St. Andrew's Road: Shed

The plans provide for the erection of a shed for chemical manufacturing processes, with brick walls, a timber roof, with patent glazing and slatted wooden louvres to provide ventilation the entire length of the building. At right angles to St Andrew's Road, the 300 foot long shed is 60 feet wide. The twin spans of the roof are supported on cast iron columns. Some of the brick walls with their recessed panels survive from other similar buildings, which formed part of the Turnbridge PLant.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.