Turnbridge: Nitric Acid Shed

The plans are for the erection of a single storey open sided shed in which to house a nitric acid plant. The 100 long shed, 26 feet wide has a single span roof, suported on cast iron pillars bedded in concrete. The roof is made up of timber trusses and girders with felted boarding and ventilation louvres. The site runs parallel with the River Colne. Read Hollidays expanded production to meet wartime needs, gradually taking over most of the available land in and around St Andrew's Road. The company began on a site near the gasworks, where dyestuffs were extracted from waste coal tar products. With the outbreak of war in 1914,REad Hollidays converted the plant to the production of chemicals for explosives. During the Great War, in order to control supplies, British Dyes was established. This was later to become ICI. As the demand grew, all the available land on St Andrrew's Road was occupied by Hollidays or other manufacturers undertaking to supply the War Office. A new site was found further along Leeds Road, which allowed for long-term expansion, a site still occupied by chemical plant.