Monument record 4235/2 - Plumley Limebeds Munitions Plant

<1> W D Cocroft, 2000, Dangerous Energy - The Archaeology of Gunpowder and Military Explosives Manufacture, p.275-6 (Book). SCH4464.

Ammonia Soda Company and Brunner Mond and Co LTD Factory operating during the Great War and producing Calcium Nitrate for the Lostock Factory.

<2> Oxford Archaeology North, 2002, Plumley Limebeds, Northwich, Cheshire. (Client Report). SCH4242.

This plant was constructed in 1914 at the start of World War I for the production of Calcium Nitrate from Brine (more specifically the Sodium Nitrate in the brine) and Calcium Chloride. The Ammonium Nitrate produced from the Calcium Nitrate was a crucial ingredient in the production of the TNT based chemical Amatol. It was built alongside the pre-existing Soda Plant (CHER: 4235/1) operated by the Ammonia Soda Company LTD [ASCOL] on behalf of the Ministry of Munitions. Among the structures of the plant were 'Boilers, Mixers and Pans'; 'Crystallizer shed'; and 'Shops and Laboratories'. The main warehouse is still extant and many of the other buildings are represented now by fragments. The plant was mostly demolished at the end of World War 1 (1918-9), however the warehouse was used (and slightly modified) up until the 1980s by firstly the soda works, and then by Associated Octel who ran a plant across the main railway line.