Washington Chemical Works

A Memory of Washington.

I was born at 55 Pattinson Town about 20 yards from the chemical works which manufactured products from asbestos.  Most of my mother's side of the family worked at the factory and have since died of asbestos related diseases. I am surprised that no mention or photographs exist of this factory.  I used to pass through the village green going to Washington Glebe secondary school.  The school had terrible subsidence problems with a mine shaft going directly underneath causing the wood block floors to buckle.  My father was demobbed from the Royal Navy after serving in submarines during WW2 and he then got a job as a deputy in Washington "F" pit.  When I was 14 he took me down the pit and the first thing I noticed was the wind blowing a gale, then the floor was covered in white powder (fire damp).  When we reached the coal face which was under the North Sea there was hardly enough room to stand up.  That is when I decided that working down a pit was not the career that I wanted.