Hey, I've decided to share some of my photographs of an old fertilizer factory in Stanford-Le-Hope.
The Fisons company opened the site in 1959 with the sole purpose of creating chemical fertilizers (ammonia nitrate) from ammonia and nitric acid, which were sent through pipes from the nearby Shell oil refinery. In the early 1980s the Company decided to focus on pharmaceutical products and its fertilizer activities were sold to Norsk Hydro (now Yara) in 1982. By the end of the following year, the factory was defunct.
Here is a PDF file that contains more information on the whole processes used, and there are a couple of images that are supposedly of the factory when it was in use! http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/pdf/pmr-v4-i4-122-164.pdf
Also, I looked up other posts about the site and found this: "The buildings that you have all pictured are a collection of water cooling edifices. They are the pumphouse, cooling towers and the round filter.
The main floor of the pumphouse contained the pump motors that one contributor thought were filters. The outer casings of these motors are gone, probably for scrap. The cabinets adjacent to the pump motors contained the controls for starting up the pumps. If i remember correctly, there used to be three pumps in that building or maybe four, it was a long time ago that I was last operating those controls. Starting up went in stages. The water that the pumps pushed around the site cooled down the main plant that sadly doesn't seem to be evident any more. Water pressure was gradually brought up to the working pressure as sudden increases could blow some of the hoses off of the column,(more about that later).
Underneath, on the floor below, are the actual pumps that did the work, complete with the associated pipes and valves. Even in those days there was, sometimes, water on the floor as this part of the buildind was below the water level of the lagoon.
There is one picture of the site showing the cooling tower. Water was pumped up and the fans in the top drew air up as the water fell down inside thus losing temperature.
The round filter bed with the walkway round the edge is the beginning of the outfall to the river. Cleaned water was pumped out to the river after being cleaned.
The lagoon contained the cooled water before it went to the pumps for circulation round the plant. I see that the surface is covered with algae now. In it's operating days that water would have been chemically treated as is usual in all water treatment plants.
This part of the whole site was just concerned with water treatment and was particularly important for temperature control of the main plant and the chemical reactions that took place there. Main plant start up used to happen at any time of the day but it always seemed to be dark when the pumhouse had to be started and believe me going down those concrete stairs at midnight to check dials and read guages was really eerie."
These were taken with a Nikon D5100 with standard kit lens. The purpose of this particular trip was to get the hang of setting my camera up to take 3 of the same picture each with different exposure values.
THESE ARE NO LONGER HDR!!! If you would like to see the HDR versions of these pics, just click on one of them and look at my set "Fisons 3/13"
For anyone wanting to access the site for themselves, I wouldn't advise it. The main entrance which I used to get in has recently been cut off, probably for safety reasons and because of the structures upcoming demolition. There are lots of open hatches in the control room which lead to a flooded area... since the site used to be a fertilizer factory, I am guessing that most of the murky water contains dangerous chemicals and therefore should be avoided! The biggest pool of water inbetween the cooling towers and the control room supposedly houses a Ford KA at the bottom, don't know if that is true or not but it certainly looks deep enough!
View from upstairs
The cooling towers
Graffiti
Pumphouse
Another control room?
Reactor (I believe)
Above the cooling towers
Others
A little extra, I used different positioned pictures to create the image, ended up looking quite interesting and cartoony!
The Fisons company opened the site in 1959 with the sole purpose of creating chemical fertilizers (ammonia nitrate) from ammonia and nitric acid, which were sent through pipes from the nearby Shell oil refinery. In the early 1980s the Company decided to focus on pharmaceutical products and its fertilizer activities were sold to Norsk Hydro (now Yara) in 1982. By the end of the following year, the factory was defunct.
Here is a PDF file that contains more information on the whole processes used, and there are a couple of images that are supposedly of the factory when it was in use! http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/pdf/pmr-v4-i4-122-164.pdf
Also, I looked up other posts about the site and found this: "The buildings that you have all pictured are a collection of water cooling edifices. They are the pumphouse, cooling towers and the round filter.
The main floor of the pumphouse contained the pump motors that one contributor thought were filters. The outer casings of these motors are gone, probably for scrap. The cabinets adjacent to the pump motors contained the controls for starting up the pumps. If i remember correctly, there used to be three pumps in that building or maybe four, it was a long time ago that I was last operating those controls. Starting up went in stages. The water that the pumps pushed around the site cooled down the main plant that sadly doesn't seem to be evident any more. Water pressure was gradually brought up to the working pressure as sudden increases could blow some of the hoses off of the column,(more about that later).
Underneath, on the floor below, are the actual pumps that did the work, complete with the associated pipes and valves. Even in those days there was, sometimes, water on the floor as this part of the buildind was below the water level of the lagoon.
There is one picture of the site showing the cooling tower. Water was pumped up and the fans in the top drew air up as the water fell down inside thus losing temperature.
The round filter bed with the walkway round the edge is the beginning of the outfall to the river. Cleaned water was pumped out to the river after being cleaned.
The lagoon contained the cooled water before it went to the pumps for circulation round the plant. I see that the surface is covered with algae now. In it's operating days that water would have been chemically treated as is usual in all water treatment plants.
This part of the whole site was just concerned with water treatment and was particularly important for temperature control of the main plant and the chemical reactions that took place there. Main plant start up used to happen at any time of the day but it always seemed to be dark when the pumhouse had to be started and believe me going down those concrete stairs at midnight to check dials and read guages was really eerie."
These were taken with a Nikon D5100 with standard kit lens. The purpose of this particular trip was to get the hang of setting my camera up to take 3 of the same picture each with different exposure values.
THESE ARE NO LONGER HDR!!! If you would like to see the HDR versions of these pics, just click on one of them and look at my set "Fisons 3/13"
For anyone wanting to access the site for themselves, I wouldn't advise it. The main entrance which I used to get in has recently been cut off, probably for safety reasons and because of the structures upcoming demolition. There are lots of open hatches in the control room which lead to a flooded area... since the site used to be a fertilizer factory, I am guessing that most of the murky water contains dangerous chemicals and therefore should be avoided! The biggest pool of water inbetween the cooling towers and the control room supposedly houses a Ford KA at the bottom, don't know if that is true or not but it certainly looks deep enough!
View from upstairs
The cooling towers
Graffiti
Pumphouse
Another control room?
Reactor (I believe)
Above the cooling towers
Others
A little extra, I used different positioned pictures to create the image, ended up looking quite interesting and cartoony!
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Looking good!
