Roughdales Fire Clay Company in Chester Lane

The 1890 picture above shows the operations of Roughdales Fire Clay Company off Chester Lane. Clay was hauled up rails (bottom right of picture), then pushed in tubs along the overhead track bridging the site. It's then prepared for the round-topped kilns which along with their chimneys stand at the left of the picture. In the foreground by the temporary railway line, bricks and pipeware await collection.

The McTear family at their home, Roughdales Farm, in Chester Lane

In the photograph above, James Wilton McTear shows off his family for the camera with his wife Eliza. McTear (born c. 1837 in Liverpool) was manager of the Copper Rolling Mills plus the manager of Roughdales. The picture was taken at his home in Chester Lane called Roughdales Farm (aka Milestone House) opposite Four Acre Lane. The farm had eight acres and the family stayed until 1894 when they moved to Micklehead Green and St.Michael's House & Farm. By this time Roughdales works had expanded so much that it had almost reached Milestone House. McTear served on St.Helens Hospital Committee for its first forty years and was a J.P. from 1897.

There used to be half a dozen brick companies in Sutton sourcing local clay for their operations. However in recent times Ibstocks have been the sole manufacturer, part of a large company with 24 plants nationwide. In October 2008 it was announced that their Chester Lane plant would close with 56 jobs lost. Ibstock's Roughdales site has been a major brick producer since the late 1880s and Antony Gormley used Ibstock clay to make his Field sculpture. This Turner Prize winning artwork is made up of 40,000 terracotta figures and was created by Sutton Manor primary and Sutton High schoolchildren in 1993.

The Sutton Alkali works pictured in the mid 1890s

The Sutton Alkali Works was at Sutton township's perimeter and had expanded enormously since Andrew Kurtz inherited it from his father in 1846. The works extended beyond Warrington New Road to Langtree Street (now Jackson Street) and it was one of the largest chemical plants in the area producing soda and bleaching powder. On May 12th 1899, eight men were killed after an explosion caused by a fire in the chlorate house. Windows, as far away as Rainford, were said to have been shattered and a yellow cloud of nitrate gas enveloped surrounding streets. By the 1930s all the chemical plants had left the area through competition from other areas.

The headed stationery of Crone & Taylor of Lancots Lane, Sutton Oak

Longstanding Crone and Taylor of Sutton Oak were an interesting company on a number of counts. Founded in 1886 their letter heading contained an illustration of late Victorian Sutton with numerous smoking chimneys. They described themselves as 'Bone Crushers and Manufacturers of Blood & Bone Manures' !

The Bold Iron Works of engineering manufacturers Wm. Neil & Son were in
Sutton at St.Helens Junction for over 100 years, founded in 1859

In or near Sutton the main chemical works were the aforementioned Kurtz's Alkali Works, Green Bank, Hardshaw Brook and briefly one at Sutton Lodge operated by Cannington and Shaws the bottlemakers. A modern-day, health & safety inspector would have had a field day in Sutton's chemical factories. Working in them considerably shortened lives through toxic fumes and by liver damage caused by drinking excessive amounts of beer.

To quench the thirst of the chemical workers and those who worked long hours by fiery furnaces in the 19th Century glass and copper industries, alcohol was consumed in copious quantities and so local breweries were formed to supply it. As well as the renowned Greenall's (founded in Hall Street, Hardshaw by Thomas Greenall in 1762), John Cross & Co had a brewery at Leather Hill in Sutton and Jane Barrow ran the Phenix Brewery at Peckers Hill which was sold onto the Wilcock family. (See our Old Sutton Pubs page)

Chas Walsh's advertisement in the St.Helens Lantern of 1889

Talking of chemical factories, a top-secret chemical warfare plant was located in Reginald Road in Sutton Leach, known locally as the Poison Gas Works. Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) referred to it in one of his infamous radio broadcasts during WWII. The site manufactured Lewisite, a chemical warfare agent and it closed in 1953. Occasionally it caused alarms in Sutton by letting out poisonous vapour clouds. As late as the 1980s, the British government denied it had ever existed.