Backbarrow Blue Mill
Natural Ultramarine was made from Lapis Lazuli, a semi-precious gem stone found in parts of Persia, Afghanistan, China and Tibet. In the time of Abraham it was mined in Afghanistan, in its natural state it is an opaque blue stone of great depth and intensity, it was brought by camel train over mountains and across deserts, every mile traveled added to the cost until it eventually reached the city of Ur, in what is now Iraq, there to be used for temple decoration or for personal jewelry. Camel trains also reached the Mediterranean coast where the goods they carried became available for shipment to Europe. Lapis Lazuli was not converted into a pigment until early Christian times, Illustrated manuscripts from the Byzantine or Eastern Roman empire surviving from the 7 th centuaryA.D. made use of a dull shade of blue made from Lapis. From around the fifteenth century a bright lustrous colour began to appear, and paintings from this time have in many cases kept their brilliance to this day. In order to make the pigment Lapis Lazuli was ground to a powder and mixed with linseed oil and beeswax etc. At this time trade at the European end of the Mediterranean was probably in the hands of the Venetians, and Lapis lazuli acquired an Italian name “Azurro Ultramarino” or Ultramarine Blue which simply meant “The Blue from across the sea”. When the Turks besieged Byzantium the population fled taking with them their valuables including art treasures and knowledge with them, including paintings with a much brighter blue colour than we in the West had ever seen, and also a method of producing this vivid colour. With the Saracens in control of the Eastern Mediterranean Lapis was, if anything, more difficult and more expensive to obtain, Lapis Lazuli was now ranked with gold as a measure of ones wealth, and its scarcity encouraged attempts to manufacture it synthetically. In 1806 the chemical composition of Lapis Lazuli was established, it then became only a mater of time before a method of manufacturing was discovered. France offered a prize for anyone whe discovered an economical means of manufacturing ultramarine pigment synthetically and in 1826 a Frenchman named Guimet won the prize,
A painting of Backbarrow circa 1840.
By the 1830s factories were in production in France, Germany, Belgium and Holland. Even today the manufacturing of ultramarine pigment is made using a furnace process and the composition is still the same as that of the natural mineral.
In 1834 J.M.V.Turner became the first British artist to use the synthetic ultramarine blue colour, and at that time there was no other blue colour to match it: it was regarded as superior to both Prussian and Indigo blue. Reckitts were manufacturers and distributors of a wide range of grocery products, and before trading in ultramarine had tried other laundry agents with only limited success. When they entered the ultramarine market it was by buying supplies from Germany and some from and English firm of Rawlinson and Co, of Rainehill.
Backbarrow Blue Mill before the new section of A590 was constructed, the photo was taken 1960
By the 1880s Reckitts had decided to manufacture their own ultramarine, and a German, Johnnes A. Eggerstorff was one who helped them set up their factory, it was Mr Eggerstorff who only a few years later decided to come to Backbarrow Where in 1890 he formed a company to manufacture Ultramarine, Blue Colours, Metal Polishing paste, and Laundry Blue for washing purposes. The premises acquired for the factory were the former AinsworthCottonMill buildings together with a mansion house and fifty dwellings for employees, Eggerstorff’s company became the Lancashire Ultramarine Co Ltd until 1929 when they were taken over by Reckitts and Colman’s Ltd. From 1929 to the late 1960 production methods changed very little, but eventually coal was superseded by gas and automation was introduced to the carton filling and dispatch department. Motive power was provided by the River Leven which at full speight could produce 200 horse power of energy but eventually electricity played an ever increasing part in driving machinery.
The Blue Mill main office with deputy manager Fred Barker (right) and John Foxcroft (left).1958
During the second world war Hull was bombed and the department which packed blocks and small cartons of blue was destroyed, the Backbarrow manager was at that time Mr George Wilson who persuaded the company to move the carton filling and wrapping department to Backbarrow in 1941.
A Kendal road carton filling machine and on the bottom right women hand wrapping filled cartons, 1956
The initially small carton filing and wrapping department was to become a major part of the Backbarrow factory output and remained so until the factory closed in 1982, Kendal Road department remained open until 1983 reducing the large stock of finnished pigment held on site. The Carton filling and wrapping department’s main building as been preserved and now houses the Ultramarine Heritage and local history center designed and constructed by Ronald and his co-researcher Mr Richard Sanderson in the Lakeland Motor Museum. Backbarrow which opened in May 2010. The heritage center also includes Low Wood gunpowder mills, Backbarrow Iron Furnace and woodland industries.
(WWW. lakelandmotormuseum.co.uk )
