British Xylonite - Essex - June 2010

[skin]

The history of plastics manufacture goes way back to the mid 1800s. There are various forms of plastic, however here I’m talking about Celluloid which is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic. Alexander Parks gets credit for its invention in 1856, he saw his material as a substitute for the increasingly scarce materials, ivory and tortoiseshell. To exploit his invention he formed in 1866 the Parkesine Company but this was soon to go into liquidation as he attempted to cut quality in his drive for lower costs. It was to be in about a decade later, under the direction of the Merriam family and their British Xylonite Company Limited, that the material (by then renamed Xylonite) began to achieve commercial success with products such as combs, collars and cuffs.
For the older readers “ahem” whom remember the toy company Palitoy. The company was founded in 1919 as the Cascelloid Company by Alfred Pallet near Leicester, England to produce celluloid and fancy goods. Their first toy was a windmill in 1920 that was sold at Woolworths. The first doll followed five years later. They introduced Plastex, a non-breakable bouncy form of plastic in the early 1930s. Cascelloid was bought in 1931 by British Xylonite. The word 'Palitoy' was trademarked in 1935 for the toy division of British Xylonite. Toy production slowed due to the outbreak of war in 1939. In 1941, injection moulding was developed by British Xylonite and was used for Palitoy toys. In the late 1940s, toy production recovered.

Palitoy was sold to General Mills in 1968.

Another notable event happened here at British Xylonite, In 1947 – 1949 one employee was a young lady research chemist who went on to be Prime Minster: Margaret Thatcher.

I have been dying to witness this place myself for a while now, even although I visited what is now some sort of mad max post apocalyptic hell hole trashed to within an inch of its life I still was glad I saw it before its completely gone. Standing in the labs I wondered what would have happened if way back in 1947 a lady research chemist there had decided to choose a different path in life…..

Visited with a rather indifferent Dazza….

Looking towards the factory only rubble remains of the site before the railway (to the left on the pic above)

Under the railway

enter a strewn mass of derelict and trashed old buildings

parts are fire damaged and pretty much all of it looks as if it has had a chav invasion every day for the last year – amongst the mayhem

and on into whats left of the labs

and a rather fitting wall poster

maybe not an exciting explore for many but for me something I had to see and with the thought Thatcher came here to work at the beginning of her career and probably returned years later to drop the axe on it………

[Dystopia]

Lab equipment kicks arse!

[BB]

Your getting about recently!
Cool stuff mate

[KingElvis]

Nice mate, a good report.

[boxfrenzy]

I like this, nicely put together and good shots too mate