When writing the last blog/post, The Humber Estuary 3, I forgot to mention the Capper Pass site. Between Brickyard Lane and Welton Water is the site of the once Capper Pass non-ferrous metal refining industrial site which was developed here between the late 1930s and the early 21st century. The industrial complex included a high chimney which was a landmark along the Humber bank, this to flue toxic gases higher into the atmosphere although, highly toxic chemicals were found in the soil around the site and in the waters of the Estuary, contributing to the Humber’s high toxicity and resulting poor biodiversity at that time. All the industrial complex has now gone and the site is being developed as the Melton Development site with large modern warehouses and distribution hubs.
Prior to the demolition of the site a multi-national industrial company, the last to own the refinery, was involved in long-running legal disputes with a lot of past workers who claimed their disabling illnesses were caused by having worked at the site. Also some residents in the high-class suburban housing areas to the north-east of the site claimed that effluent in the air from the site was causing a cancer cluster in their locality. Eventually some workers gained some compensation, but most not.
By the 1960s and ’70s the industrial site was producing as much as 10% of the world’s production of tin.
The whole issue of ‘Polluter Pays’ is very relevant to the industrial history of the Humberside region, further consideration of this issue will follow when we reach the South Ferriby cement works site and the Waters Edge site in Barton upon Humber on the south bank.
At Brough another world scale industrial business has come to an end, although the buildings remain landward of the Humber flood-bank.
(to be continued)