A early start was need for Winnington soda ash myself along with @dangle_angle and friend tom. And doing a little reasearch on where we needed to be to get into the various parts of the huge site we wanted see. This place has security patrols and lots of cctv dotted around. But we managed to get around ok and see most of what we went for.apart from the control room so here's a few photos from the day a some history..
The original Brunner Mond & Company was formed in 1873 when John Brunner and Ludwig Mond built Winnington Works at Northwich, Cheshire and produced their first soda ash in 1874. The company grew steadily over the next 50 years including, in 1924, acquiring the Magadi Soda Company of Kenya. In 1926 Brunner Mond merged with three other British chemical companies to form Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), a venture that grew to become one of the world's largest and most successful companies.
In 1991 Brunner Mond was re-created as an independent Company by the acquisition of the UK and Kenyan soda ash businesses from ICI. In 1998 Brunner Mond acquired the soda ash activities of Akzo Nobel in The Netherlands where Brunner Mond B.V. now forms a wholly owned subsidiary company of the Group.
In 2006 Tata Chemicals Limited - part of the Tata Group of India - acquired the Brunner Mond Group. Along with Tata Chemicals' established operations in India and those acquired through the purchase of the soda ash assets of General Chemical Industrial Products Inc. in the USA, today the combined Brunner Mond/Magadi Soda/Tata Chemicals group is the second largest producer of soda ash in the world and the only one with manufacturing and supply chain capability on four continents