What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

This town, still the centre of political life in Sandwell has at its core a legacy of the worst kind of chemical polluting industries, glorified by useful idiots but mainly the political class who in some form have benefitted financially from shilling for them or in the early days being from those vile polluting industries themselves.

The formation of the Municipal Borough in 1935 had the dirty fingerprints of Albright and Wilson and their fellow polluters all over them as the hapless folk who were employed by these scumbags were whipped up into a frenzy for “autonomy” , “self governance”, “localism democracy” or some other bullshit phrase just to get their manipulators into power- in this case directly the seed of John Edward Wilson- the founder of the company.

His rat faced grandson, Kenneth was the first mayor of the new borough.

I recently came across an original specimen of the “charter souvenir” for the occasion of the borough’s formation- now some 90 years later. Priced at 6 pence, it gives a very interesting observation into the control and coercion at work in this pre WW2 era, and of those pulling the strings.

I have scanned the whole thing which you can read as a PDF below. I’ll pick out and highlight a few things that interested me however in this post.

Olbury 1935 The Rotten Borough forms

The motto of the borough “Antiquum Decus Floreat” translates to “Let its ancient glory flourish.” The Old English translation of ‘Ealdenbyrig’, Eald is  for ‘old’, Byrig is the plural of ‘burh’ – a burh being a fortification or fortified town. I’m not sure it was ever a “glorious” place, but certainly wasn’t after the industrial polluters arrived on the scene.

A few familiar faces arise with the then town councillors, a right bunch of fiddlers some of them look as well. The names Pollock- of Accles and Pollock fame, as well as ratty Wilson are noted, as are the AW rimmer Smellsome, who would later of course go on to defend his fellow freemason friends in Trinity Street after the Oldbury smell fiasco.

The pussy whisperer

If you like your history, and how things have changed then do read the write up, but do beware that those in charge were glorifying themselves through masonic practices with maces, chains and badges- all donated by the said chemical polluters to pollute the minds as well as the lungs. Their successors in 2025 are little different. Hell I would not be surprised if some of the familiar names are even related to that scum.

The idea of attempting to relink the demise of two brickworks operations, filled over with toxic wastes and foundry sands into some co-disposal super tip to use as a foundation for housing is absurd, and yet here we are with this old chestnut rejected in 1990 but for some strange reason still flickering like a phoenix from the flames.

It should be made clear  that the only site with the provenance “rattlechain” at this point in time and at any time going forward from this point in time should be the lagoon, as all trace of brickmaking had long gone only to be replaced by appalling tipping operations over the remnants of a brickworks. Unfortunately the mistake in still associating this site as “rattlechain” by subsequent licences and authorities has been misused in trying to link the sites together to suit commercial activities.

These “two tips” are no longer linked, and nor should they ever be. THEY HAVE SEPARATE HISTORIES WHICH ARE SUMMARISED BELOW. We are where we are, so let no man nor any of their agents try to claim that the two are still linked. Only thoughts of avarice connect them. 

rattlechain lagoon site history

formerrattlechainbrickworksduportstip site history

The worst of times

BR7P51 Aerial view of white phosphorus chemical waste disposal in Rattlechain Lagoon, St John’s Lane, Tividale, Sandwell, England, Britain, Uk

Having been contacted by many frustrated and worried people across the country about landfill sites in their backyard, it is clear that the Government’s insane Planning and Infrastructure Bill is a recipe for irreversible environmental damage and future human health scandals that will probably only unravel into the 2060’s or beyond, that is of course after the decades of denial by political scum and others whom they serve in the developer industry.

Historic landfills are bad news, and should not be built on, EVER and not “cleaned up” as morons like Andy Street and Richard Parker appear to think is possible without serious consequences for those who live on the border of such sites, built because more morons claimed they were “safe” to do so. 

The Environment Agency defines an historic landfill as a site where there is no environmental permit in force.

“A historic (closed) landfill site is one where there is no PPC [Pollution Prevention and Control] permit or waste management licence currently in force. This includes sites that existed before the waste licensing regime, if a site has been licensed in the past, and this licence has been revoked, ceased to exist or surrendered and a certificate of completion has been issued” 

Rattlechain lagoon still does have an environmental permit but its adjacent neighbour does not. I have looked at the issues of how the EA buried and erased much information about such sites HERE.

Local authorities appear to have a dire record of disseminating information or responding to concerned residents about landfill sites which they are supposed to be monitoring under The Environmental Protection Act. My experiences with Sandwell Council have been abysmal to say the least in this regard.

There is too little info about historic wastes and the terms “inert” and commercial” just do not cut it with reliable information- for that you need to see the original licences, which I have made many available in the West Midlands, but as can be seen by those, the wording was so lousy and ambiguous that they were not adequate safe guards for anyone in the future to rely on.

The maps that the EA have provided on their website appear to have replaced some of the old what’s in your backyard feature that they previously removed, and which I also took them to task over in the FOI request I put in some years ago.

The maps can be viewed at the link below. Zoom in and view the pink cross hatched polygons and you will also find some very basic info within these pop ups as to when the site received waste and licence was surrendered etc. This is by no means accurate however, and should be read with caution, as rattlechain lagoon contains no information at all, even though the EA know bloody well what is in there, and if they don’t, well read this website FFS!

Untitled map

It is interesting to note the scale of polygons around the black country area compared to Birmingham and Smethwick and outskirts which escape the depravity of industrial wastes. It is a disproportionate burden around Oldbury and Tipton, where unscrupulous bastards sold off marl holes for this very purpose, only for more unscrupulous bastards to infill them with more solid wastes to build houses upon. The legacy of industry and its political supporters in boroughs like the very ironically named “Sandwell” have left us with nothing but blots on the landscape to replace the dug out pits that went before them.

Recently, the “tramp phosphorus” botherers were spotted on site doing their annual monitoring rounds of boreholes. This has been ongoing for some years but the reasons and rationale are not what they seem for the public point of view. The white phosphorus in this lake is not going to go away, long after any generations of anyone living today have also snuffed it. Bury it, pretend it isn’t there, but it is.

Environmental consultancies are about producing results, and not recording them for their clients. We have yet to see the “Rhodia” end game for this site, and yet ERM dutifully come back as the guardian’s that were never there when wildlife was being poisoned by their pay masters. Where the fuck were the checks and balances then?

More interestingly, it appears that whoever is in charge of this site now has decided to up the notices, and more interestingly, tweak some of the wording.

So the covered hoarding which has largely faded into memory next to the canal has a new buddy with other stick on signs stuck over that.

For the record, here is what that sign actually said when it was in more pristine condition.

They accepted “no responsibility” and yet the new signs have the bolt on

“except where caused by the negligence of the company.”

I wonder what that is all about?

Old sign still there- you have 15 seconds to comply

But gone are the old dialling code numbers that got you through to the lobby at Trinity Street. 01303 number is a Folkestone Kent number FFS!  Enter “Robowatch”.

So this site is now being “monitored” by AI from miles away down South.

According to their website, this outfit states

“We also offer security surveillance solutions for large construction sites, vacant properties, commercial buildings, and solar farms, providing top-rated site security surveillance services across diverse environments. Our 24/7 site security surveillance systems give you peace of mind, knowing that your property is under constant protection.” 

I’m not sure what “protection” rattlechain lagoon needs, though maybe the public needs protection from the arseholes that dumped dangerous toxic waste into their to start with.

As for the 1987 film inspired name of this company, I am not sure the site operators ever complied with the three primary directives.

Serve the public trust

You cannot trust any version of this company from Albright and Wilson to Rhodia- the same jokers at the helm and the same liars.

Protect the innocent

They poisoned their own staff, and poisoned birds on this lake.

Uphold the law. 

Broke it multiple times for site breaches and failures at their own site under The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Of course Directive 4 means that “robowatch” will never act against its paymaster controller or allow them to be blamed by “except where caused by the negligence of the company.” 

You can see what you want to be seen with cctv, and you can also turn a blind eye when it suits you. 😉

Unfortunately, investigative journalism is a very rare thing these days, and few stories that aren’t verbatim given to many of these people never make the news. I have had great difficulty with some “journalists” over the years, who didn’t appear to understand that a banned rat poison buried in accessible waste that the birds could easily access was bad news, and somehow believed that there might be another cause of death!  😥

They also appeared more interested to take the story of the chemical polluter, my “claim” to their apparent “facts” of the case, when all it was was desperate lying spin. I don’t waste my time with these people anymore, or their pro business, anti environmentalist agenda. Fuck em! The point of this website was to put the evidence in the public domain, and almost everyone that I have come across believes the facts that I am telling on here and that this place and the activities that went on here should never have been allowed.

When the lying scum at Albright and Wilson applied to continue their British Government chemical weapon manufacture dumping at Rattlechain lagoon under the application for a licence, they had the audacity to proclaim that it was a “safe” method of dealing with “small quantities of phosphorus” by “natural oxidation”. None of these statements are factual or accurate, and that can be proven with direct evidence. This licence was waived through with Government help to continue their cover up of weapons of mass destruction- British made in Oldbury. 

What an absolute crock of shit! The process was neither “safe” and the amounts were not “small”. Albright and Wilson liars of the chemical industry.

This licence was of course passed in 1978 and numbered SL31 by a bunch of  imbecile councillors of West Midlands County Council under the direction of the cretin waste county disposal officer Ken Harvey.

An investigative FOI request to the site regulators , the environment agency by itself revealed that the quantities were “large amounts” as expressed in tonnes.

I did however manage to obtain information from a National newspaper journalist to probe the Rhodia liars and this is what they stated. Their statements are made in red and his follow ups in blue.

1) “Prior to 1974, we have estimations of levels of white phosphorus”. – what are these estimations?

The Cremer & Warner Report (I understand you already have a copy of this report) allows us to estimate the total quantity of waste deposited prior to 1974 as 375,000 tonnes. That report also analysed the sediments and derived an average concentration of white phosphorus of 0.0035%. Using this data we estimate the quantity of white phosphorus to be around 13 tonnes.”

2) From 1974 to 2006 all deposits have been recorded and figures have been shared and monitored by the EA. This information is publicly available. Note that we closed the site in 2006 following a change of technology which resulted in the elimination of the primary calcium phosphate waste stream. The landfill site is not full.  What is the total amount of waste dumped over this 32 year period and how much was white phosphorus?

The abstraction of the precise tonnage of waste deposited between 1974 and 2006 requires significant time to be spent processing the records. To answer your question in a time to meet your deadline we have used our experience to derive an estimated total tonnage of 265,000 tonnes and have applied the measured average concentration from the C&W report to estimate 9 tonnes of white phosphorus.

3) We have previously carried out some analytical tests on waste sediments. Results are entirely consistent with the requirements of our licence.
– when were these tests carried out and could we see the results?

The most extensive series of tests were carried out in 1990 by Cremer & Warner and the results are given on pages 38 and 50 of their report.
The results confirm high levels of calcium and phosphate (to be expected – calcium phosphate was the primary waste stream) and very low levels of white phosphorus (ranging from 0.00004% to 0.0122%, with an average of 0.0035%).”

The problem with Rhodia, and most likely Tom Dutton, who is now retired as a former director of this company is that the answers given are completely disingenuous. The Cremer and Warner report was a very poor analysis of the site, with limited readings taken for white phosphorus in the sediment. IT IS ALSO A FACT THAT THIS CONSULTANCY WERE APPRAISED OF THE LAGOON BY ALBRIGHT AND WILSON THEMSELVES, WITH THE LIAR PETER BLOORE BEING THE CONTACT AT THIS TIME.

For example, the small lagoon was not even probed for this chemical as it was falsely claimed that this was “the clean side” where water could be pumped out to the Birmingham Mainline Canal by discharge consent. The egregious report failed to examine that the site was once one pit, and this was only spilt into two when the water levels required raising because the waste mountain was getting too high to keep under water. THIS WAS BEFORE WASTE LICENSING, SO THE FIGURES OR “ESTIMATIONS” NEVER EVEN ACCOUNTED FOR THIS. 

Average concentrations are a joke, and another completely failed but useful lie. You cannot derive concentrations of a chemical that has been mixed, spread, pumped and repumped into different areas on a regular or semi regular basis, and some areas not at all. The discharge pipes into the lagoon were moved over time, and so any readings taken were transient and not accurate unless a total grid system across the site had been used. IT WAS NOT.  The calculation that Dutton applies here is totally bogus and is not accurate. NEITHER HE NOR RHODIA HAD GOT A FUCKING CLUE AS TO THE VOLUME OF WHITE PHOSPHORUS IN THE LAGOON, BUT IT LOOKS BETTER TO MAKE UP SOME PATHETIC SCIENTIFIC ATTEMPT TO DO SO, WHEN IN FACT THAT “SCIENCE” DOES NOT STAND UP TO REAL SCRUTINY OF THE FACTS. 

OBVIOUSLY DUTTON ATTEMPTED SIMILAR LIES WHEN BIRDS HAD INGESTED LETHAL AMOUNTS ON WHITE PHOSPHORUS, SYSTEMICALLY POISONED, WHICH WERE IN MICRO GRAM QUANTITIES.  

The evasiveness of this company can be measured in the email below to my genuine questions. I think it’s not unfair to conclude that  industrial scientists are not used to being asked awkward questions.

My advice to anyone with a similar issue of a toxic problem landfill in their back yard is to tell the story yourself and show all of your receipts, as at least then the story will not be spiked by a bunch of cocksucking industrial shillers .

Petitions are worth signing. 

Sometimes, as I have found out by direct personal experience, it is very difficult to wake many people up and get them to do anything. Others will happily sit on the side lines and let the few do all the work. In such circumstances petitions may seem pointless, but they are essential. For publicity they are a key tool. For policy change they are crucial and so are the numbers where politicians know that votes carry weight.

These three petitions are important and inextricably linked to Rattlechain and protecting nature and wildlife around it, as well as human health. I would like to point out that the author has no financial links or membership of the charities mentioned below.

ZANE’S LAW. 

Make toxic landfills safe – Support ‘Zane’s Law’! | 38 Degrees

“In 2014, 7-year-old Zane Gbangbola died and his father was paralysed with a diagnosis of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) poisoning, during catastrophic flooding in the first UK floods acknowledged to be caused by climate change. Flood water passing through a historic landfill site carried HCN into Zane’s home, detected there at high levels by the Fire and Rescue Services on the night of the tragedy. 
‘Zane’s Law’ seeks to address the crisis of contaminated land in the UK, reinstating legislative provisions removed by successive governments from the 1990 Environment Protection Act, and recognising the Human Right to a Healthy Environment, endorsed by the UN General Assembly, in July 2022.”

We of course know about issues at Rattechain lagoon and the associated issues of attempting to build houses across the adjacent former landfill site. Landfill sites should not become sites for new housing. THE POLLUTER MUST PAY! I fully support the longstanding campaign by Zane’s parents and the articulate and obviously painful efforts from his father Kye in doing this. I am aware of knockbacks and authority copping a deaf one when it seems as though they would have to put things right, which they are not prepared to do, He speaks for many across the country who have landfill sites in their back yard. 

WOODLAND TRUST- LOCAL AUTHORITY DECLARE A NATURE EMERGENCY”

Contact your council

“The UK stands as one of the world’s most nature-depleted nations, evidenced by the fact that nearly one in six species in Great Britain are at risk of extinction, 151 species have already gone, and the average abundance of UK species has declined by 19% since 1970. Many of us have seen the telltale signs of this biodiversity crisis: fewer insects, songbirds, and small mammals, like hedgehogs. But there is hope. Turn your concern into action and be part of the solution. Together, we can create a healthier future for people and nature. “

Obviously this mainly applies to Sandwell council, who have yet to sign this. We have of course seen the complicit destruction of urban forest in our area as well as tokenism in the ludicrous Sandwell Local Plan. The council have failed to protect nature and have not spent resources on LNR sites, instead favouring touristy green flag parks.

Nature is not in Sandwell’s plan

GREENPEACE- PROTECT OUR POLLINATORS 

Petition – Protect Our Pollinators

“Pesticides are everywhere, they’re in playgrounds, parks and in our local areas – and it’s killing our pollinators and insects. In the past 20 years there’s been a 60% decline in the UK’s flying insect population and their decline affects all of us – it’s putting our food supply and the UK’s nature and biodiversity at risk.

In 2024 a butterfly emergency was called because of record low numbers, while experts have also warned of a worrying drop in moths and bees. But we can stop the decline and help our pollinators thrive.”

Of course Albright and Wilson made a killing out of Monsanto and their cancer causing “round up”. The indiscriminate poisoning of these bastards by the agricultural lobby is blighting nature and must be stopped.

Wherever they went, whatever town they set up a factory in, this chemical company blighted it and put local residents at risk. Their apologists can claim that accidents can happen, and these were somehow in the distant past but the worst incidents involving Albright and Wilson occurred in their dying days in the 1990’s before the Rhodia takeover. By way of example, we learn in Hugh Podger’s book “Albright and Wilson the last 50 years” that 9 people died at a plant in Charleston in America, something which gets all the attention of less than a page in his pathetic fiscal packed bore fest of a book. If this doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about who was running Albright and Wilson, then nothing will!

In the UK they fared no better. 1990-91 saw many incidents across a range of sites, fires, emissions and explosions with toxic gas clouds being released, as well as a successful private prosecution being taken out against them by Greenpeace for polluting the Irish Sea.

Here are those links for the receipts and truth that I am speaking.

In 1996 however, their site at Avonmouth near Bristol came in for scrutiny. This site apparently originating in the mid 1960’s was the home of “Butler Chemicals Limited”, who made a range of disinfectants and emulsions.

Published: Thursday 01 October 1964 Newspaper: Bristol Evening Post

This company was already a customer of Albright and Wilson for P4, manufacturing organic phosphorus compounds when they were taken into the fold by Tenneco, who of course for a significant period of time were the major share holding masters of Albright and Wilson.

Tuesday 17th September 1974 Newspaper: Birmingham Daily Post

A little further forward in time we get the article below in The Bristol Evening Post in 1986, a year in which there appears to have been a great effort to slime the public with PR lobbying. It was rife at Trinity Street with the liar Bloore, and one familiar name crops up in this article who failed to answer any of my questions when he was involved in a senior position at Rhodia- Bob Tyler.

It is this type of “journalism” from fucking shillers like this that unfortunately play right into the hands of the scum at The Chemical Industries Association. Just blatant attempts at brainwashing with no real questions asked but telling people how “everyday chemicals” make your life easier.

BEP 15th August 1986

The most telling quote-

“Attention is all too often concentrated on the the most dangerous and destructive chemicals , the defoliants, and weapons and acids, making people feel that there is something deeply sinister about the Avonmouth chemicals complex.”

Just ten years after this puff piece bullshit, the real reason why we should all be afraid of the chemicals industry and its blatant safety failures where they were not paying attention was revealed at this very site and see the official HSE report below for the precis. THEY COULD NOT EVEN IDENTIFY WHICH DANGEROUS CHEMICALS WERE WHICH FFS!

The Fire at Albright and Wilson, Avonmouth. 3rd October 1996

Published: Thursday 03 October 1996 Newspaper: Liverpool Echo

published: Sunday 06 October 1996 Newspaper: Sunday Mirror

Published: Thursday 17 October 1996 Newspaper: Clevedon Mercury

Published: Thursday 30 July 1998 Newspaper: Clevedon Mercury. John Scott, encountered that pratt before as well claiming rattlechain lagoon was “safe”.

CANCER CAUSING FUMES

Published: Thursday 27 May 1999 Newspaper: Clevedon Mercury

Another interesting read is the Avon Fire and rescue report for this incident which also highlights the plant as it then stood.

“The site produces organic speciality chemicals for the Biocides, Flame Retardant and
Phosphorus Specialities Businesses. The Company stores and uses various quantities of a
multitude of Hazardous Substances but at the beginning of 1996 application was made to the Health and Safety Executive for authority to increase their holding of Propylene Oxide above the 50 tonne threshold. The application was approved and the site became a ‘CIMAH’ site in April 1996. They have formulated an ‘on-site’ plan but an ‘off-site’ plan has yet to be developed.”

Incident_Report_Albright_and_Wilson_REDACTED

“Albright and Wilson’s personnel recounted that in the morning on the day of the fire a ‘tank container’ arrived on site loaded with 20 tonnes of epichlorohydrin which had been ordered from Czechoslovakia……The tanker was drawn alongside the compound and connected by pipework and hose to the EPI storage tank closest to the rhyne and loading of the vessel began. Albright and Wilson report that they received an urgent telephone call from the hauliers in Belgium informing them that the ‘tank container’ delivered that morning did not in fact contain epichlorohydrin but contained sodium chlorite solution. “

Epichlorohydrin is a garlic smelling cancer liquid- that’s all you need to know.

Sodium chlorite  is a highly reactive oxidising agent. This chemical was hooked up to the epichlorohydrin vessel with disastrous consequences.

MAYBE THEY SHOULD HAVE “CZECHED” THE CHEMICALS 😆 😆 😆 

BOOM BOOM! 

This is a story I stumbled upon by chance, as many of them tend to be, or I tend to believe “guided” to find.

It concerns the area beyond what would have been the former Rattlechain Brickworks or Stour Valley marl hole pits as they were managed by Samuel Barnett and his sons. Note the many “old coal shafts” located in the area in this timely 1904 map overlay map of where they were.

I have written and researched much on this man, a schemer and pompous local councillor with his fingers in the pie and tale romancer that had no interest in the safety of anyone in his employment or the wider area- it seems as though this is something that continued with anyone connected to this land that once belonged to him.

Men died as a result of working for him. 

Another had seriously broken his leg leaving him unable to work. 

They also exploited children

The land he owned however was a dangerous open playground for local children, as a case in 1914 proved with the death of a six year old girl that never came home. The somewhat tardy report below from the Belfast Telegraph of 28th July 1914 outlines the demise of young Lily Hampton that it turns out had happened earlier.

There are some errors I believe in this copy, and I believe the street in which she lived is Cleton Street and not “Clayton Street” as no such place exists unless it was levelled after the wars. Perhaps the black country vernacular threw them off?  This would put the “field” as most likely adjacent to the Stour Valley brickworks and the Groveland colliery seen on the map above in the left hand side, and also marked below. I would be willing to wager that the coal shaft marked here marks the spot on what is now the Autobase site, and before that the rear of London Steel works. Cleton Street is not far from here.

A wider map however, and see Cleton Street marked in yellow with the arrow shows just how vast this area was , open with danger, and yet inviting to children as adventure playgrounds.

1904 map. I believe all the shafts marked were on Barnett owned land

Poor Lily fell hundreds of feet to her death straight down an open shaft, and into water reported to be sixty yards deep. She would have had no chance. I also think the article means  dogs and not “drugs”.

It is interesting to note that this site had been left vacant without being used for over 3-4 decades, and at this time both sites for brickmaking were in full swing for the Barnett family.

The Northern Irish report was a little late after the events however, as another article I have found from closer to home, from 21st July 1914 Birmingham Mail reported that the girls body had been recovered a short time later.

These two men deserve recognition for their efforts, and it is telling that the arsehole councillor probably stayed very silent on this matter surrounding the death. I think the claim that she had no injuries on the body to be frankly ridiculous. A fall of this height would have given anyone catastrophic internal injuries, even if landing in open water.

The comment readers letter piece below from “only human” a day later is stark and could have almost been written by a time traveller given its prophetic forward looking opinion of such sites. It’s no good asking “the coal board” for accurate records, because this organisation is shite and will fleece you of money for dodgy inaccurate information as has been demonstrated locally before with their garbage records.

Perhaps somewhere about, the ghost of a young girl trying to get home haunts the footsteps of the industrialists that caused her death. Maybe it startled the horse that bolted and threw Barnett to his death just a few years later. Karma has a very interesting way of working, but his death was no loss at all to Tipton or Tividale.

This toxic archive is a gift. It is taken from The Sandwell Chronicle of 26th October 1996. 

As always with this company, and not that many years before their demise, they are about desperately trying to promote themselves as safety conscious employers who are also about protecting the environment. The ghastly Chemical Industries Association and their CEFIC euro counterparts are likewise of similar ilk, buttering up politicians for favours granted, and weakening safety laws regards harmful chemicals- like cancer causing round up for example.

Peter Bloore was of course the very worst public relations liar who could not make safe a shot on a snooker table against a blind quadriplegic opponent about to pass out. The fact that similar garbage peddlers like him were amassing in Trinity Street would have been a good time for that place to have blown up with them. I have recorded his greatest whoppers in this post. 

As for the poor dummy, what an incredible metaphor for their employees and how they were actually treated.

The context of this safety day occurred just a couple of weeks after a massive Albright and Wilson fire and explosion at their Avonmouth site! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG THAT THEIR PLANNING COULD NEVER FORSEE?