A Long Industrial History
The area around the Jameson Road site has a long history of industrial development dating back to the 19th Century. The area has been used for the production and processing of salt, ammonia, chlorine and other chemicals over the last 150 years.
1870s
In the 1870s, large underground salt reserves were discovered at Preesall, and in 1883 the Fleetwood Salt Company was formed, purchasing 22 acres of salt marsh at Burn Naze and reclaimed it to build salt processing facilities. In 1890 the Fleetwood Salt Company was taken over by the United Alkali Company, and by the end of 1891 a pipeline was in operation under the Wyre, with salt being exported from Fleetwood at the rate of six ships a month and the company had decided to exploit the rocksalt deposits in three ways – Ammonia Soda Works, Salt Works, and Rocksalt mining, and ammonia soda production commenced alongside the salt works.
1941
Wartime demand for chlorine and chlorine-derived chemicals brought chlorine production to the banks of the Wyre. In 1941, ICI General Chemical Divisions purchased the assets of Hillhouse and Burn Hall Works from the Ministry of Supply, and the ICI Hillhouse chlorine production plant’s triangular footprint spread from the banks of the River Wyre at Stanah in the east, to Hillylaid Road in the southwest, to the southern edge of Fleetwood in the north. A power plant was built on today’s Bourne Way in 1958, providing ICI with electricity and steam power.
ICI used what is now the Jameson Road site as a waste dump and sediment ponds for chemicals and by-products from their plants. Waste chemicals were pumped from the plant into settling lagoons prior to treatment and discharge, or buried in landfill.
1964
In 1964, ICI General Chemicals and Alkali Divisions merged to become ICI Mond Division. Mond Division took over the running of Burn Hall plants, under contracts to various business groups.
At its peak, close to 90,000 tons of chlorine a year were produced at Hillhouse.
1990s
By the mid 90s, ICI had built a new polyurethane plant in Holland and was transferring work there, as the Thornton plants were ageing. The decision was made in 1992 to close the chlorine plant at ICI Hillhouse. The last surviving ICI plant was Fluon, at Hillhouse and that was sold in 1999.
1970s
In the 1970s, the outer horseshoe of the site was repurposed into a commercial landfill (shown as Phases 1-6 in the diagram).
2017
In 2017 the site was mothballed due to a lack of business, with a view to it reopening against once business picked up, however in 2023 the site lease and permits were acquired by Transwaste.
