British Cellophane Ltd (BCL) was a joint venture company formed in 1935 between La Cellophane SA and Courtaulds, when they began building a major factory for producing Cellophane in Bridgwater, Somerset, England.
British Cellophane Ltd (BCL) was a joint venture company formed in 1935 between La Cellophane SA and Courtaulds, when they began building a major factory for producing Cellophane in Bridgwater, Somerset, England.
The process for manufacturing cellulose film from viscose was discovered by three English chemists, Charles Frederick Cross, Edward John Bevan and Clayton Beadle in 1898.
There followed a series of joint ventures and technology transfers among a number of companies predominantly in the UK and France. However, it was not until 1913 that Dr Jacques Brandenberger brought thin transparent cellulose film into true commercial production at the 'La Cellophane SA factory in Bezons, France.
In 1937 British Cellophane set up production on a site in Bridgwater, when unemployment levels in the town were high. The new buildings covered 59 acres (24 ha) of the former Sydenham Manor fields, and had direct railway access. The factory produced cellophane up until late 1940 during World War II, when it started switching production to war munitions and specifically Bailey bridges for the pending invasion of Europe. These were first used in Italy in 1943 by the Royal Engineers. Production ramped up through early-1944 for D-Day.
After the war the Bridgwater factory returned to producing cellophane, with its products exported worldwide. In 1957, a secondary facility was started at Barrow in Furness in Lancashire (now in Cumbria). A subsidiary Colodense Ltd, of Bedminster, Bristol produced specialist printed and coloured bags for loose food packaging in supermarkets. In 1962 it was employing 750+ people. In 1974 the company won the Queen's Award to Industry and by the late 1970s the site produced 40,000 tonnes of cellophane packaging film a year, employing 3,000 people. In 1982 it entered the 'Bag in a Box' market with a new plant at Ashton Vale Bristol, (CLP) 'Colendense Liquid Packaging Ltd', producing liquid packaging bags for the growing take home consumer wine and cider market and producing associated filling machines. In 1988 three separate factories on the site were producing cellulose and polyethylene film, and bonded fibre fabric. The rail link closed in 1994, and the Barrow factory was closed after the company was bought by UCB Films (later Innovia Films). The Barrow-in-Furness plant then employed 450 people.
In 2004, due to dwindling sales of cellophane as a result of alternative packaging options, and the fact that viscose was becoming less favoured because of the polluting effects of carbon disulfide and other by-products of the process, Innovia decided to close one of its two plants at either Bridgwater or Tecumseh, east of Topeka, Kansas. British economic development officials offered a $120,000 tax break over three years to Innovia to preserve the Bridgwater plant, while Kansas offered $2 million if it kept the plant at Tecumseh open. As a result, the Bridgwater factory closed in the summer of 2005, while the factory in Tecumseh remained open . 250 jobs were lost, and the site is still under development as of January 2013.
In 2012 EDF purchased the site, [1] including the Grade II listed 16th century building. [2] In 2015 the industrial site was razed to the ground. It is intended for construction of temporary accommodation for 1,000 workers involved in the construction of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. [3] [4]
Records of Colodense Limited are held at Bristol Archives (Ref. 43979).
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula (C
6H
10O
5)
n, a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall of green plants, many forms of algae and the oomycetes. Some species of bacteria secrete it to form biofilms. Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth. The cellulose content of cotton fiber is 90%, that of wood is 40–50%, and that of dried hemp is approximately 57%.
Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel, its coastline facing southeastern Wales. Its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset's county town is Taunton.
Bridgwater is a large historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its population currently stands at around 35,886 as of 2011. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies along both sides of the River Parrett, and has been a major in-land port and trading centre since the industrial revolution. Most of its industrial bases still stand today. Its larger neighbour Taunton, is linked to Bridgwater via a canal, the M5 motorway and the GWR railway line.
Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria, and water makes it useful for food packaging. Cellophane is highly permeable to water vapour, but may be coated with nitrocellulose lacquer to prevent this.
Rayon is a regenerated cellulose fiber that is made from natural sources such as wood and agricultural products. It has the same molecular structure as cellulose. The many types and grades of viscose fibers can imitate the feel and texture of natural fibers such as silk, wool, cotton, and linen. The types that resemble silk are often called artificial silk. The fibre is used to make textiles for clothing and other purposes. Viscose can mean:
Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) Bridgwater was a factory between the villages of Puriton and Woolavington in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, UK that produced high explosives for munitions. It was slightly above sea level, between the 5 and 10 metre contour lines on Ordnance Survey maps. BAE Systems closed it when decommissioning was completed in July 2008.
Puriton is a village and parish at the westerly end of the Polden Hills, in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. The parish has a population of 1,968. The local parish church is named after St. Michael. A chapel on Woolavington Road was converted to a private house some 20 years ago. The parish includes the hamlets of Dunball and Down End.
Synthetic fibers are fibers made by humans through chemical synthesis, as opposed to natural fibers that are directly derived from living organisms. They are the result of extensive research by scientists to improve upon naturally occurring animal and plant fibers. In general, synthetic fibers are created by extruding fiber-forming materials through spinnerets, forming a fiber. These are called synthetic or artificial fibers. Synthetic fibers are created by a process known as polymerization, which involves combining monomers to make a long chain or polymer. The word polymer comes from a Greek prefix "poly" which means "many" and suffix "mer" which means "single units".. There are two types of polymerization: linear polymerization and cross-linked polymerization.
Somerset is a historic county in the south west of England. There is evidence of human occupation since prehistoric times with hand axes and flint points from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, and a range of burial mounds, hill forts and other artefacts dating from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. The oldest dated human road work in Great Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BCE.
Wigton is a market town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies just outside the Lake District in the borough of Allerdale. Wigton is at the centre of the Solway Plain, between the Caldbeck Fells and the Solway coast. It is served by Wigton railway station on the Cumbrian Coast Line, and the A596 road to Workington. The town of Silloth-on-Solway lies 12 miles (19 km) to the west, beyond Abbeytown.
Bridgwater Town Football Club is a football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset, England. Affiliated to the Somerset County FA, they are currently members of the Western League Premier Division and play at Fairfax Park.
Hinkley Point is a headland on the Bristol Channel coast of Somerset, England, 5 miles north of Bridgwater and 5 mi (8 km) west of Burnham-on-Sea, close to the mouth of the River Parrett.
Innovia Films, a division of CCL Industries, is an international manufacturer and supplier of biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films for speciality packaging, labelling, tobacco overwrap and industrial products. It was once known as UCB Films.
Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals. It was established in 1794 and became the world's leading man-made fibre production company before being broken up in 1990 into Courtaulds plc and Courtaulds Textiles Ltd.
Stockland Bristol is a village and civil parish in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, between Bridgwater and the Steart Peninsula.
Somerset is a county in the south west of England. It is a rural county and transport infrastructure has been significant in industrial development. There is some heavy industry particularly related to the defence technologies and the county has several centres for stone quarrying, although the coalfield is now closed.
Monksilver is a village 3 miles (5 km) west of the town of Williton in Somerset, England, on the eastern flank of the Brendon Hills and the border of the Exmoor National Park. The Coleridge Way footpath passes through the village.
Hinkley Point C nuclear power station (HPC) is a project to construct a 3,200 MWe nuclear power station with two EPR reactors in Somerset, England. The site is one of eight announced by the British government in 2010, and in November 2012 a nuclear site licence was granted. On 28 July 2016 the EDF board approved the project, and on 15 September 2016 the UK government approved the project with some safeguards for the investment.
The Manor of Sydenham was a historic manor in Somerset, England, about one mile (1.6 km) north-east of the centre of historic Bridgwater. Sydenham House, the manor house, a grade II listed building situated in the parish of Wembdon, was built in the early 16th century and refronted and rebuilt after 1613. In 1937, British Cellophane Ltd set up production and built extensive factories on 59 acres (24 ha) of land adjacent to the manor house. Production ceased in 2005 and between 2010 and 2015 the industrial site was razed to the ground. In 2015 the razed site is owned by EDF Energy, which in 2012 purchased the manor house with the former factory site, intended for construction of temporary accommodation for 1,000 workers on the proposed new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station 12 miles (19 km) away. The Manor House is situated to the north side of the A39 Bath Road. Its owners were on the losing side in the Civil War and again in the Monmouth Rebellion.
Red Scar Works was built in 1939 by Courtaulds and produced rayon. It was located in Ribbleton Preston off Longridge Road. The closure of the works was announced in November 1979 and the issue raised in the UK Parliament House of Commons by the constituency MP. At the time of closure approximately 2600 people were employed there but there were approximately 4000 at its peak. It was the largest rayon producing site in Britain. Two main products were manufactured with one being tyre cord by a process known as CSPT - Continuous Spinning Process Tenasco. Two main denier of this product were manufactured. The other product was a general textile called Bright. A range of deniers of this were produced in a range of colours. The trade name for the coloured product was Duracol. At the time of closure, one reason given by management for the closure was the rising popularity of steel belt radial tires thus reducing demand for tyre cord.