Welcome to the fifth cache in our Doggy Adventures, which takes you on a journey from Lostock Green to Plumley and back again. This is a route we walk often with our two Border Collies. Please take care when attempting to find this cache - you are looking for a small tupperware container.
The area surrounding Halford Hall has had an interesting history and has been highlighted as being of particular importance to the chemical industry and is part of the Monuments Protection Programme of English Heritage. The current Holford Hall is part of what was once a much larger timber framed building constructed for Mary Cholmondeley, heiress of Holford. Holford Hall is a Grade 2 listed building, as is the bridge over the moat.
The area within the current nature reserve was originally developed by the Ammonia Soda Company Ltd (ASCOL) as an ammonia soda works in the early 1900s to develop Soda Ash, Caustic Soda and Bicarbonate of Soda. Due to competition with the Brunner, Mond & Co based at Lostock, which acquired all of the land around the site the venture was not successful and in 1916 Brunner Mond took control.
During the Great War, Brunner Mond became a leading player in the production of TNT which was expensive to produce, however by mixing it TNT with ammonium nitrate from the Plumley works a lower cost explosive called Amatol could be produced. Between 1916 and 1918 the Plumley munitions plant produced over 150,000 tons of nitrate for explosive. After the Great War the market was not good for Soda Ash and the plant closed in 1926.
The site across the railway from the nature reserve also has a significant importance but this time as the site of the first anti-knock compound production in the UK in 1941. This was crucial during WW2 as it enabled aircraft engines to fly faster and higher and was known as a “magic bullet”. This site closed in 1985 and the plant was demolished shortly after.