It’s not all about Albright and Wilson/Rhodia/Solvay. There are other chemical manufacturers in the Sandwell area whom have become well acquainted with their neighbours, but not particularly for good neighbourly reasons. Oldbury has its Trinity Street behemoths manufacturing phosphorus whereas Greets Green has Robinson Brothers, “organo-sulfur synthesis and high pressure hydrogenation”. They are another member of the Chemical Industries Association Lobby group.
If it was said of Albright and Wilson that they “produced the flavour in cheese and onion crisps”, “stinky Robbos” could be said to produce the odour that goes into a well brewed Curry fart. For the Phoenix Street pungenters have an odour management problem that could knock out a rat wearing breathing apparatus 100 miles away if the wind was blowing in the right direction.
Long suffering Greets Green residents are gassed by a smell so horrifically bad it defies rationale description in the English Midlands vernacular. Imagine burnt rubber, aniseed, a slice of vanilla mixed with human shit and you begin to arouse the flavour being belted out. A mix of sweet and sour, but always grotesque in bouquet- that’s stinky Robbos; not to be confused with the barley water manufacturers but chemical manufacturers.
It all started small, as they all do don’t they? Established for the distillation of coal tar and Ammonium by the brothers Grime in 1869, we have William Leckie Robinson, James Henry Robinson And Charles R Robinson. The map below from 1902 confirms the site was then known as Ryders green Tar Works.
Obviously they endured well into the 20th century as the site grew along with their chemical products. When site licensing came into existence in the mid 1970’s, they like Albright and Wilson had to suddenly apply to carry on pumping.
A long running wrangle emerged between the stinkies and West Midlands county council, the licensing authority over two licences that they had applied for, namely SL173 and SL174. These two boreholes had been sunk in 1930 and 1964 for waste disposal and an incinerator and the dopey county council issued them in August 1978. Despite this the national coal board (NCB) objected that the voids belonged to them. One borehole was in use before 1938 but the other did not have NCB consent. The stinkies were denied the second licence but appealed successfully Ref WD/APP/HE/77, given that the NCB could not produce evidence that the voids had been left as the result of coal mining.
Planning permission was not needed and a change of use had not been necessary as the whole site was used as a chemical works. What transpired over time in connection with these two licences is not so clear, but the stinkies have been involved in a very high profile pollution incident where a record fine was brought against them by British Waterways.
Stinky Robbos is located next to The Birmingham Canal navigations.
The incident in question occurred in January 2002. A quite disgusting black treacle began to stretch down the eight locks, through Great Bridge and then rampantly express its loins through Moxley and beyond as far as Darlaston along the Walsall Canal. In its wake dead fish, thousands of them were left behind. In the other direction it also went towards Black Lake- how ironic.
The local paper at the time were full of it. The Environment agency goons were also full of it, spouting their usual bullshine about lack of evidence, and dismissing local people who know their environment’s better than the shitheads from Fradley Park. Gradually it became clear that Stinky Robbos were in the frame, but the dirty blighters tried to deny it.
Express and Star article 18/1/2002
Express and Star article 28/1/2002
But stinky Robbos were guilty as charged, and this time they had to cough up dough instead of rubber. It was the third biggest fine of the year according to the Environment agency.
The canal in this area is heavily contaminated, and there is not much doubt as to the source. On one occasion it turned carrot orange. Obviously this was a different form of iron brew that you would not want to taste. Robinson’s own?
Ryders Green Lock number 1 2007. Picture courtesy Roy Martin
Today the West Brom stinkers proudly boast
“We are committed to the prevention of pollution and in particular we will:
- Reduce all of the impacts we have on our local communities; particularly odours and noise”
There is rumoured to be a residents liason group, yet unlike the wind it appears strangely hidden, impenetrable by even Mossad. That patron saint of lost Sandwell causes, Robert Stanley Badham (ex councillor) was a player on it at one time I believe. But for the long suffering Greets Green gassed, they get not as much as a “passing bell” of an annual calendar from the stinkers.
You can leave your hat on
AND ADD TO THIS , STINKY ROBBO’S HAVE BEEN FINED FOR THEIR STINKY SMELLS.
HERE IS ANOTHER REPORT.
YOU DIRTY STINKERS ROBBOS, PUT A RUDDY CORK IN IT!!!!
