A European Informational Website
learn more
Billingham is a town in the Borough of Stockton on Tees
In 1801, the population was 355 people, but the demand for explosives created by the First World War led to a massive expansion of Billingham. In 1917, it was decided by the government to build a plant to produce ammonia. Later this was used predominantly in the production of chemicals for fertiliser. Eventually, in 1926, this plant became part of the newly formed company, ICI. Anhydrite was also mined in the Billingham area from 1928. In 1934 plastics began to be produced there.
The use of Ammonia also led to the formation of one of Billinghams two football teams, Billingham Synthonia F.C.. This side holds the distinct record of being the only football team in Britain to be named after a synthetic product - Synthetic Ammonia. The other football team is Billingham Town F.C., which is located a short walk away.
Aldous Huxley visited the newly-opened and technologically-advanced Brunner and Mond plant at ICI and gives a fine and detailed account of the processes he saw. The introduction to the most recent print of Brave New World states that Huxley was inspired to write the classic novel (in which Mustapha Mond figures as a character), by this Billingham visit.
Henry Thorold in the Shell Guide to County Durham states: "This is one of the most extraordinary of experiences, a sight almost unique in England. On either side of the road are the works. Steaming, sizzling - tall steel towers, great cylinders, pipes everywhere... At night the whole industrial world along the banks of the Tees comes to life... brilliant with a thousand lights, the great girders of the Transporter Bridge dark in silhouette: a magic city."
In the mid 1930s the population had grown to 19,000. After the second world war, the growth continued, with more housing being built as the town expanded northwards, reaching about 38,000 by the 1970s.
From 1965 onwards, the town has played host to the Billingham Folklore Festival.
In 1967, Billingham Forum was opened. This is a sports and leisure complex containing a theatre, swimming pool, ice rink and a number of sports halls which have staged gymnastics, archery, squash and judo as well as five a side football etc. Stars that have performed in the theatre include Arthur Lowe, David Jason, Penelope Keith, Timothy West, Carroll Baker, and Dame Anna Neagle. Proposals are being considered to regenerate Billingham Town Centre. A previous "Gateway" initiative proposed the construction of a new sports and leisure centre on John Whitehead Park to replace the Forum but did not provide a replacement for the Theatre. This proved highly controversial and was abandoned in November 2004, shortly after the Theatre within the Forum complex was granted grade 2 listed building status. Stockton Borough Council now intend to submit a second bid to gain PFI money to refurbish the Forum Complex after a previous bid was turned down.
From 1971 to 1988 ICI operated a small General Atomics TRIGA Mark I nuclear reactor at its Billingham factory. It also operated the coal-fired North Tees Power Station designed by Giles Gilbert Scott on the banks of the Tees to provide electricity for its plants. This was eventually decommissioned and demolished in 1987. The site of the power station is now Billingham Reach Industrial Estate, an international wharf owned by Able UK Ltd.
ICI no longer operates in Billingham having sold many of its businesses during the company's restructuring of the 1990s. Some of the company's former manufacturing plants are still in operation, run by other chemical companies.
In 1983, NIREX announced a proposal to use the now-disused anhydrite mine as a site for the disposal of intermediate level nuclear waste. There was a huge public outcry, since despite the suitability of the site in geological terms, it was very close to a large population centre. Subsequently, in 1985, the plans were dropped.
Billingham Beck Valley Country Park was constructed from a reclaimed industrial waste tip and has steadily grown to include former grazing land to form a 120 acre site including wetland habitats. Designated as a Local Nature Reserve by English Nature in 1992, in 2005 it won a Green Flag Award. The Beck itself is one of the major tributaries of the River Tees and has a tidal reach around the former ICI site.
Between 1923 and 1968, Billingham had its own Urban District Council which built, among other things, Dawson House, Kennedy Gardens and Billingham Golf Club (the UK's first municipally-owned club). It was absorbed into the Borough of Stockton and the County Borough of Teesside in 1968. In 1974 Teesside County was replaced by the County of Cleveland. In 1996, the arrangements were refashioned once more with Billingham being part of a separate unitary council for all of Stockton. In February 2007, the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Electoral Commission issued orders for the creation of a Billingham Parish and the setting up of a a new Town Council. Billingham Town Council will be the largest in the Borough of Stockton. It will initially be funded by a precept (money collected by a small extra charge added to each Council tax Bill) of £80,000. Elections for the new Town Council will be held on May 3rd 2007, a petition to Stockton Borough Council and referendum held in 2003 having both given assent to the proposal.
It is served by Billingham railway station.
The town is effectively split into two separate areas by name, Old Billingham (the area around the village green adjacent to St Cuthbert's church and built up around the ICI works) and the more planned estates that have spread out since the 1950s, increasing the town's size and borders towards the villages of Wolviston and Cowpen Bewley (to the point of almost incorporating them).
At approximately 00:15 BST on 1 June 2006 there were explosions at the Terra Nitrogen UK Chemical Plant at Billingham. The blast could be seen for up to ten miles, and heard up to twenty miles away. [1].
On January 4, 2007 at 9:30am GMT there was a small explosion, and subsequent chemical leak at the BASF factory at Seal Sands near Billingham. More than 20 people have been taken to hospital with chemical burns and the Cleveland Police and a fire team were on site quickly along with a decontamination unit [2]. About 4.5 tonnes of a substance known as Hexamethlyenediamine (HMD) was released from a pipe in the plant. The chemical vapourised in the atmosphere but can still cause severe burns if it comes in contact with the skin. Cleveland Police Chief Inspector Gary Gamesby later stated that there was never a risk to the public.