeds city centre.






Other night views;
















Demolition work is presently taking place seven days a week. Here operatives can be seen removing a pipe gantry in fromt of shed 47;






It seems a shame to me that Britian is rapidly loosing it's manufacturing industries, and the skilled trades that were part of it. One look at the miles of pipework strewn over the site makes me believe that engineering construction on this scale will never be seen again in this country. That said a city centre seems an unwise location for a facility with potential hazards such as those that seem to have been present on this site.


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## Foxylady (Jan 21, 2008)

That was a very interesting report theoss, and excellent pics. Really enjoyed seeing the various bits of the plant.
The mystery equipment - now this is just an idea as I don't recall knowing what they look like, but it wouldn't be the lift mechanism, would it? As I said, just a thought! 

Cheers for that.


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## King Al (Jan 21, 2008)

Great report and pictures, looks like a cool place, wouldn't want to fall in one of those vats! (pic 8)


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## wolfism (Jan 21, 2008)

theoss said:


> The prurpose of this equipment is a mystery;


I think it might be a pressure regulator, if the gadget on the right is a bellows, controlled by the rams/ threaded rods on the left? Possibly ...


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## theoss (Jan 23, 2008)

Re- falling into vats. There is also a full floor of these reaction vessels which is where a mixture of chemiclas are introduced to each other, excuse the poor quality pictures taken in summer 2007;






Inside. complete with discarded cable armouring;






Re, machinery. There is many things in that place I don't understand. I doubt it is lift related, becasue the lift is situated elsewhere, but it could be counterbalance for other machinery. Some sort of pressure regulator also makes sense as it was in the ventilation room. I was a bit pushed for time that outing becasue I had used the flash a bit and felt the need to keep moving.

I have also found an online resource of pictures from YCL during it's working life and these can found at;


http://alhome.bargolf.net/Work/1995...cals/Yorkshire Chemicals - Hunslet/index.html




I


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## theoss (Feb 14, 2008)

Just to update this using information from a reliable source of information.

1) Most of the stuff in this report is actually shed 46. Shed 47 is an annexe to shed 46 which was added in 2001.

2) The mystery machine is a screening press. Basically, a type of filter used to catch solid waste and allow liquid to pass through.


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## borntobemild (Feb 16, 2008)

I'm originally a Leeds lad so this is of real interest to me. Like the picture of the sirens, presumably there to warn of a chemical leakage.

fantastic pictures - particularly the night ones.


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## theoss (Feb 16, 2008)

borntobemild said:


> I'm originally a Leeds lad so this is of real interest to me. Like the picture of the sirens, presumably there to warn of a chemical leakage.
> 
> fantastic pictures - particularly the night ones.



Thanks for the comments.

Hunslet had at least a couple of the motor sirens shown in the picture. There seems to have been a fairly potent cocktail of chemicals used on site, and a similar plant in huddersfield had a runaway reaction which demolished one of thier sheds and the main reason no one was killed was because the accident happened at a weekend. The ammonia in the refrigeration system can also be volatile if not handled very carefully.
The site was under COMAH regulations which meant that the management had to consider every eventuality, no matter how unlikely the risk, and have a contigency planned for it. Hunslet had an incident room near the main gate but sadly I am not aware of anyone gaining entry becasue the security hut was next to it and it was the first building the demolition team got rid of.

Reading through some documents left in Shed 46 rest room in seems the sirens were triggered at least once due to water getting into the wiring.


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## theoss (Feb 16, 2008)

Here is a link to an article about Holiday dyes, Huddersfield, including some information about the explosion in 1996. 

http://www.colorantshistory.org/HollidayDye.html


No connection at all to YCL. Holiday was a rival to YCL, or at least reading through documents in the Kirkstall lab offices gives that impression.


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## Philson (Mar 15, 2008)

*The mystery plant correctly discovered is 46/19, a screening press that filtered out impurities from a aqueos diazo before being coupled to a base Red2G in vessel 46/4 on the 2nd floor below.

You will see from Theoss's photo that there are wooden frames right of the two tensioning screws. Each frame, 20 if remember correctly, was covered with a fine paper that acted as a 'screen' to stop undiazotised liquor impurities from reaching the base. After each run, the press was opened and the frames emptied with a scraper into drums. A soggy messy affair it was too. Good job it was wet because breathing in this stuff when dry could damage the lungs. Many heroic attempts to stop undiazotised product reaching the the press and thence save cash was carried out in the latter years by our chemists and engineers but no avail. This process was part of our jewel in the crown, RedG cake. One nail in the coffin.

On this small mezzanine floor overlooking the engineering and drawing office block, she had a sister press 46/20 at her side that could be used when 46/19was being washed down and re-papered.

The control lever for opening and closing the press can be seen on the left hand side of the photo. In the background are the stairs down to a fine cup of tea.

With regard to the site sirens, there were three. One on 46 shed, one on 50 shed and one on 78 shed on the other side of Black Bull Street that cut the Hunslet site in two.

They were tested at 11:00 on Friday mornings and could be heard from miles away. Air raid alarms we called them. A slight dip in electric power to the site would result in false activation, usually on nights much to the horror of our neighbouring Tetley employees and emergency services. 

Thanks for the photo's Theoss. Well done*


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## Philson (Mar 15, 2008)

*Yes, the incident room was close to main gate, part of the Effluent treatment plant control room (top right hand corner, pictue 8). The plant neutralised waste acids and alkalines to within pH 6 - 10. During the neutralisation process, solids were formed, sludge if you like, that had to be removed prior to leaving site. You can see the coarse neutralisation tank (61/5) that dumped a hydrated lime water mix on anything under ph4, and at her side 61/6 for fine tuning before exiting to the clarifier for settling - the large tank with the walkway. The sludge was drawn off from underneath the clarifier and pumped to the sludge tank, then filtered into skips for disposal to land sites. The cost of disposal rocketed in the late 90's. That with the cost of hydrated lime and Yorkshire Water's ever increasing demands on the purity of the liquid effluent; chemical oxygen demand (COD) for example, and another nail was being hammered home.

The security hut was where I lived. It wasn't much of a palace but it had the ears and gossip of the great and small. A fine meeting place if you will. 
*


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## johno23 (Mar 15, 2008)

Interesting stuff and a dangerous type of place to work at or live near by the sound of it.great report and pictures


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## Philson (Mar 15, 2008)

*Thanks JOHNO23, the dangers were there to be sure.







I walked the service gantry to 46/5 shed many times, looking for leaks or checking the supplied steam pressure. The brown doors in the lower left of the pic hold within the instrument air compressors and driers. Vital to the site valves as you can imagine. There was many a time I phoned for expert help when the site shut down because air was lost. This was the phosgene tank home when I first started in '83, note the lifting beam above the doors. Only plant managers were allowed to use this plant for processing. I remember being told by the older hands that now would be a good time for grub up in the canteen!

The heat on the shed in the summer months was warmish. We had to tip 120kg drums into vats, push bogies full off ice when the ice makers broke down or production dictated otherwise, empty pressed cake into tubs and then recharge it! Happy days. We did a fair days work for a fair days pay and we were well looked after too. 2 bottles of wine at Xmas and you could choose between red or white. Annual checkups with the Doctor, 6 months if you had been using known carcinigens. Buckets of orange saline if you were thirsty and cheap food in the canteen. Friendship was all, we looked after each other to the end.

ps

The German Stal compessors were the bane of my friend who had to keep them going. That's another story.*


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## Philson (Mar 16, 2008)

* Young ones eh. No questions to ask, no answers given. You are on your own children. Have fun

regards

Phil*


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## theoss (Mar 16, 2008)

I only saw this last night, been working away recently so internet access has been limited.

I went past the plant yesterday and there are some demolition pictures on my photo site, have seen your comment about not wanting to see the place cut up so wont post them here. The way the place worked is slightly easier to understand with the cut away view, and it also reveals how little of the site was actually seen.

I wondered about shed 47. Some of the vessels in the construction shots on the other photo site don't look new. Was this annexe moved from the site opposite to clear the land or something? Inside Kirkstal plant there are also a lot of large holes where vessels have been removed.







We did see the second screen press in shed 46 and didnt make the connection to the similar one on the roof. I have very few pictures from inside beacuse my old camera wasnt upto it and once I got a better one security was beefed up for demolition work and the belly of the plant, with large holes in the floor, wasn't a place to wander in the dark.

I'd imagine the compressors could be tempermental, I would imagine many alarms trying to shut them down with the slightest change.

Then there is this thing at Kirkstall, was it some sort of drier? Looking at the fire and explosion control panels it looks hazardous;


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## Philson (Mar 18, 2008)

*Thanks Theoss, no need worry about posting the demolition pic's, I'm sure we would find them fascinating. It's funny how I look back through rose tinted spec's and think how wonderful it was to have worked there and most of the time it was. The site was small and everyone got to know each other very well - like a family. However, if there was a process incident - few and far between druring my time there thankfully and ne'er a fatality, my heart would somtimes skip a beat!

As I mentioned in my hello to the forum, the Chinese were our main competitors At first they produced cheap dyes of inferior quality to own so we competed on quality and kept ahead of the race. However, within a suprisingly short period of time they cracked the quality nut and stuck the boot in - cheapness. We never stood chance. The ironic thing is that once I showed a group of Chinese 'buisness' men around 46 shed.

In fairness, there were many other factors that led to demise of YCL but we tried our best.

I rather not go into to much detail for fear of boring you all to tears, but I think a little explanation of the Hunslet and Kirkstall sites and what they did would help.

The Hunslet site produced basic cake dye from raw materials. It was sent to the Kirkstall road site for milling, blending, drying and packing to the customer.

During 2001-2003 some of the Kirkstall plant was relocated to Hunslet, a massive and costly project. Milling machines and their associated tanks were sited in 50/56 sheds as were some of the drying ovens. Hence your fine observation that some vessels didn't look new, that's because they were from Kirkstall.

You are correct re the drier hole in the 2nd pic. These were large conical shaped plant that spray dried a dye slurry. I think 2 or 3 of these were brought from Kirkstall and sited in 5 shed.

All this work was a bit of rush job and in my opinion too little too late. The writing was on the wall. New flats and shopping complexes were springing up all around YCL as can be clearly seen in the background from the shots of the demolition. The Royal Amouries wasn't all that far away too. I often wondered who would want to buy a flat, expensive at that, close to a blast zone unless they had knowledge that YCL wouldn't be there for long. I'm surpised that Tetley's brewery is still there and wish them luck

The instrument air compessors and associated driers were fairly new. The problem was with the age of the plastic air lines on the shed. There was miles of stuff running all over the show and in awkward place to access. If one failed, the compressors tried to compensate for the pressure loss by working harder. Sooner or later safety devices would kick in and shut them down. One of my tasks was to go round the site when it was quiet on nights or the weekend seeking out instrument air leaks for repair.


What fun! Thank's for your pic's link Theoss.
*


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## theoss (Mar 20, 2008)

Problems with air pipes breaking up? Wasn't durapipe was it, that stuff is supposed to last...

When did Kirkstall stop operating? There were notices in the office block that suggested some staff were transfered to Hunslet. The packaging plant there seemed fairly modern.

Some of the reaction vessels (is this right) seemed to have some dangerous chemicals running to them. I'm assuming the steam and ice were used to control the temperature of the reactions? What was the worst thing can could have gone wrong?


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## theoss (Mar 30, 2008)

A small fire broke out today during demolition and it seems YCL still triggers a a major response from the fire service;


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## AngryMikee (Mar 30, 2008)

Found this on a search engine while trying to find out who the demolition company are. Mainly because i'm rather angry that it's almost midnight on a Sunday and they're still knocking down a building right next to the most residential part of the city. I NEED SLEEP!

[lb=http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/imagehosting/436647f0190a4f31b.jpg]



[/lb] 

Mind you - glad it's going. It's that big ugly building in the middle of my view. (as attached)


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## raywelburn (Apr 15, 2008)

theoss said:


> Problems with air pipes breaking up? Wasn't durapipe was it, that stuff is supposed to last...
> 
> When did Kirkstall stop operating? There were notices in the office block that suggested some staff were transfered to Hunslet. The packaging plant there seemed fairly modern.
> 
> Some of the reaction vessels (is this right) seemed to have some dangerous chemicals running to them. I'm assuming the steam and ice were used to control the temperature of the reactions? What was the worst thing can could have gone wrong?



The worst thing that could have gone wrong would have been rupture of the dimethyl sulphate tank spilling 20000 litres of the most deadly non-radioactive substance known to man into the heart of a major city. Yes the site was assessed under COMAH or CIMAH as it used to be - I did the original hazard assessment work on this along with the H&S and Engineering depts. Good to see philson is keeping an accurate record of what all the equipment was for. With something so specialised as dye production it would be so easy for all this knowledge and history to disappear. Very sad to sit here and see it all being pulled down - hopefully the streets around some of which are named after dyes will hold the memory of what once went on there.


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## theoss (Apr 16, 2008)

Cheers- the place was interesting and the more that is found out about it the more questions it raises.

Where was this tank located? On our visits we kept eyes open for any layout drawings and such but never came across any. The recent demolition of sheds 46/47 left the building wide open.


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## raywelburn (Apr 18, 2008)

You have a picture of the DMS tank in the link you put on one of your earlier posts. It was in 13 shed. The picture shows the nitric acid tank on the left hand side. The nitric acid lines were made from aluminium as seen as it is the only thing it doesn't attack but all the DMS lines and the tank are high grade stainless steel. Sure hope they decontaminated this before anyone decides to remove it!




http://alhome.bargolf.net/Work/1995-2004%20Yorkshire%20Chemicals/Yorkshire%20Chemicals%20-%20Hunslet/13,15%20and%2016%20Sheds/slides/0000824-DMS%20stock%20tank.html


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## Olveres (Apr 18, 2008)

The old place is almost gone, I doubt the tower will survive the weekend.


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## theoss (Apr 18, 2008)

raywelburn said:


> You have a picture of the DMS tank in the link you put on one of your earlier posts. It was in 13 shed. The picture shows the nitric acid tank on the left hand side. The nitric acid lines were made from aluminium as seen as it is the only thing it doesn't attack but all the DMS lines and the tank are high grade stainless steel. Sure hope they decontaminated this before anyone decides to remove it!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



If it is the building I am thinking of there is a 98% sulphuric acid intake close to it. The building still stands and the control panel is in the entrance. There was a decom firm on site over easter who may have been working on the tank.
We never got inside that one, fortunately by the sound of it.

Most vessels so far have been dumped on the ground and flame cut.

Just reminded me of the library at Kirkstall road. The documents in there represent hours of research. All dumped and rotting away now.


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