A boiler being moved through Yarm High Street and Leven Bridge possibly on its way to Head Wrightson. c1954 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A boiler being moved through Yarm High Street and Leven Bridge possibly on its way to Head Wrightson. c1954
The film that this still was taken from can be viewed on the recently set up BFI site http://www.bfi.org.uk there are numerous films in a series called “Britain On Film”, just click on the bfiPlayer and type in a location to see films from that area, I typed in Billingham and was presented with 22 different films from the mid 1930s to the early 1970s, there are many thousands of films from all around the country, well worth a visit, out of interest I found a film of Billingham Synthonia Sports Day from 1946, one of the crowd was the father of Ian Dalrymple cheering on the runners, Ian is a regular contributor to this site and now lives in Canada, unfortunately he can’t view the files in Canada as they are only for use in Britain.
This is a bit off the point, but in wet weather the housewife would hang wet clothes om a clothes-horse, a simple frame of wood, which opened into a V shape. This would be placed reasonably close to an open coal fire and the clothers draped over. The clothes would dry from the radiation and the draft through the room, as air was drawn up the chimney. There was only one wash day each week. Back in the forties and fifties, despite the fact that most working class men and women were involved in some kind of work which made them dirty to a greater or lesser extent, they did not change their clothes that frequently. Wash day was a major event, especially in houses where they only had cold running water, and where the morning would start by lighting a fire under a copper boiler.
It was Sulphuric acid H2SO4 that destroyed everything in Haverton and High Clarence along with the old coke plant, how the housewives ever got clothes dry is a mystery, they could not hang them out most days. I was working for Francis Browns at the Brine fields and we went up that road each day sometimes unable to see where we were going. My first memory as a young apprentice was going into the Ammonia plant which was open pans in WG2 Building. I was running in holding my breath then dashing back out after taking a measurement to gasp for air, this was much to the amusement of the process operator sat at a table eating his sandwiches and reading a paper. A lot of those men retired after a lifetime in those plants and lived to a ripe old age. We breathing fresh air are probably doing the wrong thing, we may need Ammonia and other acidic additives in our blood as we also have Zinc Arsenic and other poisonous metals inside us as normal. Those of us who remember Stockton and its surrounds at that time saw the smogs brought on by household coal fires mixed with industrial pollution, some of us are still around so maybe some pollution is needed. I would not stake what is left of my life on it though.
The ICI Nitric Acid plant was blamed for the ‘acidic rain’ erosion of cast iron guttering in the Haverton Hill area. I am surprised that, with this discharge and the regular ‘tom cat’ ammonia smell that used to be prevelant in the Stockton area, there are any Stocktonians over the age of 65 still alive. We must have become immune to the air borne irritants that were evident in the 50s and 60s.
What you saw Fred, got me and quite a few others a full respray on the car which I traded in fast once it was finished. It was the result of the Nitrous Oxide fume from the Billingham stacks. Our Engineering department tried many ways of catching the fume but even with scrubbers it would escape, usually because scrubbing reduced output. At night the escape went up quite a bit to be reduced again at dawn. NHO3 Nitric Acid was made on the German Road plant until the new Nitric Acid plant was built on Haverton Hill Road although there were still discharges and often when entering the plant you would feel the prickling of acid on any bare skin. The Vessel shown in the picture is a Still not a boiler in the true sense although Stills did use heat in the process, usually imported steam from the main boilers, those ran at 800 psi. Steam was a main product at ICI, the Ammonia plants had 1500 psi and were a major operation to alter or repair, HP steam can cut grooves in metal like a tin opener. The Convertors my lads repaired in the main workshops were quite often a mess inside with the need to replace sections, most of which was done in the workshop. I live fairly high and can look across to the Cleveland Hills, the Wilton smoke plume was very obvious but now hardly ever seen as plants close down. Soon, like Billingham, there will be only a shadow of what was once there, our grandchildren will all be working in takeaway shops?
Film from which this still has been taken can also be viewed on Youtube, by typing in, ‘PICKFORDS HEAVY HAULAGE'(Stockton-on-Tees to ICI Wilton).
When I worked at The Dorman Long Lackenby works, I used to notice the yellow NOx coming out from the ICI Wilton plant.I was amazed that it used to go on year after year.
This is the Nitric acid absorption tower on its way from Ashmores to the ICI Wilton site, the images are stills from a film which can be found at bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/location/north-east-cumbria/teesside.shtml
along with other films from the area.
The tower still stands today but unfortunately the plant was closed down when Invista shut down the former ICI Nylon production area. Can anyone remember a yellow plume coming from the Wilton site until the late 80’s when a scrubber system was installed? This tower was part of the Nitric acid plant which produced that plume.
Head Wrightsons refurbished a lot of large vessels for the I.C.I. works elsewhere in the U.K.(Ball Mills etc.)
I did wonder when someone would query this as most of the ICI vessels were made by Ashmores. Many of the large distillation and converter vessels were brought to site in sections and assembled by Ashmores Boilermakers on site before being lifted into position. This often took the largest cranes or in some cases Derricks to get them in place. Ashmores at one time had an almost permanent squad on site as they also did some of the pipe work for the Ammonia plants.
Heads did make many vessels for ICI but I am sure the largest ones were mainly Ashmores.
Can we really say the boiler is on its way to Head Wrightsons? They manufactured boilers and I can’t see any reason for it to be travelling there. Also the main contractor for despatch were Sunters. This vehicle belongs to Pickfords.
The lower picture in this set shows the weir at Leven. This used to be a very nice holiday spot for people from Teesside. There was a sandy area on the north side of the weir,just seen in this photograph. And the River Leven was shallow enough to paddle in at low tide. Quite a number of people, including Kevin McGlade’s Grandmother, had chalets up on the high ground away from the River. These chalets were pretty basic but quite comfortable. The one that I knew had no running water, a cesspit for a toilet, and had a stove running on paraffin. Around 1960 the owner of the land fenced off the site and kicked everyone off.These days there would have been a big local campaign against such behaviour, but at that time…..
This must have been quite a sight moving along the High Street.