The Growth of Industry and Communities

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I was pondering recently has the demise of industry throughout the UK reduced the impact on the community.

Living in a Chemical town which grew up around the chemical industry, developing since 1847 when John Hutchinson established the first alkali factory at Spike Island (infamous now for a concert by The Stone Roses in 1990).

What built from the factory wasn’t only the factory but the workers houses, community centres and life working for the factory.

Roll on to 1926 and Widnes / Runcorn saw the birth of Industrial Chemical Industries (ICI), from the amalgamation of 4 companies including Castner Kellner Alkali Company in Runcorn. Sites in Widnes were also included in ICI later in the development.

A common theme from all these early pioneers in the chemical industry was not only the factories being built but the communities around them.

It’s hard to imagine Widnes before Chemicals, a small village with a river to what it is in 2026. Building houses on every bit of spare field from the River Mersey to the M62 (on the boundary with St Helens).

As a consultant for the past 12 years, I have been enlightened as to how this development has occurred all over the country, North to South, East to West. England, Scotland, Ireland (North and Republic) and Wales.

Now with International competition for everything that these communities did / do means that the landscape is much different.

Pit towns empty
Chemical jobs far fewer
Steel works with big challenges

Many people are far more mobile (although searching family history and seeing people moving hundreds of miles between census entries did surprise me!) does this mean the death of community?

Despite what politicians are telling us, migration has always been healthy for the UK. Living near Liverpool I have never known the area without Irish descendants living nearby following Liverpool being an area of choice for things such as the potato famine.

In fact, back to the Castner Kellner company, both Mr Castner and Mr Kellner were German!

So why mention this, my wife and I have been humbled by the Widnes community recently. We both celebrate a special birthday this year (as she says 40+10!). We decided rather than hosting a party for one evening we wanted to make a difference to the community.

A young man in our community Aidan Jackson has raised ~£100k to install 49 community defibrillators in and around Widnes (including Runcorn, St Helens, Burtonwood) and as he is fundraising for defibrillator number 50 on our half-centuries we decided that the stars had aligned and this is what we wanted to do.

We then decided based on a Cruising activity of hiding rubber ducks for others to find to spread joy that’s what we were going to do! The Widnes Duck Hunt was born! What started as lets hide a few golden ducks (marking 50 years) has turned into a dual event.

40 ducks will be placed around the town during August for people to find out what their names are and then on 30^th August we’re hosting a festival with live music, games, raffle, traders, tombola etc. This day we’ll hide a further 10 ducks for people to find.

Prizes galore! All details on Facebook, Instagram and Just Giving.

Now come on Dave you’re just promoting your FREE community event here what has it got to do with community?

Well let me tell you, we asked the community of Widnes to help us make this event FREE to the community whilst raising £1,800 for a community defibrillator. We asked for people to sponsor our ducks, pay for trading slots, provide Tombola and Raffle prizes. We know times are hard BUT wow we were blown away by the community response.

The community that started with a small Alkali factory in 1847 stood up proud to want to support us! As of writing this article on 8^th June (sorry it’s late Phil) we stand at £2150 raised! Any money beyond the £1,800 goes to the maintenance fund to ensure that the 50 Defibrillators remain operational 24hrs a day 7 days a week on standby to save lives!

I know that if I spoke to others in the other communities around the UK mentioned above there will be many more stories like ours, proving that what the early pioneers developed is living now. I know every day the news wants to spread hate and division but please don’t believe these stories. This last weekend I have had a further 20 people asking what they can do to help on our fundraising event.

We have proven by aligning 50 ducks in a row for our 50^th birthdays to fund Defibrillator 50 that community still exists loud and proud in the UK and especially in my hometown of Widnes. I’m proud to be living and from such a fantastic community!