IN September 1972 the Telegraph & Argus reported that demolition work had started at Leather’s Chemical Co Ltd on Canal Road in Bradford.
The report said: ‘The premises are being pulled down mainly to make way for a new road.
‘Bradford Corporation has agreed to buy the property and the Bradford production is being transferred to St Helen’s and Manchester.’
It was the end of 200 years of industry on what was claimed to be one of the world’s oldest chemical plants. Its origins lay in the work of John Roebuck who, in 1746, adapted a method of producing sulphur trioxide within lead-lined, acid-resistant chambers. The sulphur trioxide resulting was dissolved in water to produce sulphuric acid. The lead chamber process was in use for the next two centuries.
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