What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

The entrance to the private “chemical arm” or Houghton Branch

The ghastly “chemical arm” at Trinity Street for decades served as a waste graveyard for Albright and Wilson’s toxic trade as well as that originally for Chance and Hunt which later became ICI. I have looked at some of the history of this HERE. 

A first hand account of one of the last people to transport the dumped waste from this arm and carry it by boat to Rattlechain lagoon can be read HERE. This toxic trail polluted not only the final destination, but also a large section of the BCN itself along the way evidentially.

The Houghton chemical arm from Albright and Wilson on right crossing underneath the M5 motorway

What I was not certain of however until recently was how this terminus branch, originally in two sections got its official name “The Houghton branch”. There are now many infilled basins and branches named after long dead people who are totally unknown today to those whose footsteps tread over those that have gone before. But who was “Houghton”? I have not previously read or seen any explanation in any local history books on the matter. 

My best guess is that from research, it was named after a canal surveyor called Dugdale Houghton, born 1799, died aged 77 in 1876. As with many things, I came across his name looking for something else, and so here are a few articles which explore the activities of the man in question.

Houghton was obviously a well respected “independent” witness at trials involving land ownership disputes- particularly involving the Birmingham Canal Company. A publication called The Aris’s Birmingham Gazette edition of 18th January 1836 relays such a dispute between the canal company and Thomas and Jesse Moore. The area in question is of importance to this blog as it involves the area which became Rattlechain Brickworks- and of course all that followed that. The Moore’s owned a sand mine in the Rose lane area, and with the construction of the canal around this time, had sold the land, but the dispute was about how much it was worth. Bizarrely of course, it would return to being a foundry sand minefield which caused misery to local residents. 

Houghton was a key witness for the Company, and yet his estimation was considerably less than that which was arrived at by the jury. We see then how people such as this operate when they are employed by large organisations.

A later article from the same source dated  25th October 1852 reveals that Houghton handled considerable wealthy sales of land and machinery, in this article the works of several collieries in the area are touted as being up for grabs, with further information available from his Birmingham office in Paradise Street.

The money made from such ventures obviously gave this man a taste of the high life, and an escape to the country away from the ghastly emerging Black Country. His personal belongings were put up for sale as evidenced in the 24th May 1854  Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser.

Houghton had obviously set his sites on the country life and fancied himself as a farmer and horticulturalist. His move to Wales was to be an interesting venture, though untimely when his wife snuffed it as the  31st March 1855 Staffordshire Sentinel revealed.

Despite playing at farming, he obviously kept interests in the West Midlands area, as the 9th June 1858 Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser reported when he was moaning about sewage in a property he owned in Union Street West Bromwich.

Shit in your own hands Duggie boy. LOL

A further mention in the same publication from 29th August 1860 links him to Oldbury and we start to get closer to the location of the blessed chemical arm too. Unfortunately, it is another example of the Oldbury mafia getting some form of commemorative piece enshrined in a building or place. It is revealed that Dugdale had dedicated stain glass windows in the church in memory of his father, John, who lived in The Park House, Oldbury.

The Park House is shown in the map of Oldbury from 1857 below. Park House Lane was renamed just “Park Lane” at some later date most likely when the house was removed. The Houghton “Chemical” branch is marked in blue. At this stage, it did not carry this name though you can see how the Park House itself was at the end of it.

Oldbury was a terrible place to live in with the Alkali works of Chance and Hunt and then Albright and Wilson as neighbours

The thing that I have found with characters like these Victorians and later still into the 2oth Century is their absolute fucking hypocrisy, as well as likely trouser leg rolling funny handshake crooked old boys network shit. Two events contrast the polluted thought process of hypocrite Houghton; the first involves his escape to the country away from the ghastly polluted Black Country. The following article is of very interesting reading on learning of the character of Dugdale Houghton.

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This legal case centered around a complaint made by the Birmingham surveyor about The Red Jacket copper works run by Frederick Bankhart near to land in Swansea , Wales where he began farming in 1853. Houghton alleged that the smoke from the process had seriously harmed crops and killed animals in his possession. It was a new form of manufacture that had allegedly caused the harm. Houghton observed that his crops “withered” due to the smoke , (now where have we heard that one before) ;-). It was argued by the defence if Houghton was an experienced farmer and the issues of loss were down to his poor animal husbandry and lack of care?

It was stated that gases given off in the copper smelting process were sulphuric acid and arsenic. Obviously, I would not argue against the idea that this works were having injurious affect on any life around it.

It was however argued in the defence that Houghton had walked into the smoke with “his eyes open”, and should have known about such matters, particularly coming from a area where industrial grime prevailed with wind blowing smoke across individual interests. Should the needs of individuals outweigh the needs of commerce, it was pondered? It was also wondered if the works had been built in a fit and proper place, next to a river a canal and a railway? 

Houghton called expert witnesses who had monitored the smoke, and it was also claimed that particles of toxic material associated with the works had been found in remains of horses and other animals. Houghton claimed enormous damages of over £5000, but the defence offered a poor case and in part lost the trial resulting in only £150 of damages for the “farmer”. The jury did however consider that the works were a nuisance, and further that they were not in a fit and proper place. 

Contrast all of the events here with a piece which took place AFTER this in The Birmingham Daily Post  9th May 1864. This little gem involved a discussion about the Albright and Wilson phosphorus works and the extension of its phosphorus production. The issues surrounding the expansion are quite incredible when you read the statements made in the earlier case involving Dugdale Houghton. 

AW had arrived in the area, and had not submitted plans concerning the phosphorus building which it was alleged would be injurious to public health! AW stated as these people always do to basically prove that this was the case.

It is quite extraordinary that the bearded £unt himself, John Wilson is quoted as saying this before this board.

“Mr Wilson produced a certificate from Mr George Shaw, a practical chemist , which stated that the health of the people employed at his works could in no degree suffer from the manufacture, and that consequently, the people living in the neighbourhood could not sustain any injury” (WTF!!! ED) 

Lying Quaker bastard

This lying Quaker bastard was only outdone by his lying chemical pal who was either one of his own wierdo cult or had been paid handsomely to come out with this “expert” fucking untruthful bollocks and easily refutable pack of lies.

• We know that white phosphorus caused the ill health of those who handled it, an Act of Parliament would ban such matches being made.
• We know that workers at this site contracted phossy jaw.
• We know they were burnt by P4 and died.

Was this “George Bernard Shaw” I wonder, as what a fictitious fake expert this Queens College liar spun. It is therefore easy to see how people like this, “scientists” and academics have for many years been bought by people to make up fake and knowingly false statements presented as unarguable “fact”, to lie under oath and it is still going on in the chemical and pharmaceuticals industry today to try to spin their way out of litigation and the harm that they are doing to people with their drugs, vaccines and chemicals!

It is quite right but something omitted by the AW historian cocksuckers of Oldbury that one board member stated

“These works have been the ruin of Oldbury” 

It would be the case that the descendants of Wilson would get into politics and get places on boards of health to attempt to rub out the outcry that their polluting filth factory was causing in the area.

The interesting part of this is the intervention of one Dugdale Houghton, who just happened to be at this meeting allegedly on other business. What a fucking coincidence eh when he was supposedly a farmer in Wales? He contested the view offered by the board member who had stated that the phosphorus works had ruined Oldbury. Houghton claimed that he owned property in the area and that a number of people had enquired about living there. Wowzers, old Dugdale must have had some form of ology eh? Did he not ponder if these works had been built in a fit and proper place? Was he not concerned or did he not ask local landowners if their animals had suffered any ill health? 😐 

• It appears that the public gallery was not happy about the nuisance that Albright and Wilson was causing.
• I wonder how many cattle and crops had died?
• I wonder if they ever brought a case for damages?

I bet they did not because they had no means to do so, unlike the wanker Dugdale Houghton who defended chemical polluters in an area he had forsaken himself, but still expected others to live in, whereas an area he had chosen to live in to escape, he himself had claimed damages against a similar operation.

How amazing that it was alright for him to seek compensation from an industrial polluter when it inconvenienced him, yet praised AW for their pollution grime. This just once again shows how if you had money and connections you could buy justice or evade it.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, those in power in the rotten borough of Oldbury obviously decided to name a street after this man at some point after death and the canal branch as well. There’s another Houghton Street in West Brom too, though I’m not certain that it was the same bloke. The Oldbury Houghton Street is not far from the chemical arm, and is a dead end industrial stubber. An old map shows either a marl hole or pool in the road, which I believe to be a remnant of the former Whimsey Colliery, and I wonder if this was also used ironically to infill with chemical crap too?

Survey that Bitch!

For all the praise he gave Albright and Wilson, Dugdale Houghton got little back in terms of legacy with poisonous toxic chemicals dumped in his branch. This would of course pollute the canal system where he was employed. Oh the true irony of how this branch was named after him!  He is a forgotten opportunist grifter and total hypocrite. Tramp the dirt down on the soiled industrial grave named after him and shit on his name as well for good measure as a boundary post.

Or Pratt Day’s year off 

The context of Albright and Wilson’s cheapskate cost-cutting, see last post, is revealed in the Hugh Podger Book “The last 50 years”.

The Thatcher Government began to privatise industries and the economic recession bit hard.

“During this period the price of oil, which averaged $13 per barrel in 1978 , rose to $19 in 1979 and $32 in 1980, peaking at an average of $36 in 1981.

“The impact of the recession at Albright and Wilson was felt from mid-1980 , alongside the impact of higher oil prices which affected trade around the world.”

This should not be taken as an excuse to the costs at Trinity Street being cut , when this company had nearly gone bust in the 1970’s due to abysmal management decisions such as the Long Harbour pollution scandal, and were bailed out by American firm Tenneco in 1978.  In 1981, Podger claims that AW made £503 Million in sales, so they were hardly as piss poor as some companies that went under during the early days of the Iron Lady. 

At this point in time the works manager was called Pat Day, who would have been ultimately responsible for all that went on in the works- including all the cost-cutting and health and safety corner cutting going on.  From what we saw from the last post of the thousands of pounds claimed to be being saved by his foremen lieutenants, there is no doubt to anyone of sound mind that there was a direct correlation between consequent “accidents” , leaks, spillages and fires. And these are only the reported ones. When it is further learnt in the 1997 audit of this factory by the newly created Environment Agency that managers bonuses were linked to environmental performance, you can see that reporting such would put managers at considerable disadvantage. An example was cited in this later report of a chlorine leak at the factory which was a notifiable release.

Pratt Day

The 6th March 1981 Sandwell Evening Mail kicks off a round of misfortunes at phosphorus towers. The article states that a “phosphor vat” had filled a process unit with dense smoke. I take this to be white phosphorus, and the “dense smoke” phosphorus pentoxide exposed to air. Day is quoted in the piece with suitable lamentable excuse.

A couple of weeks later, the 24th March Mail reported another Trinity Street fire on Day’s watch, in the same fucking plant! What warnings were given out to the community were probably none existent , and the air raid siren would be unlikely to have been sounded. Water is also not the recommended method of tackling a phosphorus fire, FFS!

In May, on 23rd, the same paper reported another fire, in the named “phosphorus refining plant” had broken out. I’m not sure if this is the same place as the previous two, but it shows that they obviously had a major failure of systems in this unit at this time, and inadequate foremen managing the operation.

The fire broke out at night when three people were on duty. As for the “mopping up” operation, we all know to where the dross of this incident would have been taken- in drums to rattlechain lagoon and dumped there.

I had to look twice at the next article to make sure that it wasn’t the same fire, but it isn’t. Just two days later, another fire befell the works. This time firefighters were directly involved in fighting the serious chemical incident and had to use breathing apparatus to extinguish the flames in the pentasulphide plant. Hydrogen sulphide gas was evolved, and there is no doubt that this was a direct risk to offsite receptors even if those at Trinity Street would try to suggest otherwise.

At what point the fire service were involved at least politely in saying “what the fuck are you doing here?” is unknown, but surely by now the local community were beginning to see the cuts biting. A theme appears to emerge of night shifts and low staffing when these incidents were occurring- all involving fire crew call outs from numerous local stations, putting other members of the public at risk. 

999 was again the number dialled on 22nd October, and again the SEM reported the news that another chlorine leak had occurred. There had been another leak of this chemical of course in 1974 where several staff had required hospital treatment. 

And so to the 30th November Evening Mail and yet another works fire. This would be a laboratory one and to say that “safety experts” were investigating this in reference to Albright and Wilson’s own useless staff is like The Pope looking into the dealings of a johnny factory.

Again we see the blame on technology, and yet the weekend had seen nobody present to monitor what was occurring- another clear indication of staff not being around and a cost- cut in doing so. In this same month the phosphine NO1 factory at this site was commissioned, and that too would end up as a total fiasco.

I would say that every experiment that this company did went wrong- the most obvious one being cutting corners in health and safety matters, and employing idiot managers who could not manage the piss in their own catheter bags.

PLEASE, GIVE UP THE JOB, DAY! 

You would have thought that with a string of accidents at Trinity Street that the works management would have pulled out all the strings with spending more on processes to ensure the safety of workers and the outside public- but not so!

The article below from Sandwell Evening Mail of 13th June 1981 shows what a cheap skate firm this really was.

I’m not sure how saving money and “efficiency” made the works safer. Indeed, as I will look at in the next post, 1981 would be a year of multiple incidents of failure of a management to do just that. Going forward, as I looked at in the last post, a man died working alone, and another lost a leg. I’m not sure what this bollocks story was really about, but no doubt cutting costs would not help matters.

And so to another Trinity Street Albright and Wilson fatality, showing that this is not something that only happened in the  late 19th or early 2oth centuries.

The Birmingham Mail of 21st October 1982 reported the death of Tom Tolson, a 62 year old who died after chemical fumes leaked from a pipeline. Though there is not much detail as to the circumstances, it comes as little surprise to me that those in charge would have instantly been thinking of how they could save their own skin, from the works manager down as to the inevitable inquiry.

In the aftermath of this fatal blow, the 9th November Sandwell Evening Mail ran a damning piece on the lack of safety surrounding the Trinity Street AW operation. Local residents were worried about a series of reported incidents IN JUST 17 DAYS concerning chemical releases and poor safety practices. It is certainly apt to state that they were “living in the shadow of the Albright and Wilson chemical works ” 

residents were living “in fear”

One resident who knew the unfortunate Mr Tolson feared releases of chemicals whilst another was “nerve racked” about a potential explosion or gas escape into the environment. WE KNOW OF COURSE FROM A COPPER OF THE TIMES THAT THEY WERE RIGHT TO BE SO AFRAID. 

As for getting in touch with their local councillor, we also know what a bunch of AW cocksuckers the labourites in Sandwell were, going right back to chief red fellator Melsom during the days when he defended this bunch of scum from the Oldbury smell.

they had “no confidence” in AW.

The paper then outlines the incidents, starting with Tom Tolson’s death. You may have thought that this would focus the minds of these boffins, or even the unions to whom the unfortunates belonged- but not so. On November 3rd, a phosphorus plant fire was tackled by 9 crews. I wonder what the AW fire brigade were doing that day FFS!  have covered the unfortunate individual and his amputated limb and subsequent fight for compensation, which Albright and Wilson contested  HERE. 

Despite this we get the usual fantasy bullshit, written most likely by liar and weirdo Bloore. Note that the Health and Safety Executive were supposedly conducting an inquiry into the fatal blow.

In March of the following year, the Sandwell Evening Mail revealed more on the circumstances surrounding Tom Tolson’s death. The substance in the plant in question was phosphorus oxychloride, also known as phosphoryl chloride.

Tributyl phosphate is manufactured by reaction of phosphorus oxychloride with n-butanol. Hydrochloric acid is also produced.

POCl₃ + 3 C₄H₉OH → PO(OC₄H₉)₃ + 3 HCl

Unfortunately the HSE appear to be totally absent in this investigation, unless this inquest was badly reported on by this paper. Instead we get Bloore- then “production manager”, telling a story about how they, Albright and Wilson had carried out a replication of the circumstances of the machinery failure. I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT THIS WAS THE JOB OF THE HSE FFS! 

Some questions and observations after reading this-

Was the plant not impounded after the event?

Was the area not searched for evidence?

Why did the HSE not carry out their own tests? 

Why was a man of 62 working alone with dangerous chemicals?

Why did AW and the production manager consider it “safe” for such a man to be working alone at night? 

Did AW review this practice after this event? 

What emergency procedures were followed and were these good enough? 

How could a man of such experience of 20 years make such a rookie mistake as is suggested by Bloore? 

Was Bloore under oath? 

I don’t see any personal regret or statement of sorrow from Albright and Wilson or Bloore himself. 

I cannot believe that the jury returned a verdict of accidental death, and that this was not challenged because the failures were with this company and management, and they contributed to his death. Shit jury! 

We have seen this before with Albright and Wilson where events are blamed on individuals carrying out practices that were not corporately safe to start with, and there would be more after this fatality at the same site and under the same management. Just when does “accident” ever become the corporate manslaughter which it was with these shit judges and juries? I would suggest the freemasonry at work here delivered them the verdict that they wanted once again. You can see how well this company were so well protected by the state it served. 

I spy with my little eye…….

The over tipped foundry sand carbuncle that resides next to Rattlechain lagoon and which was once home to Rattlechain brickworks may be many things, but it offers a cracking view of the surrounding vista over towards Rowley Regis and Dudley. In this post I thought I’d take a look at some of the noticeable landmarks going in a clockwise direction.

The Rowley Hills

The Rowley Hills– consisting of  Turner’s Hill, Bury Hill, Portway Hill and Darby’s Hill- all no stranger to exploitation for minerals and then dire waste disposal schemes. This type of greened area creation from such industrial devastation is a good example of how the former brickworks tip should be used- for rewilding, and not some housing scheme  “garden city” shit in the sky. It is already rich for butterflies and other fauna and compliments Sheepwash Nature Reserve as a nature corridor.

The radio masts on Turner’s Hill, the highest point in the West Midlands county, with an altitude of 269 metres (883 ft) above sea level, are pretty ugly, but are landmarks visible from every angle, and this is the one from the mound.

Trinity- The three churches of Dudley

Though I’m certainly not standing on consecrated ground 😆 panning West I can see three holy temples that have stood there for a combined set of centuries, and a view which Samuel Barnett and others would also have known all those years ago from atop the brickworks.

The first of the trio of Grade II listed constructions in view is The Kates Hill  St John’s Church.  

The graveyard is notable as the resting place of local legend “The Tipton Slasher” , boxer William Perry.

Further across the horizon the two central churches , or “Top church” and “bottom church”.

The former on the left is officially known as “St Thomas and St Luke” and was rebuilt in the early 19th Century.

The bottom church is known as St Edmund  and has another rebuilt history with the current building completed in 1724.

A much more modern feature of the large Tesco visible.

A fourth Church St James’s, of similar design to St John’s at Eve Hill is obscured by the tree canopy.

Dudley Castle and Zoo chairlifts. 

Everyone in the West Midlands has probably visited this site in their lifetime, and though I am no fan of zoos, the iconic castle is part of the fibre of the area. The chair lifts date from 1958. Following archaeological investigations, the castle is also credited to have the world’s oldest rubber johnnies, albeit without the rubber. Nearby Tipton is of course also famous as the place where God’s underpants were found. 😆

The Showcase cinema and Castlegate. 

It is what it says on the tin. This cinema opened in 2001 and is part of the Castlegate retail and business park, a part of which stands on what was once the Dudley cricket and football ground. This site would be notable when a cache of AW bombs turned up which were disposed of in rattlechain lagoon. 

Rattlechain lagoon!

Of course, we need no introduction here with the view of the former pit, divided into two lagoons with the creation of a causeway path. A prime example of how appearances can be deceptive, and I have spent many an hour looking across here at ailing birds and trying to spot dead ones back in the day. What a shit hole.

The Autobase Industrial Estate

This site has a parallel history to rattlechain lagoon which I have looked at HERE.

The Autobase replaced the former London Steel works after the wretched conman Duport Group had left the scene. The main users today appear to be Clarkes Transport and more recently Comex 2000.

Sheepwash Nature Reserve and pylons. 

You can read more about Sheepwash and the desire to protect it on our sister website HERE. The Summer trees may well mask out views of the site, but it is there, the pylons providing a more unwelcome view however. You can read about the story of how the orange bird diverters viewable across the span came to be HERE. 

And so to the greenery around and behind me, supporting a a variety of wildlife. I would rather look at this any day than what it looked like a few years ago, and hope it will not be turned black again.

#STOP THE GARDEN CITY

All of Albright and Wilson’s manufacture sites had accidents and poor health and safety, bar none. I have detailed the catalogue of issues at Trinity Street, where phosphorus and chlorine were by far the biggest dangers to workers and the public. An incident where several workers were gassed by Cl2 occurred in 1974  , but I have found another at one of the dirty buggers lesser known sites in London called “Canning Road”.

Situated in the East End of London in Stratford, not the better known Midlands beauty spot of Shakespeare by the Avon, I have little information on this place as it occupies a very brief mention in both of the AW propaganda books about the company. The Hugh Podger book reveals that it was to close in 1984 “because of adverse trading conditions and declining sales.” 

It further however states that this was the site which produced phosphorus acid, where AW were the largest producers in the world. This may be a boast, but it is clear that they were potentially also the biggest cancer manufacturers on the planet with this ghastly substance being used in Monsantos round up.

This process site  eventually closed and the lucky people of Oldbury got it instead. FFS! 😥

I digress however as this toxic archive shows that chlorine was handled irresponsibly at this site and from the Daily Mirror of 11th August 1967 we find out more.

Sixteen workers required hospital treatment, with a further seventeen affected after a leaking cylinder exposed them to the toxic chemical. We see that it was the fire service who were called again to deal with the incident. In peacetime, there is no doubt that this company posed more of a risk than the Germans did in war to the civilian population with chemical weapons. Germany never used used them. 

The “babbles” that Albright and Wilson blew were never a “pretty babbles in the air.” 😆 😆 😆

For those more astute, you may have noticed that there is now an https prefix to this website, well at least it’s now “secure” 😆

I’ve been using WordPress now for ten years without that many issues but unfortunately it appears that like with most things, someone decided to screw up what wasn’t broken with the new default block editing- which is fucking horrendous to put it mildly.

Thankfully, at least for now, I have the option of continuing with classic editor and not having to create text boxes like some 1990’s crap Mac. Another issue is that the comments on the pages have disappeared from public view, but are still there in draft, and over the next week or so I will reinstate them all with original post and text so that they appear in search engines.

I will also be assigning tags to pages and posts which I have wanted to do for some time as subjects eg #whitephosphorus. Another thing I will be doing is creating PDF breakdowns of the main issues surrounding this site, the history, the pollution story and other matters. This website now has well over 200 pages and over 400 posts, and so can be daunting for anyone to get a bitesize appetite for to know the facts of the case. These PDF’s will have the relevant links for further reading and evidence base. Some pages I am keeping deliberately from public view until such time as they may become relevant. 😎

To start as an appetizer, here are the facts concerning the site history.

site history

I have covered other sites and issues related to pollution and especially the toxic brownfield building issues and tried to help others who have been the victims of industrial pollution. If you have a story to tell and are not getting anywhere with mainstream media, then why not drop us a message on our facebook page and I will do my best to help.

Thank you for your continued support. 

Third world Britain of the 1970’s.

This article from the Sandwell Evening Mail of 23rd April 1977 shows how the control of substances hazardous to human health were not being dealt with by any reliable form of legislation but instead the safeguarding of communities unlucky enough with Bad neighbours like Albright and Wilson were reliant on the “early warning” system of one woman’s nostrils.

Of course, at this point in history, the stench from the Langley stink panther was the stuff of legend, and I do not mean myth. “The Oldbury smell” I have chronicled in several posts, and an overview of these can be read HERE.  

1974 had seen The Flixborough disaster  where 28 people died in a chemical explosion in Lincolnshire leading to the Health and Safety at Work Act , and two years later in Italy, the Seveso disaster.  More kneejerk reaction followed this, and yet in 1984 we would see The Bhopal disaster as well. Living near to any chemical factory puts your health and life at greater risk, and that is a fact, whatever the chemical industry tries to lie otherwise. 

We know of course the form for the works management scum at the Langley factory and their semantics and distortions of the truth, and this article appears to show the type of gaslighting that continues to the present day with this industry about health and safety. We know that Day’s successor, the ludicrous “Dr” Bloore, had a nose like Pinnochio. 

Cissie Jones , I assume she is no longer with us unless you know otherwise, should be commended for her community spirit, like that of the terrier Mrs Gunn who took the fight to these phossy buggers back in the 1950’s over the blight to the local area. Unfortunately, it is fairly clear to me that an article like this was a propaganda piece for this company rather than a serious or credible story about the continued risk posed by the works. At this time, phosphorus and chlorine were still being delivered by rail, and there had been leaks and fires. A chlorine leak in 1974 for example had hospitalised several staff. 

The “good neighbours committee”- what a terrible name implying somehow that this dire company were anything of the sort, was a vehicle which they could use for pretending that they cared or were listening. As I found out when attending such meetings where I raised concerns about bird deaths, it was merely a way of gauging what you knew about their shit, and getting nothing and no credible info back in return- such as the toxicity of fucking phosphorus.

The quarterly meetings referred to would no doubt give Pat Day the vehicle to bullshit about how wonderful AW were and tea and biscuits would be served. This type of personalised meeting would also offer the biggest moaners a chance to be neutralised in isolation, rather than dealing with the press outright, as Mrs Gunn had done in the early days. All of these matters were about psychology and nothing to do with chemistry.  

Unfortunately, the gaslighting of poor Cissie is completed with believing that she is actually making a difference by reporting such smells to Day. How much had already been covered up, and not reported by those at the plants is not mentioned or delved into in this daft story. If she smelt anything bad, it was just a means of giving her some bullshit knowing that she would communicate this back to the others in her street.

What Cissie and the community did not know, and certainly not revealed by Messrs Day and Bloore was the following, sent to us by a then serving policeman in Oldbury.  The  bloodhound of the law could at least detect bullshit.

A few years ago, I started a list of former waste disposal sites within the West Midlands County; an attempt to list these before the powers that be erase them for purposes of housebuilding and conning people out of money and not telling them the truth about the shite contaminated land that their houses have been built upon or near.

We have seen a massive shift in recent times in the “brownfield building” con man trade, an axis of avarice between politicians who make policy to serve their party political donor mates from this sector, as well as their land owner mates to whom “greenbelt land” will become more profitable so long as they can sit on it for as long as possible by land banking.

We also see this trade facilitated by the snivel service, that glut of lazy still work from home public sector fucking scum who appear unaccountable to anyone if they feel “bullied”- er not doing their fucking jobs properly. They serve business and they fellate certain politicians, and my contempt for them is total. They consider themselves one step above the people who pay their wages- the public, to whom they care nothing. Many of course do not even live in this county preferring Derbyshire/ Worcestershire or anywhere else where they can presumably commute by car whilst trying to inflict their Nazi Globalist lockdown LTN 15 minute cities on those that do.

I have added dozens more sites prefixed by the SL number, but what is clear from the Environment Agencies processed Landfill site database from which I took these is that their information is not complete- there are clearly many many numbers in the SL line that are not there. I have just over 300 named and yet the SL numbers go into the 2000’s! This body or the predecessor in the useless Walsall council run hazardous waste unit further made things difficult by renumbering these with the prefix 644/—-. For example, the infamous Rattlechain lagoon SL31 became 644/60 . At some point, I will add these numbers in and also try to deduce where these are hiding. Some later ones after this also had a WM number, such as the British Waterways Blue Button Tip in Coseley.

British Waterways Blue Button Tip – one of many dredging tips used by this dire former polluter to land

Other observations emerge from compiling this decanted set from theirs.

• Many of the sites were granted to either the useless West Midlands County Council or other local authorities within it.
• The locations have been possibly lost to history, with many old clay pits and quarries filled in.
• There is scant information as to what happened to sites after WW2 and before site licensing, and yet a great deal of information about the historic nature of these sites BEFORE they were infilled with any old crap BEFORE licensing.
• This fact leads to scurrilous faked claims by environmental consultancies who leave out key information deliberately to enable their clients to escape the necessary scrutiny of those who question why they fail to find evidence of harmful chemicals- even though everyone knows that they were dumped there. This emboldens a Jackanory story board “site investigation” where boreholes can be cherry picked to find nothing- nothing that would deter development on land known to be contaminated by past use.

An example of this is a site in Coseley known as “Bourne Street” which I am looking into. notice how long periods of time are omitted between certain key events, such as 1966, BEFORE SITE LICENSING, and then 1992, AFTER THE LICENCE HAD ENDED. The operator at this site was the scandalous Leigh Environmental offshoot, Leigh Land Reclamation Limited. 

The Environment Agency noted the following priceless comment attached to this particular planning application, which is very much a part of the problem.

“Assumption” without any factual scrutiny

• The same goes for local authorities who want to offload land because they are piss poor and have mismanaged money for many years, like Sandwell Council. An example of this is the bent land deal at Friar Park where land has been bolted together with Severn Trent Water’s contaminated shithole remnants that it has not paid a penny to remediate. The land itself is a haven for wildlife and not “brownfield” in any way.

• Severn Trent Water have flogged off many of their former sewage works since privatisation, making over £49 million from the sale yet have relied on the public purse to “clean them up” after this; the days of the corrupt BCDC now merge into the corrupt WMCA- just a different acronym where they steal our money to pay for their own profit giving nothing back. They remain one of the worst environmental polluters in the country. It is even more disgraceful that they are a statutory consultee on planning matters, so may make favourable comments about applications which benefit their own avarice. THEY SHOULD BE STRIPPED OF THIS ROLE.
• A common tactic of those involved in greenwashing by selling land and pretending to increase its biodiversity is the token hedgerow or useless fucking shit like “swales”. These dead end ditches are bollocks, and serve only to collect surface water pollution from polluters like Severn Trent and  others, and probably the contaminants from places built on whose past use has not really been “cleaned up” at all.

Don’t try and tell me this has any nature value FFS. It’s a dirty fucking ditch!

This is where the fun begins………. 😛

SITE-BLIGHT-WMCC-1 (3)

An obscure licence plate tucked away on an out of sight board

Weddell Wynd SL260- another former site licenced area with a contaminated legacy

Should we be concerned about how artificial intelligence may eventually control and replace our lives with that of avatars? This is a hot current debate and one which will continue to unfold as new technology emerges, only limited by the capabilities of human thought. There are now many search tools and websites which write essays, stories and alternate timelines of stories by entering text and prompts.

I am more interested however in visual art and how words can suggest images, and so with this in mind I decided to have a go and enter “Rattlechain Lagoon” to see what AI came up with.

The name itself has always had Scooby Doo connotations , even though the reality is one which probably came from the clanking of rattle chain- a type of chain which drove the workings of the brick factory works as it then was. The picture above imagines a volcanic Middle Earth type world of red mountains and a blue lagoon sea of phosphorescence. I think Bob Ross, or even Blob Phos would be proud of such a painting.  😛

This is a world of no life, of darkest nights with just a hint of breaking dawn, and maybe “a place in which nothing could live.”

Further images from a different site again show more of the phosphine waters and similar landscapes

This Rattlechain lagoon is a lake of fire and spontaneous ignis fatuus.

So long as it stays around this level, and does attempt to control us, I believe this type of thing is fine and is rather cool. There is certainly no doubt that AI provides a more realistic interpretation of Rattlechain lagoon than that of the wild imagination of Rhodia Solvay management, their environmental consultant delusions, and their paid up local political and civil service cocksuckers with their Quaker Garden 15 minute Cities.