NHER 24198 (Monument record) - Site of West Norfolk Fertilisers' factory , known as South Lynn Muck Works

Industrial building, very large, at TF 6195 1853.
Stated by Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum to be a cover made during World War Two to hide the fires in a foundry from enemy aircraft, somewhere in the Midlands. Brought here about 1947. Has acquired the local story of being an airship hanger from Pulham but is not. Similar buildings nearby have since been demolished.
Location from E.M. James (KLM).
E. Rose (NAU), 7 December 1987.

Full history of works, which confirms that the steel frame of this building is a blast furnace blackout from Sheffield, lodged in Rural Life Museum by [1].
Copy of relevant page in file.
E. Rose (NLA) 19 January 1995.

Press cuttings (S3), (S4) and (S5) in file.

Building described above was demolished in 2002.
E. Rose (NLA), 1 June 2002.

(S5) provides a detailed discussion of the history of West Norfolk Fertilisers, which was one of the major late 19th and 20th century industrial complexes in King's Lynn. The company was established in 1872 and a plot of 7.5 acres rented. The site was marshy ground between the River Nar and Wisbech Road, so had to be drained and a new sea bank raised before a factory could be built. A Mr Edgar Hall was engaged to build an acid plant, a mill and a tar works. The company began taking on employees in 1874. The primary aim of the company was to produce high quality fertilisers economically and to recipes which would suit specific local agricultural conditions. In 1891 the company expanded and a new plant for tar, ammonia and acid was constructed, along with other new buildings and a barge was purchased. Throughout the early decades of the 20th century the company continued to enlarge the works, adding manure sheds, enlarging the tar works and increasing warehouse space, and leasing more land on which to construct cottages for the foremen and some of the workers. The works suffered significant bomb damage during World War Two.
The tar works was at the northernmost end of this site, between the River Nar and the Harbour Railway. The main source of tar was the Cambridge Gas Works, brought to the site by barge. The tar works had become unprofitable by the late 1920s and production ceased in the 1930s and dismantled after the Second World War. West Norfolk Fertilisers manufactured sulphuric acid throughout its history, and there were sets of 'lead chambers' (the boxes in which acid was produced) at both the old and the new works sites.
The location of the works alongside the River Nar and with easy access to the railway network meant that the plant could receive raw materials and dispatch products by rail, road or water. Initially the works was reliant upon horses and carts, but in 1897-8 they negotiated with the Great Eastern Railway and the Midland and Great Northern Railway to connect their sidings to the rail systems. A connection to a siding at the old works and to the new works was made by the G.E.R. from the Harbour Branch railway line. A connection to the new works was made by the M&GN railway, from South Lynn. In 1904 the company hired four railway wagons, primarily for bringing in coal for the retail market. The company continued to buy and sell coal until the end of the Second World War. After the Second World War two Nissen huts were brought to the site to provide further office accommodation, and these were still in use in the 1960s. The factory also had a large engineering department, to build and maintain the factory equipment. The foundry initially stood beside the Nar Valley Drain, but as the engineering requirements grew a larger workshop was installed in 1930 alongside the River Nar. The location of the first laboratory is not known, but a large new laboratory was built in 1930 to house the chemists who tested raw materials and products, sampled the gases leaving the chimneys, and analysed soil samples to provide agricultural advice.
The majority of the firm's imports of raw materials were handled through King's Lynn Docks until 1924, when a wharf was established on the River Great Ouse at Boal Quay. This was significantly closer to the WNF site, and by 1934 the company owned a controlling interest in the wharf.
During the 1940s and 1950s the plant expanded to produce granulated fertiliser and included the construction of a large new storage warehouse called the Nar Shed, and a new process building which reused steelwork brought from a wartime blackout over a blast furnace in Sheffield. A concrete bridge over the River Nar was constructed to give rail and road access.
Following several years of heavy financial losses, production ceased at the factory in 1967.
See (S5) for further detail and historic photographs of the works.
A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 3 February 2020.

See NHER 63546 for details of a brick kiln and associated brick yard formerly recorded under this number.
A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 3 February 2020.