Launch celebrates Life at ICI

Former ICI Billingham workers travelled back in time when they attended a special book launch in the town.

The book, entitled Life at the ICI features interviews with 80 former ICI Billingham workers and was funded by a £49,000 award from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Appropriately, the book was launched at the Synthonia Club, Billingham, formerly known as the ICI Club. In addition to over 60 of the former workers, guest speakers also included Frank Cook, MP for Stockton North.

Dr Kenneth Warne, 101, from Middlesbrough, was the oldest former employee to attend and the first to receive a copy of the book. Dr Warne joined ICI as a laboratory assistant straight from school aged 15 and progressed to research scientist. He worked for the company for over 40 years before retiring in 1968.

Dr Warne said: ‘I’m very happy to see all my young friends, although they’re not as young as I am! When I first came to Billingham in 1922 there was no ICI, just green fields and hedges. I’m sorry that ICI itself has finished, all of you here have the company in your hearts.’

The book was edited by Margaret Williamson, a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Teesside. Margaret was first approached by the Teesside Industrial Memories Project to act as a consultant on the book. The Project was formed in 2004 to collect personal recollections of working in Teesside’s defunct heavy industries. Its founder members had mostly worked at ICI Billingham, and they successfully applied to the HLF to fund the book.

Margaret was then asked to edit the book, completing some of the interviews herself and also training volunteers to undertake the remainder. The book explores the lives of workers from the 1930s onwards.

Margaret said: ‘I grew up in Billingham and knew how integral ICI was to the community. The book re-emphasises the importance of the company to the town’s development, to its social and sporting life and the building of schools. It’s interesting to see how the workplace influenced the rest of the community that lived nearby.’

Other comments from former ICI Billingham workers in the book

‘The positives were security. You went to ICI and they had good benefits. It was security, reasonable regular wages. They’d got a good system of work, protective clothing, all things like that. And I suppose the camaraderie because most people came from the same area like Billingham, probably people who lived in the same street. So it was like a community within a community. Those are the sort of things that stick in your mind. But, you know, in essence, it was a pleasure to go to work in those days.’ (Dennis Carroll, 1952-1979)

‘ICI was stamped through people like in a stick of rock.’ (George McKinlay, 1957-1985)

‘One of the happiest times of my life was at ICI. I couldn’t speak more highly of the management and I’m not just being patriotic. They really were very good to speak to and they would listen. And do you know I think they learnt from us as well. They learnt from us and if only I had my time all over again I would choose to go back. Wonderful! I wish I could have it over again.’ (Pearl Hall, 1942-1944; 1958-1986).

The book, published by Atkinson Print, costs £9.99.

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