My father joined his brother, Walter, at the Coalite Plant at Askern in December 1929, at the age of 14 years, employed as a junior draughtsman. He would take evening classes in engineering drawing at Doncaster Technical College and become the head draughtsman responsible for producing the plans for the expansion of the works. He would work at the ‘Plant’ for 46 years until his death in December 1975 and eventually rise to become the General Manager of the works, knowledgeable in every aspect of its operation, responsible to Mr. Flack, the managing director.
“Coalite” was a brand of low-temperature coke used as a smokeless fuel. It is the residue left behind when coal is carbonised at 640˚C [1,184˚F]. The process involved heating the coal in vertical retorts for 4 hours. The retorts were arranged in groups known as batteries. Coalite was darker and more friable than high temperature coke. It was easier to ignite, burnt with an attractive flame, and was lighter in weight than coal, making it an ideal fuel for open domestic fire grates. Drawbacks were its tendencies to produce an excessive residue ash, to burn quickly and give off sulphurous fumes.
Coalite was invented by Thomas Parker [1843-1915] in 1904 and patented in 1906. British Coalite Ltd was registered in 1907, with Thomas Parker as a director, with the rights to acquired land, manufacture and deal in Coalite in the United Kingdom. After a great deal of searching, in 1914, British Coalite Ltd. reached an agreement with the Old Silkstone Collieries Ltd., which owned the Old Silkstone Collieries, near Barnsley, to erect the first ‘Coalite’ plant at Barugh, Barnsley. Progress was slow due to labour shortages during the First World War and it would be 1919 before the Barugh works commenced operations. The Barugh works comprised 20 retorts with a capacity for dealing with 25,000 tons of coal per year. Every ton of coal produced 14cwt. of smokeless fuel, 3gals. of motor spirit, 16gals of oils for burning, lighting and lubrication, 7,000 cubic feet of gas and 20lbs. of sulphate of ammonia.
British Coal Ltd. was taken over by Low Temperature Carbonisation Ltd. in 1917. Charles Parker, the son of Thomas Parker, designed a new works at Barugh to rectify defects in the design of the plant and the inferior material used in the construction of the batteries, which was the best that could be obtained during the war. The existing batteries were entirely demolished leaving standing only the subsidiary plant, comprising the boiler house, gasometers, extractors, and cooling towers etc. Five new batteries were erected; four working and one in reserve, comprising 160 retorts [32 per battery], with a capacity of 75,000 tons per annum. Due to various circumstances, not least the General Strike of 1926, it was 1928 before the new plant came into operation, the same year that the company announced the proposal to erect a similar plant at Askern. The new Coalite plant at Askern, operated by Doncaster Coalite Ltd., a subsidiary of Low Temperature Carbonsation Ltd., was opened on Friday July 5, 1929 by Jenny Lee M.P., at the time the youngest female M.P, who would marry Welsh M.P. Aneurin Bevan in 1934.
Initially at Askern, four batteries were in operation, capable of carbonising 90,000 tons of coal per year. The crude oil, produced as a by-product, was of particularly high quality and was converted into diesel and fuel oil of a high standard. Other spirit was suitable for use in a variety of high efficiency engines. The plant utilised small coal and slack, on average amounting to 49% of the output of the coal mine. Initially, about 100 men were employed at the plant but this number quickly increased to 150. In 1934, four further batteries were added as demand for Coalite increased and uses for its oil by-products expanded. The capacity of the plant was doubled to 180,000 tons of coal per year, yielding 127,000 tons of smokeless fuel (Coalite), and 3,731,000 gallons of oil and petrol.
In 1936, a new manufacturing plant was commissioned at Bolsover, near Chesterfield in Derbyshire; production commenced in November 1936 and the plant was officially opened by the Duke of Kent in April 1937. It was the largest smokeless fuel manufacturing plant in the world. In the same year, another plant was opened at Werntarw, near Pencoed in South Wales. The seams at Werntarw were well-suited for smokeless fuel, aviation petrol and diesel fuel. However, during World War Two, the coal from Werntarw Colliery was requisitioned by the Government and directed to steelworks for use as blast furnace coke and the Coalite works closed, never to re-open after the war. By 1940, twenty squadrons of the RAF were fuelled by Coalite petrol and it was reputed that two battleships were propelled by Coalite diesel. The first petrol pump at a filling station serving petrol made from coal was opened on the Brompton Road in London.
The Coalite plants escaped nationalisation when the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946 came into effect on January 1, 1947. In 1949, the company changed its name from Low Temperature Carbonisation Ltd. to Coalite and Chemicals Company Ltd. to reflect the diversified nature of the business. The demand for Coalite continued to increase through the 1950s as clean air became a priority following the smogs of the early 1950s and the passing of the Clean Air Act in 1956; ‘Coalite’ was licenced as an ‘authorised fuel’. Head Office, which had been in London since 1917, was transferred to Bolsover and there was major expansion of the Bolsover plant. Six new batteries were added at Askern bringing the total to eighteen.
The Barugh plant, inoperative since the end of the Second World War, closed in 1950 and production was concentrated at Bolsover and Askern. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Coalite and Chemicals Company Group consisted of several companies, with Francis Waring as managing director of the holding company. Mr. Flack was managing director of the subsidiary, Doncaster Coalite Ltd, and in charge of the Askern Plant. Expansion of the company continued and in 1965, work commenced on a new works at Grimethorpe colliery, near Barnsley [opened in 1966]. The company celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1967 and the 1970s saw the Company reach it’s zenith in terms of smokeless fuel production. The Bolsover Plant comprised 24 batteries, Askern 18 batteries and Grimethorpe 36 batteries. A new works was opened at Rossington Colliery in 1972 with 20 batteries. However, there were warning signs with the discovery of North Sea Gas and the switch to gas central heating. In 1973, Grimethorpe’s production capacity was reduced by 12 batteries and production ceased at Rossington in 1975, after only three years in operation.
During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s the Coalite Group expanded and diversified its business. Businesses included builders merchants, car distributors, fuel and oil distributors, solid fuel distributors, specialist vehicle manufacturers (Dormobile Camper Vans), transport and warehousing companies, docks and shipping interests, instrument manufacturers, oil production and exploration and substantial interests in the Falkland Islands. This marked the zenith of the company’s fortunes and in 1989, the company was taken over by Anglo-United, a Chesterfield-based open cast coal mining and coal distribution group. However, the smokeless fuel side of the business continued to shrink through the 1980s and there were several waves of redundancies. The Askern plant closed in 1986, following the 1984-85 miner’s strike, which had major implications for the future of the coal industry. Grimethorpe closed in 1994.
The demise of Anglo-United accelerated through the 1990s, largely as a result of the fact that the smaller company, Anglo-United, had borrowed heavily in order to buy the much larger Coalite Group and had intended to service this debt by asset-stripping Coalite’s many subsidiaries, whilst retaining the core business of solid fuel production. The sell-off did not realise as much cash as was required and weighed down by this debt and with little money for investment the company declined as it faced outside competition in a downturned market. In 2002, Anglo-United was bought by a consortium of local Chesterfield businessmen. Viable assets were moved into separate subsidiaries under the Anglo-United holding company. The remaining debts were left with the much diminished Coalite Chemicals Ltd which went into administration and then receivership, and finding no buyers, closed down finally in 2004, leaving a considerable number of redundant employees with much reduced pensions. The ovens at the Bolsover works continued producing Coalite until the plant closed down in 2004.
Douglas G Hope 