The soda ash works in Winnington, seen by most as an eyesore to the landscape of Cheshire, was the UK's only manufacturer of soda ash and sodium bicarbonate, and the market-leading maker of salt. Sold by ICI in 1991 and bought by TATA Chemicals Europe in 2006, rising gas prices and carbon emission taxes had heaped pressure on the business forcing it to cease production in 2013 because of "massive" energy bills at the cost of 220 jobs. The factory, having taken many different forms over the years had produced the chemical for industries such as glass and soap-making since 1874. With the deal with energy giant E.ON due to end this year, the subsequent costs of keeping such a large operation running in the town became no longer viable. TATA therefore spent 2014 collecting together the remaining several thousand tons of the material produced by the factory and now uses the site as storage for hundreds upon hundreds of batches of soda ash to be exported globally, albeit at a very slow rate, therefore rendering the site derelict in almost every sense of the word. One benefit of the site still being used in this way is that the basic powerline is still active, with several machines clicking away and light bulbs dimly exposing dark corners of the site, nicknamed ‘The Snow Factory’ for obvious reasons, ash lines almost every corner of the interior of the building, as if fallen from the sky. Some areas having evidently not been walked upon for years, which made the exploration all the more exciting having known I was stepping on truly forgotten territory. The site itself lies on Wallerscote Island, secluding it from almost every angle as the Trent Mersey canal forms a moat like barrier. I was able to access the site from the old canal bridge once used for access to Winnington industrial estate. Now overgrown and scattered with several barriers and barbed wire fences that have since fallen to the inevitable flurry of trespassing wanderers. I spent almost three hours with the entire site to myself; the eerie creeks of the old machinery echoing in the distance kept me on edge as if to remind me how busy this place had once been.
