These towns facing each other over the Mersey share an industrial history of chemicals manufacturing. They were joined by a transporter bridge in 1905 which was replaced by the arched Jubilee Bridge in 1961.
The opening of the Bridgewater canal in 1776 kick started industry in Runcorn. Two large soap and alkali works (Hazlehurst and the Runcorn Soap and Alkali Company) were destined to grow throughout the nineteenth century, particularly with advances in science in mid century. Proximity to the sea and canals encouraged shipbuilding and the presence of minerals underground enabled lead and copper mining.
The opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1895 further improved the connectivity of the town and the Castner-Kellner company (which later became part of ICI) began using the electrolytic process from which both caustic soda, bleaching powder, chlorine and hydrogen were extracted. The Hazlehurst soap business was bought by United Alkali, of which I say more below, who then sold to Lever Brothers (later Unilever) adding to their soap business. The town became home to British Dyestuffs also later part of ICI which located the headquarters of their Mond heavy chemicals division there.
ICI's Fluor produced fluorocarbons, used as refrigerants in air-conditioning systems in cars and homes, at sites in Runcorn, Japan and Louisiana. The company's Chlor's Runcorn site dated back to 1800s and the first industrial production of chlorine. Since then, regulations had tightened and the market had wilted, leaving a plant full of ageing and poorly maintained equipment. One comparison is quite eye opening. Its enormous cell room took as much electricity as the whole city of Liverpool. Both companies together with Crosfield of Warrington were bought by Ineos.
A river, a ford and a sunny south slope were the attractions of the place that became Widnes. What was a pretty village came to be a major chemical town through the initiative of John Hutchinson when the cost became prohibitive of taking raw materials (salt) from Northwich in Cheshire to St Helens where there was coal to produce soda and the potassium chlorate and bleaching powder. Widnes had local supplies of coal, easier access to the Cheshire salt fields abundant land and good communications by canal and railway. Hutchinson was joined by Gossage, making washing soda by the Leblanc process, and it was not long before huge amounts of sulphur infested chemical waste was being dumped on the Widnes wet lands. It was a German immigrant Ludwig Mond, a friend of John Brunner who worked with Hutchinson, who discovered a process capable of removing half of the waste sulphur. Soon this was widely adopted. Henry Deacon who had been working with Hutchinson formed a partnership with Gaskell to make sulphuric acid and ammonia soda used in the less polluting Solvay process with a bi-product of calcium chloride.
The pollution from the chemical works combined with inadequate sanitation led to Wides being called 'the dirtiest ugliest town in England'. The growth in population was boosted by immigration from Ireland of people fleeing the famine. The poor living conditions led to men seeking solace in alcohol and the town gained bad reputation which disappeared into memory as the town was improved.
United Alkali was formed by the merger of forty-eight alkali producers including fourteen from Widnes with the remainder based in St Helens, Tyneside, Scotland and Ireland. Old polluting plants were closed. United Alkali became part of ICI. Brunner and Mond joined together in 1873 but at Winnington near Northwich in Cheshire producing soda-ash for the cotton industry also using the ammonia soda process.
In Wides, John William Towers joined Hutchinson's laboratory in 1872. He then joined the Atlas Chemical Works set up by James Hargreaves and Thomas Robinson to exploit the salt-cake process and Towers went on to produce scientific apparatus for the chemical industry. Further chemical companies set up plants: Alumina Ltd, Peter Spence & Sons and Barium Chemicals. I write more about the consolidation of the chemical industry in Vehicles to Vaccines.
Andrew Poulson came from Wigan in 1869 to the Widnes foundry and took charge of the moulding department producing cast iron pillars which were used in pier construction amongst others, and segments for lining the London underground. The town, like others around, had copper foundries including Thomas Bolton's Mersey Copper Works producing copper rods and plates for locomotives and also rollers for calico printing; later it would supply the electrical industry. British Insulated and Helsby Cables was nearby and became part of BICC. High Speed Alloys was established in the town to produce special grades of steel, it was part of a merger of some eighteen similar businesses. Bell's Poilite and Everite Company manufactured asbestos cement of corrugated roofing.
The First World War made great demands on the chemical manufacturers and iron and steel works, the latter including for masts for Marconi Radio. The twenties saw consolidation of the chemical industry with the formation of ICI. Albright & Wilson set up on the site of the former Musgrave Works and Fisons took control of Vickers Fertiliser.
In the Second World War the Central Laboratory in Widnes carried out research into Uranium in support of the nuclear bomb project. The production of artificial rubber for insulation was undertaken and the metal works made Bailey Bridges.
In the post war world, Widnes industries focused on chemicals, asbestos and gelatine for sweets,
Runcorn was designated a New Town in 1964 and attracted General Motors which then closed in 1991, Sigmatex (carbon fibre textiles) Héroux-Devtek (aircraft landing gear), Whitford (speciality coatings), Teva (pharmaceuticals), and Fresenius Kabi (medical products). Diageo also maintains a packaging plant in Runcorn. Runcorn and Widnes became part of Halton Borough Council in 1974.
Further reading:
- https://www.millbank.com/blog/chemicals-north-west-past-present-future
- Charles Nickson, History of Runcorn (London: Mackie and Co, 1887)
- George E. Diggle, A History of Widnes (Corporation of Wides, 1961)
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