Brunner Mond & Co. ltd. Lostock.

Brunner Mond dates back to 1873 when Sir John Brunner and Ludwig Mond formed the Brunner Mond Co. ltd. and created their first factory at Winnington in Northwich Cheshire.

Brunner Monds Lostock plant dates back to 1891 when it was originally built by Bowman Thompson & Co. In 1900 Brunner Mond took over the site and have been there ever since, this is also the companys UK headquarters.

In 1912 the operations where expanded and the Wallerscote site was purchased to produce Soda Ash which is used to make glass amongst other things.

In 1920 Brunner Mond took over Castner Keller and 4 years later Magadi Soda Co. in Kenya.

Then in 1926 merged with United Alkali Co. British Dyestuffs Corp. and Noble Industries to form I.C.I. Imperial Chemical Industries ltd.

Brunner Mond is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of soda ash and associated alkaline products, it is also the UK`s sole manufacturer of soda ash, and the third largest producer in the world.

The Lostock site also houses the powerplant that supplies both Winnington and Lostock with power with cables running over 5km.

The Lostock site operates 24 hours a day and is a hive of activity, amongst HGV`s coming and going, and employees wandering around there is also very active security teams patrolling the area.

Having previously explored Wallerscote soda ash works, the second Brunner Mond site, we thought it would of been rude not to do this one as well, seeing as its just down the road.

We knew this place was going to be difficult to access with out being noticed, and would have to be done under the cover of darkness, so after a week of recon work kindly provided by The New Mendoza the plans where set.

Myself and The New Mendoza entered around 11.30pm exploring the pereimeter buildings first and then proceeded to our main objective, the giant silos and production plant, how ever this wasn`t meant to be, as we where about to attempt our ascent to the top we was seen by one of the night shift and had to make a sharp exit.

After 15 minutes of playing hide and seek with security we attempted our primary goal again, until we ran into some more of the night shift, a quick exchange of shocked faces and we took off and decided to call it a night as by now the entire site would of been alerted to our prescence.

A fantastic site and one that will be visited again.