Fisons Plc was a British pharmaceutical, scientific instruments and horticultural chemicals company established by Edward Packard in 1843. In 1863 he was joined in business by his son, also named Edward, who was developing the business and rationalising the UK’s fertiliser industry. The business was incorporated in 1895 under the name of Edward Packard and Company Limited.
In 1919 the company expanded and bought a fertiliser business founded by James Fison back in the early 1800’s and subsequently changed the company name again in 1929 to Packard and James Fison (Thetford) Limited.
In 1959, at their new factory in Stanford-le-Hope, Fisons Fertilizers Limited began manufacturing ammonium nitrate for use in Fisons compound fertilisers. This salt provides nitrogen, one of the three essential elements of all plant food, with resultant advantages to the farmer. As a starting material for the manufacture of ammonium nitrate, anhydrous ammonia is used, and is purchased from an adjacent plant operated by Shell Chemical Company Ltd at Shell Haven. Here ammonia is made synthetically from the nitrogen of the air and from hydrogen obtained from oil by the Shell gasification process, and is delivered to Fisons by pipeline as a liquid under pressure.
The ammonia is stored on the Fison site in a 2,000-ton insulated spherical tank, the largest of its kind in Europe. The raw material is converted into ammonium nitrate, which is despatched by road and rail to Fisons compounding factories in various parts of the country. Fisons went defunct in the mid 90’s, but the factory could have been closed in the mid 80’s when its fertilizer activities were sold to Norsk Hydro in 1982 – the year we believed it closed.
Photographs of the 1959 Opening Brochure
Beyond the Point does not own the copyright to to the original booklet however we were able to take photographs. The final photo is a recolouring by Liam Heatherson of the extant section back in 1959.
Drone Photos – Dec 2018
