Clayton Chemical Works

Clayton Chemical Works

Occupied a site on the western side of the Ashton canal.

1837/41 Works was established by Charles Joshua Ronchetti, a "manufacturing chemist", to produce naphtha from coal tar.

The Ronchetti family continued to operate the Clayton Chemical Works into the 1850s

1857 Joshua Ronchetti died.

Late 1850s Joseph Casartelli took over the Ronchetti family's chemical business in Clayton, and ran it until about 1868 when it was taken over by Hamor Lockwood.

OR

By 1860 the works had been taken over by John Bethel and Co.

c.1886 After the bankruptcy of Bethells, the works was taken over subsequently by Hardman and Holden Ltd, which was established primarily to manufacture sulphuric acid, but also carried out tar distillation.

Hardman and Holden expanded through the acquisition of other businesses, including C. J. Schofield and Manchester Oxide Co, and began to produce paint-drying chemicals and Manchester gum, which was used by adhesive-label manufacturers. The firm was taken over by Borax Holdings in 1961, which in turn merged with RTZ in 1968.

Following restructuring subsequently, the business was acquired by OMG Inc in 2001.

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2012 The site of the Clayton Chemical Works was targeted for archaeological investigation. Whilst parts of this site were heavily contaminated, and thus could not be excavated, buried remains in the centre of the former works were available for investigation. This enabled the foundations of the works’ chimney to be exposed and recorded, together with the boiler house, processing areas and several large below-ground storage tanks

See Also

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Sources of Information

• Archaeological investigation of Clayton here.