British Acheson Claywheels Lane

[mabel lily 10]

My dad worked there all his life until he retired. He was a crane driver, his name was Stan Dronfield. Sadly he passed away in 1991.

[ACE WASTE 12]

My dad worked there for donkeys years he was a fork lift driver his name was Hughie Andrews hes still going the old bugger.

[biker 10]

7 hours ago, ACE WASTE said:

My dad worked there for donkeys years he was a fork lift driver his name was Hughie Andrews hes still going the old bugger.

In the early 1970,s I repaired their office machines.I remember that their road was very slippy with the graphite on it.When I worked at Brown Bayleys steels we used their electrodes in our arc furnaces. 

[blackhill 10]

Ace Waste . I worked at UC in the packing then nuclear shop. Knew  your dad. We used to live next door to Hughie's mother and father in law Lillie and Les Daubney. Knew his wife Janet who sadly died.  Give him our best wishes. Our names are Eddie and Anita. He will know who we are.

[ACE WASTE 12]

Eddie and Anita i remember you well i was only a kid at the time did you emigrate? i remember you brought my nan and grandad a light up gondola ornament back from venice which had pride of place on top of the yorkshire range.

i hope you are both well.

John.

[blackhill 10]

Hiya John. Didn't emigrate. Just moved across the Pennines to Blackpool that was 1984.  We  are both well, now in our 70s but doing OK. Both daughters Carron and Emma are married. We have six grandchildren. oldest 25 youngest 2. So we are kept very busy. Hope all is well with you and your family. Give our best wishes to  both your Aunties, Lynne and Dot if you see them. 

[jivejoe 0]

I have only just discovered this forum and found this thread.  Felt I needed to join and comment because there are a couple of names mentioned which I recognise.   I worked at the Wincobank plant and remember both Arthur Garfitt and Jack Hutcheson.  I left BAEL in Jan 1977 and emigrated to Canada, which is where I still reside.   I did maintain contact with Jack for a while but that was in the days before the internet!

[smary 14]

I worked there late 60's - the names I remember are Gordon Franklin, Tom Smith(I think) Mr Longstaff, Jim Mcdonald - someone Steel.  Pauline Semmens, Jean Templeman, Jean Bullock, Ann Hudgell, Peter Pilkington, Dougie Dawson, Bob Winter, Mary Mellors, Dorothy Wright(she was the telephonist).  I also recall someone called Bissett who was transport manager.Anyone remember any of these?

[jivejoe 0]

Wasn't Peter Pilkington ("Call me Pete") the guy who came over from the U.S.A. to manage the Wincobank plant?  Sadly, I have a hard time remembering names and with age, it seems to get worse.  I worked with John Levesly, Mike Thistlewhite, David Wall, Les Else and many others.

[blackhill 10]

Bad news about my old friend Johnney Whelan. Passed away around 7 weeks ago. He worked in the control room. 

[smary 14]

Peter Pilkington was Purchasing Officer at Claywheels Lane.  Must have been two!!

[Graham Chetwood 0]

On ‎24‎/‎06‎/‎2015 at 10:52, dars35 said:

Union Carbide UK Ltd had several different businesses round the UK, Carbon Products was only one of many different industries they were in

 

they also had chemicals & plastics divisions, coatings... and my memory has now failed me as I can't recall the others

 

The plant in Bhopal was chemicals

 

the UK head office was on the 6th, 7th & 8th floors of the Fountain Precinct in Balm Green (Barker's Pool) in the city centre

 

when the Bhopal disaster happened, some demonstrators managed to get into one of the offices & lock themselves in, putting "Union Carbide Kills" banners up to the windows - as the windows were mirror glass, no one on the outside could actually see their message! Bright sparks

 

the global economic position forced the business to decentralise & close down the head office, pushing much of the admin type roles out to the carbon products plant at Wadsley Bridge, at which point they renamed that division to UCAR Carbon Limited

The Union Carbide business in the UK was much bigger in the 60's.  They had a head office in London and operated a chemical plant near the Fawley oil refinery in Hampshire. When they sold that business to BP they closed the London Head Office and moved to Sheffield - late 70's I would guess.  BP subsequently sold the chemicals part to Jim Ratcliffe and that was the start of him creating Ineos and  becoming the richest man in the UK.

The Union Carbide plants in the UK in 1984 were the  graphite plant in Sheffield, 2 coatings plants in Swindon and Southam, a metals factory in Glossop, offices for the chemicals division in Rickmansworth and I think Harrogate, and a plant producing crop spraying equipment in Horstine Farmery  near Hull.

Bhopal happened in 1984 and the company struggled for many years. Originally they had 4 divisions - chemicals, industrial gases, graphite products and consumer products (Eveready batteries in the US, Viskase, Simonitz etc). They sold all the consumer products businesses to fight off an aggressive takeover from GAFF. Then in 1989 they spilt the 3 remaining businesses into 3 new companies. The head office in Sheffield closed and I lost my job. They split so the chemicals division could take all the responsibility for Bhopal and the other 2 business could operate without hindrance.

In subsequent years Dow bought the Chemicals division, Mitsubishi bought graphite products and Praxair the industrial gasses.

The graphite plant closed in Sheffield because it lost the nuclear business as the UK stopped building AGR reactors, and due to the slump in the steel industry.  Carbide had other graphite plants in Pamplona, Spain, one in Italy and most importantly in Calais, France. They felt they could supply the UK market from Calais and so closed Sheffield. The French plant is right next to the refugee camp and is still operating.

The company has had a big influence on my career - my first job was for BSC Sheffield and my last position included buying all the graphite electrodes for all their arc furnaces, I then worked for Carbide in Sheffield for 7 years and a few years later worked for 9 years at Viskase - one of their old consumer products companies.