ICI Hillhouse | |
---|---|
Built | 1941 |
Location | Thornton-Cleveleys and Burn Naze, Lancashire, England |
Coordinates | 53°52′57″N2°59′52″W / 53.882483°N 2.9978532°W |
Industry | Chlorine production |
Defunct | 1992 |
ICI Hillhouse was a chlorine-production facility in Lancashire, England. A division of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), it was active between 1941 and 1992. Its triangular footprint spread from the banks of the River Wyre at Stanah in the east, [1] to Hillylaid Road in the southwest, to the southern edge of Fleetwood in the north. Its entrances were on Hillylaid Road (a service entrance via the extant gate at the end of today's The Hawthorns) and on Butts Road in Burn Naze. Burn Naze Halt served those arriving by train.
ICI Hillhouse expanded on a United Alkali Company venture begun in 1890. [2] ICI General Chemical Divisions purchased the assets of Hillhouse and Burn Hall Works from the Ministry of Supply. A power plant was built on today's Bourne Way in 1958, providing ICI with electricity and steam power. [3] A railway line—part of the Fleetwood branch line—was built to connect Burn Naze to Poulton-le-Fylde and beyond. The line still exists today, although the sidings at Burn Naze were removed after all freight traffic ceased in 1999.
Water from the Lancaster Canal, beside Nateby Hall bridge, was extracted by ICI Hillhouse via a 25-year lease. Around 6,000 megalitres (1.3 million gallons) of water was obtained. The boreholes the facility previously used resulted in the water turning brackish due to a fault line which runs between Barrow-in-Furness and the Fylde. [4]
ICI Hillhouse closed in 1992, after which the Burn Naze area, where most of the workers lived, subsequently suffered a downturn in fortunes. [3] [5] The chlorine plant was demolished in 1994. [6] The power station was demolished in 2007; [7] its chimney followed on 7 November 2009. [8] [9]
In 1999, Glasgow-based NPL Estates reached a £50 million agreement with ICI to create new housing, leisure, supermarket and shopping facilities on the Burn Naze portion of the land. [10] Another section became the Hillhouse Enterprise Zone. [11]
An plaque beside the Thornton-Cleveleys War Memorial at Four Lane Ends honours ICI Hillhouse workers who served in the first and second World Wars. [12] [13] Poulton & Wyre Railway Society have placed a plaque honouring the wars' soldiers at Burn Naze Halt. [14]
On 26 July 1963, a fire broke out in an electric furnace at ICI Hillhouse. The furnace was used to heat anthracite to make carbide electro paste. While local brigades (Blackpool and Lancashire) also attended, the fire was fought by the on-site ICI Works fire brigade. A rush of flames injured seven firefighters, with Raymond Pearson, 40, dying a day later in hospital. [15]
Wyre is a local government district with borough status on the coast of Lancashire, England. The council is based in Poulton-le-Fylde and the borough also contains the towns of Cleveleys, Fleetwood, Garstang, Preesall and Thornton, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas. Some of the borough's built-up areas form part of the wider Blackpool urban area. Eastern parts of the borough lie within the Forest of Bowland, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Cleveleys is a town on the Fylde Coast of Lancashire, England, about 4 miles (6 km) north of Blackpool and 2 miles (3 km) south of Fleetwood. It is part of the Borough of Wyre. With its neighbouring settlement of Thornton, Cleveleys was part of the former urban district of Thornton-Cleveleys and is part of the Blackpool Urban Area. In 2011 the Cleveleys Built-up area sub division had a population of 10,754.
Thornton is a village in the Borough of Wyre, about 4 miles (6 km) north of Blackpool and 2 miles (3 km) south of Fleetwood. The civil parish of Thornton became an urban district in 1900, and was renamed Thornton-Cleveleys in 1927. In 2011 the Thornton built-up area sub division had a population of 18,941.
The Preston and Wyre Railway was promoted to open up agricultural land in the Fylde in Lancashire, access a new port at what became Fleetwood and the Lancaster Canal at Preston: it opened in 1840. An associated company built the dock leading to the company changing its name to the Preston and Wyre Railway, Harbour and Dock Company. Passenger business was more buoyant than expected, and the company built branch lines to the nascent resort of Blackpool and Lytham that opened in 1846. At that time the line was leased by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and later the London and North Western Railway took a share in the lease which was later converted to outright ownership. The Preston and Wyre Railway continued to be jointly owned as the Preston and Wyre Joint Railway.
Thornton-Cleveleys is a conurbation consisting of the village of Thornton and the town of Cleveleys. The two settlements formed a joint urban district from 1927 until 1974, before becoming part of Wyre. The two settlements constitute part of the Blackpool Urban Area.
Poulton-le-Fylde railway station serves the town of Poulton-le-Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is managed by Northern Trains, but also served by Avanti West Coast.
The Fleetwood branch line is a railway line that ran from Preston to Fleetwood. It passed through many smaller stations along the way, most of which are now closed. When work at Fleetwood docks was under threat in the mid-1960s, the main Fleetwood station was closed, and the remainder of the branch south to Poulton followed in 1970. There are active proposals to re-open the branch to passenger services.
Thornton–Cleveleys was a railway station in England which served the Lancashire village of Thornton and town of Cleveleys. Located on the now disused line between Poulton-le-Fylde and Fleetwood, the station also had a shunting yard for the making-up of freight trains for Preston and beyond. During its life it was also known at times as Thornton station and Thornton for Cleveleys station. In the 1860s and early 1870s the line was of great importance, being the direct route from London to Glasgow. Before the Shap route was opened, passengers would travel from Euston to Fleetwood and then onwards via steamer to Scotland.
Burn Naze Halt railway station served Burn Naze in Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire, England, between 1909 and 1970. The platforms were heavily overgrown with vegetation until 2014, when the Poulton & Wyre Railway Society began restoration work.
The Fylde is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a 13-mile-long (21-kilometre) square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills to the east which approximates to a section of the M6 motorway and West Coast Main Line.
The FY postcode area, also known as the Blackpool postcode area, is a group of eight postcode districts in Lancashire, North West England. The districts cover the entire borough of Blackpool and the western parts of the boroughs of Wyre and Fylde. The letters in the postcode area name refer to the Fylde coastal plain. Its five post towns are Blackpool, Fleetwood, Lytham St Annes, Poulton-le-Fylde, Thornton-Cleveleys.
Burn Naze is a residential area of Thornton-Cleveleys, in the Borough of Wyre, Lancashire, England. It is located about 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Blackpool and 2 miles (3 km) southeast of Fleetwood. Cleveleys is about 1.3 miles (2.1 km) to the west, while the River Wyre is about 0.8 miles (1.3 km) to the east.
Skippool is an area of Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire, England. It is situated between Little Thornton and Poulton-le-Fylde along the western banks of the River Wyre, about three miles south of its mouth between Fleetwood and Knott End. These banks are known as Skippool Creek, an historic docks area now home to mostly run-down vessels. The MV Good Hope, for example, may date from the 1830s. Skippool Creek is a short branch off Main Dyke, which empties into the River Wyre in front of Blackpool and Fleetwood Yacht Club.
Thornton Cleveleys Football Club is a football club based in Thornton-Cleveleys, England. They are currently members of the North West Counties League Division One North and play at Gamble Road, Thornton-Cleveleys.
Illawalla was an Edwardian single-story building in the Skippool area of Thornton, Lancashire, England. Built in 1902, it was demolished in 1996, after lying derelict for six years, to make way for three exclusive homes. Its name is preserved in the name of the road on which these houses now stand and also in the name of the adjacent cricket club, whose grounds partly occupy the land Illawalla stood on.
Raikes Farmhouse is an historic building in Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire, England. Replacing a building dating from at least 1595, the current structure was built in 1692, with a rear extension added in the 19th century. It has been designated a Grade II listed building by Historic England. The property is located on Raikes Road, just southeast of its junction with Stanah Road and Hillylaid Road.
Wardleys was a pub on Wardley's Lane in the civil parish of Stalmine-with-Staynall, near the village of Hambleton, Lancashire. The building dated to the 18th century and occupied a location, on the eastern banks of the River Wyre and beside Wardleys Creek, believed to have been used since Roman times. Prior to nearby Fleetwood's emergence as a harbour, people emigrated to the Americas from the creek, including aboard the Quebec-bound Six Sisters on 3 April 1833. The harbour's foundation rocks are still visible beneath today's wooden jetty. A ferry used to run from Cockle Hall, on the western side of the river, to Wardleys Creek. Parts of the pier are still visible in the marsh in front of where Cockle Hall once stood.
The Burn Naze was a public house in Burn Naze, Lancashire. Built in 1910, when it replaced the former Burn Naze Inn, it was one of the oldest pubs in the area by the time of its closure in 2019, and was listed as a community asset in 2021. It was demolished in 2022.
Public transport in the Fylde is available for three modes of transport—bus, rail and tram—assisting residents of and visitors to the Fylde, a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England, without their own vehicle, to travel around much of the area's 64 square miles (170 km2).
Poulton & Wyre Railway Society (PWRS) is a railway preservation company based in Lancashire, England. Formed in 2006, its main focus has been working towards reinstating the railway line between Poulton-le-Fylde and Fleetwood for passenger use. The line was taken out of use in 1970 and removed in certain sections.
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