Brunner Mond & Co. ltd. Winnington.

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.

The 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 Winnington site is the largest of all three of the Brunner Monds sites in Cheshire.

Having Done the other two Brunner Mond sites this was the only one remaining that we had not explored yet, so myself and The New Mendoza thought it was time we ticked it off the list.

All the sites are live but the previous two where relativley easy in comparison to Winnington, we entered around 11pm and made our way to the centre of the site but from the start we where pursued by security every step of the way.

It was a game of cat and mouse all night long trying to stay one step ahead of security and very intense, with a few near misses, including being within feet of capture whilst exiting one of the giant silo`s.

At one point we became engulfed in a thick cloud of lime dust whilst evading our pursuers which made visibility zero and breathing difficult, It was at this point where we explored as much as we could without being caught and decided to call it a night.

We retreated to out exit point some time around 3am and having been one step ahead all night we felt some what a sense of satisfaction but this was short lived as the tables had turned and security where now one step ahead of us.

With our escape route blocked we back tracked through the site for alternate exits but each time security was waiting, we eventually managed to escape sometime around 4.30am.