ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

[Sandpiper]

Which plant(s) do you work in?

Left school and worked as a Laboratory Apprentice in Roche, Dalry and now plough my trade as a Production Manager for Ciba Specialty Chemicals in Paisley.

[Pgcc93]

Which plant(s) do you work in?

Left school and worked as a Laboratory Apprentice in Roche, Dalry and now plough my trade as a Production Manager for Ciba Specialty Chemicals in Paisley.

Pass both of these places regularly Sandpiper, The Hidden Nature Reserve at the rear of the Ciba facility is a nice touch.

Is the Ciba factory still closing at some point? I'm sure I read about it several months ago and can HG get an official visit before is does

[Sandpiper]

Yeah Pgcc the nature reserve and pond are a nice touch and an imaginative use of redundant space and of course the fact that a chemical plant can operate with a thriving wild pond on site is a nice touch of PR!!

Ciba has gone through a fairly severe series of cutbacks although there are no immediate plans to close the site down.

[Pgcc93]

Glad to hear it's business as usual long may it's chimney reek.

[Dexter St. Clair]

Glad to hear it's business as usual long may it's chimney reek.

and its staff glow in the dark.

[Cashbackboy]

[/quote]A lot of the land will remain untouched as explosives were stored underground as it was dark and cool and according to chaps I went to college with many years ago there was some dubiety as to the whereabouts of all of the material that had been stored in underground bunkers.[/quote]

One of the women I work with comes from Stevenston and her husband worked at the ICI plant. From what she tells me (going by her husbands experiences) there are a lot of explosives and explosive material strewn around the area. She told me that there was an unmanned rail system used to convey explosive material from one part of the site to the other, and more often that not some of it would fall from the bogie carrying it. When it did fall, it was just left and not recovered as this was considered too dangerous. Apparently it is all still there and as the site is overgrown, anyone visting the site beware!!!!

And there are bunkers full of explosives along the beach, so that is yet more that will have too be cleared as well!!!

[grumwsmith]

On ICI/Nobel site, there's going to be a small expedition going over there in the next few weeks, so if anyone would be interested in popping along, give me a shout.

From my mum's recollections (who'd worked on the site for around 15yrs) the most interesting area would be "black powder" which is the more overgrown area with the explosives huts laid into the ground.

http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2& ... e=h&lvl=14

This dates from WW1 and was well used throughout WW2 also...


As I said, if anybody's interested in popping down, give me a shout. Would probably be a Sunday for easiness.

[hughie]

I've put some pages up on my threetowners site about Nobel's dynamite Factory at Ardeer All my family worked there going back to its beginnings in the 1870s. My wife even worked there before I whisked her away to Australia. Hope you find it helpful for your outing.

[Sharon]

Some ICI/Nobel photos from a couple of years ago.

http://hiddenglasgow.com/Ardeer/1

http://hiddenglasgow.com/Ardeer/2

[hughie]

Wow! Thanks for that Sharon. Didn't you get a photo of the one legged stool? I spoke to a guy who was through there in the 70s and the same stool was still there. here it is - it's so the guy watching the thermometer doesn't fall asleep and get the lot of them blown up



I see you got a photo of the 25 foot portrait of Rabbie Burns on the seawall - did you know that was a nudist beach - where did you hide your camera

[BigDave]

God, this brings back memories, I worked in the ICI plant at Ardeer many years ago, installing the fire alarms, think it was about 12 years ago!

It was being downsized then, can only imagine it's worse now!

It was a very exciting place to work, always something going on, and there were miles and miles of wee roads that seemed to lead to nowhere, then you'd see a tiny building or underground bunker!

Used to be murder trying to get things done as well, trying to get permits to work, when people were miles away on the other side of the site!!

[Field Marshall Shug]

Great pics from North Ayrshire!

[hughie]

On BBC 2 Scotland, tonight, 8 o'clock, "COAST".

About how Alfred Nobel created the world's largest explosives factory at Ardeer.

[Apollo]

If the Beeb are claiming that title for Ardeer in tonight's programme, everyone in HG can complain.

I believe the title lies with HM Factory, Gretna:

Devil's Porridge was the name given to a mixture of nitroglycerin and gun-cotton used to produce Cordite at HM Factory, Gretna, a World War I munitions factory, described as the largest factory in the world, which was located in Southern Scotland, next to the Solway Firth, Dumfries and Galloway. The factory was 9 miles long, and stretched from Eastriggs (Scotland) in the west, to Longtown (England) in the east.

The name was penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a 1918 article, following a visit to the factory, when he wrote "The nitroglycerin on the one side and the gun-cotton on the other are kneaded into a sort of a devil's porridge". The actual material was Cordite RDB (Research Department formula B), a mixture devised when acetone supplies ran low during World War I, limiting production of the more usual Cordite MD (MoDified). A high explosive, Cordite is used by the military as a smokeless propellant in guns and rockets. The name follows the final appearance of the material, which is extruded into rods, similar to uncooked spaghetti, and then bundled.

More links about the site on the page given above.

[Apollo]

I think this means they agree they weren't quite accurate:

Hi,

Thanks for contacting us... I think we meant the Nobel factory was the
largest at the time.. We feature the Factory at Gretna at the end of the
show..

Cheers

Series Producer
Coast

Doesn't matter, as the aerial shots the provided of the sites, and of the factories when there in production were excellent, and more than made up.

Looks like the same dunes that were featured.