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Hatrick’s shop was used by me on a daily basis to buy the newspapers and cigarettes for the company directors. Jim Hatrick also had a cabin on the corner of Tanhouse Lane and Moss Bank Road from where he served the daily needs of the ICI Pilkington-Sullivan workers who passed it to go into the works each day.He was a hard working man who worked long hours every day while his wife (forgotten her name) kept things going in the shop until he returned from his early morning stint in the cabin. I got to know the Hatrick’s quite well as I was a valued customer for them. It was a sad day when the remaining villagers were re-housed and the old streets demolished.
That left the Golden Bowl and the shop in Moss Bank which kept going for a few more years until the Hatrick’s retired and the pub closed through lack of business. The workers at Moss Bank did their best to keep the custom at the pub up as they would "sneak" out along the ICI wall along the railway line from the factory for a quick pint in the afternoon - especially on hot summer days when I sometimes joined them...... despite my young years. Eventually there were no residents or facilities, the old farmers retired and no one took up the business of farming and the Moss Bank area started to develop as an industrial area based on the chemical industry. Sadly the area is now reverting to being green fields as the chemical industry is also dying out down there.......how sad to see most of that industry disappear for good. At one point there were about 280 people worked at Bowmans, several hundred at Pilkington Sullivan works and about 150 at Fisons works with several other smaller businesses in the area - almost all gone now.
A change of job......
After more than 2 years as the Office Boy I was told by Harold Ireland that I would have to move on into another job as I "can't be an office boy forever". I was given two options - to go into the Maintenance Department as an apprentice fitter and study at technical college or on the Research Pilot Plant as an operator. As I didn't want to go to college and study (had enough of school I thought!) I opted for the “easy option” as a plant operator, so being the last in a long line of Office Boys at Moss Bank.
So I transferred to the plant (a collection of open top 45 gallon drums, a 100 gallon open top reactor tank and a centrifuge - that was it.....). The one operator (Joe Martin) was doing plant trials making Sodium GlucoHeptonate on a process that was using Sodium Cyanide (the stuff that kills you quickly if you ingest it!!). The plant building was very basic, open to the elements on the front and quite shabby (untidy). I was quite thrilled at this new challenge and also the huge pay increase from £5.10.0 a week to £8.0.0 a week.
I did my first week "training" with Joe and got the necessary "safety training" using the cyanide which involved holding your breath while you opened the drum and tipped the 50 lbs of cyanide solids into the reactor tank while holding onto the small step ladder. Then deposit the drum outside, depending on which way the wind was blowing so the fine particles didn't enter your mouth or nose!! Quite scary when I think back to how things are today......... So at the end of the first week Joe tells me he is going on a weeks holiday and I was to operate the plant on my own.......thrown in the deep end or what? Maybe that was the event that set me up for the challenges that faced me in the ensuing years?? Well I managed with the help of one of the Solvent Operators in the adjacent plant, Billy Ogburn, who was there to support me that week and I continued this link with him for decades at Moss Bank in many guises until he retired not many years ago.
Apart from the cyanide addition it was pretty easy work, as we produced very little material, and I enjoyed the work, the relaxed attitude to work and the very different working environment from my office job.
That left the Golden Bowl and the shop in Moss Bank which kept going for a few more years until the Hatrick’s retired and the pub closed through lack of business. The workers at Moss Bank did their best to keep the custom at the pub up as they would "sneak" out along the ICI wall along the railway line from the factory for a quick pint in the afternoon - especially on hot summer days when I sometimes joined them...... despite my young years. Eventually there were no residents or facilities, the old farmers retired and no one took up the business of farming and the Moss Bank area started to develop as an industrial area based on the chemical industry. Sadly the area is now reverting to being green fields as the chemical industry is also dying out down there.......how sad to see most of that industry disappear for good. At one point there were about 280 people worked at Bowmans, several hundred at Pilkington Sullivan works and about 150 at Fisons works with several other smaller businesses in the area - almost all gone now.
A change of job......
After more than 2 years as the Office Boy I was told by Harold Ireland that I would have to move on into another job as I "can't be an office boy forever". I was given two options - to go into the Maintenance Department as an apprentice fitter and study at technical college or on the Research Pilot Plant as an operator. As I didn't want to go to college and study (had enough of school I thought!) I opted for the “easy option” as a plant operator, so being the last in a long line of Office Boys at Moss Bank.
So I transferred to the plant (a collection of open top 45 gallon drums, a 100 gallon open top reactor tank and a centrifuge - that was it.....). The one operator (Joe Martin) was doing plant trials making Sodium GlucoHeptonate on a process that was using Sodium Cyanide (the stuff that kills you quickly if you ingest it!!). The plant building was very basic, open to the elements on the front and quite shabby (untidy). I was quite thrilled at this new challenge and also the huge pay increase from £5.10.0 a week to £8.0.0 a week.
I did my first week "training" with Joe and got the necessary "safety training" using the cyanide which involved holding your breath while you opened the drum and tipped the 50 lbs of cyanide solids into the reactor tank while holding onto the small step ladder. Then deposit the drum outside, depending on which way the wind was blowing so the fine particles didn't enter your mouth or nose!! Quite scary when I think back to how things are today......... So at the end of the first week Joe tells me he is going on a weeks holiday and I was to operate the plant on my own.......thrown in the deep end or what? Maybe that was the event that set me up for the challenges that faced me in the ensuing years?? Well I managed with the help of one of the Solvent Operators in the adjacent plant, Billy Ogburn, who was there to support me that week and I continued this link with him for decades at Moss Bank in many guises until he retired not many years ago.
Apart from the cyanide addition it was pretty easy work, as we produced very little material, and I enjoyed the work, the relaxed attitude to work and the very different working environment from my office job.