ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

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ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby maxpower » Sun Apr 16, 2006 5:46 pm

Had a trundle through the remains of the Nylon Plant in Stevenston today, situated north of the bulk of ICI/Nobel. It was only ever operational for a relatively short time, and then sat for about 20 years before it was finally demolished in the mid 90s. I recall when I was wee that you could see the large chimney from miles around. What's left now is a eerie network of roads with the occasional object/landmark lying about. Here's what I found:

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The only remaining building on the site, contains a couple of barrels and some kind of valve on the wall.

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The remains of a series of rail sidings.

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Fire Hydrant. There are loads of these scattered about the place.

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I have absolutely NO idea what this is.

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The bottom quarter of the site is seemingly semi-operational, owned by Troon Investments (who own almost all the former-ICI works that are still operational) and used as a 'Composting Facility'. Supposedly open 9-5 on a Sunday but there was no-one there.

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Perhaps the worker was locked in the toilet?

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Pretty obvious what this is!

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This appears to be the outline of one of the giant cooling towers. I've been trying to find a picture of the plant when it was still up but nothing so far.

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Path of another siding that went all the way down to the main Nobel works.

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Bizarre ladder-thing attached to the side of the bridge that leads back to the nearby Industrial Estate.

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Level crossing, or what's left of it.

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Big dirt track leading away east from the plant, and the former route of the Caledonian Railway that ran from Ardrossan to Glasgow (via Giffen). Some of the sleepers are still in place half buried under the bushes.

Place was generally deserted save for a couple of people out walking dogs nearby (one of whom glared at us from the opposite side of a fence for some time), and a few wild rabbits leaping about. A car/truck appeared at one point, and we thought it someone coming to tell us to get lost, but it went over to the Composting bit, so may well have been the worker returning from lunch. :D

Hope these might be interesting to someone!
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby Fossil » Sun Apr 16, 2006 5:52 pm

maxpower wrote:..........
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Level crossing, or what's left of it.............


I like images like this 8)

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Postby Pgcc93 » Sun Apr 16, 2006 9:20 pm

Enjoyed yours pics maxpower, it's good to see some folks are still doing their bit in the name of UE 8)
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby Ronnie » Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:11 pm

maxpower wrote:I've been trying to find a picture of the plant when it was still up but nothing so far.


Hi Max
Scran has a photograph captioned "ICI Dyestuffs plant at Ardeer" which might be what you are looking for. Lovely pix, btw.
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby maxpower » Mon Apr 17, 2006 11:53 pm

Ronnie wrote:Hi Max
Scran has a photograph captioned "ICI Dyestuffs plant at Ardeer" which might be what you are looking for. Lovely pix, btw.
Best, R


Exactly what I was looking for, cheers Ronnie. I love Scran and my Athens login. :D

I forgotten how big the complex was (I was only 11 or so when it was finally demolished), and you'd never guess there were all those tall, tightly packed buildings looking at the grounds today.
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Postby Renfrew Ross » Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:42 pm

Max,

When was this demolished ??

I used to holiday at the 'bold' Sandylands on Stevenson/Saltcoats border when I was a lad between 1983-1992-ish and recall seeing a lot of works at Ardeer (and hearing a few bangs) if my memory serves me right.
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Postby Alycidon » Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:22 pm

Renfrew Ross wrote:I used to holiday at the 'bold' Sandylands on Stevenson/Saltcoats border when I was a lad between 1983-1992-ish and recall seeing a lot of works at Ardeer (and hearing a few bangs) if my memory serves me right.


The bangs would have more likely have come from the Nobel Explosives Factory which is in the same area. AFAIK it is still open, I had cause to visit it about four years ago, all cameras, phones, etc had to be left at the gatehouse for obvious reasons.

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Postby maxpower » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:23 pm

Yeah the bangs would have been coming from the Nobel plant next door, and it is still open, though only employs something like 300 people compared to the 15,000 it used to. Don't hear much noise from it these days, infact can't remember the last time I heard anything from it.

The Nylon Plant was still mostly intact (though disused) until about 1995, so you may well have seen it!

I think this was the Nylon plant, in the 70s:

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There's nothing left of this now though, infact I think my picture of the weighbridge above is where one of the large towers stood.

There are big plans in development I believe for the whole peninsula, they are wanting to turn the entire area into a big housing estate over the next 20 years.
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby hughie » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:27 am

maxpower wrote:I recall when I was wee that you could see the large chimney from miles around. What's left now is a eerie network of roads with the occasional object/landmark lying about.

When I was winching down that way many years ago that land I think was a golf course. My late brother worked in the Nylon Plant. I heard that the chimney you mentioned collapsed for no known reason one day. :roll:
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Postby Sandpiper » Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:33 am

maxpower wrote:Yeah the bangs would have been coming from the Nobel plant next door, and it is still open, though only employs something like 300 people compared to the 15,000 it used to. Don't hear much noise from it these days, infact can't remember the last time I heard anything from it.

The Nylon Plant was still mostly intact (though disused) until about 1995, so you may well have seen it!

I think this was the Nylon plant, in the 70s:

Image

There's nothing left of this now though, infact I think my picture of the weighbridge above is where one of the large towers stood.



There are big plans in development I believe for the whole peninsula, they are wanting to turn the entire area into a big housing estate over the next 20 years.


Not sure that that's the nylon plant. I think the plant to the left still exists but the large chimneys I think belonged to the Kulman (sp?) plant which manufactured Nitric Acid. The brown NOx fumes from one of the chimeys is a bit of a give away.

The housing thing is a bit true in so much as my brother in law has surveyed some of the surrounding land with a view to quarrying and levelling a lot of it for a developer.

A lot of the land will remain untouched as explosives were stored underground as it was dark and cool and according to chaps I went to college with many years ago there was some dubiety as to the whereabouts of all of the material that had been stored in underground bunkers.
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Postby maxpower » Thu Jul 13, 2006 6:25 pm

None of the industrial buildings in the picture exist today, of that I'm sure.

I know now the buildings were definately the Nylon plant, as for the chimneys, you could be right. All I remember is that the left hand chimney was the only one left for a long time (used to be able to see it from my house!), and that it was knocked down at the same time the Nylon plant was.
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Postby maxpower » Thu Jul 13, 2006 8:55 pm

Got this tonight while out and about, not the same angle, but you can see the same 'U' shape of houses on the left.

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I could also see 2 medium-sized chimneys further down the coast, which may or may not be the former Nitric Acid plant.

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Postby Sandpiper » Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:45 pm

Cheers Max,

The tall chimney to the left was the nitric acid plant. I was also positive the construction to the far left was still standing. There is a plant looks like it is still standing, obviously somewhere else on site.

I've worked in chemical plants all of my days and I really enjoy the rich and diverse history associated with the Ardeer site.
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Postby Vladimir » Sat Jul 22, 2006 6:47 pm

Which plant(s) do you work in?
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Postby maxpower » Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:40 am

Sandpiper wrote:Cheers Max,

The tall chimney to the left was the nitric acid plant. I was also positive the construction to the far left was still standing. There is a plant looks like it is still standing, obviously somewhere else on site.


Yeah there is a structure that looks just like the "scaffolding" type building on the left that is slightly further down the Ardeer peninsula, which may be where the confusion is coming from.

I've actually stood where that left hand building was, quite strange as you'd never know anything that size was ever there just from looking.
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