Dave Hornby on local Scientists

Runcorn, at the top (south of the River Mersey) and Widnes below, were connected by a railway bridge (1860) and a transporter bridge (1905-1961). Photograph licensed by HES Archives: National Collection of Aerial Photography).

Before the Industrial Revolution transformed the rural communities of Widnes and Runcorn, visitors to the region would come to take the waters at the hostelries on the banks of the River Mersey or vist the ecclessiastical institutions in Farnworth, to the north of Widnes or Norton Priory, to the west of Daresbury. By the end of the 19th Century, the two towns would be connected by a railway bridge and a transporter bridge (illustrated in our logo and shown from above on the left). For those interested here is a link to a short film showing the Transporter Bridge in operation at the end of its life.
The names that put the region on the map reflected the influence of the Church and the powerful families in Bold and Knowsley, to the north east and west of Farnworth, a few hours walk away in each direction. These included the Bishop of Lincoln, William Smyth (1460-1514) and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard Bancroft (1544-1610). It would be another 250 years before the names of John Hutchinson (see Bob's cameo below), William Gossage, Sir John Brunner and Ludwig Mond among others, would repalce them in the pantheon of local dignitaries.
In order for these entrepreneurs to realise their ambitions, they needed staff with technical backgrounds. So let's consider how it all get started?

A portrait of John Hutchinson c1850 currently on display at the Catalyst Science Discovery Centre and Museum in Widnes)

John Hutchinson of Liverpool (BR)

In 1847, 21-year-old John Hutchinson was working in a Leblanc factory in St Helens (Bob will cover the origins of this important Chemical process on his Heritage page), by then a busy industrial town. No doubt, he would have been aware of how unpopular this industry was there because of the pollution it caused.

"Local folklore is insistent that one summer day a young man [John Hutchinson] came to relax and regale himself with snig pie at the Boat House Inn. Perhaps he travelled from St Helens on Runcorn Gap Railway: if he did, when he stepped out of the train he stood within a few yards of scene of his future destiny. He was an ambitious young man, seeking to establish himself in the world. …. His thoughts ran on salt and coal, pyrites and vitriol. He had seen the canal with its coal barges; he knew that a few miles away lay the inexhaustible saltfields of Cheshire: as he ate his eel pie he made his decision. So the story goes, and in fact it must have happened in some such fashion." (Taken from A History Of The Chemical Industry In Widnes, D. W. F. Hardie, P 7).