Capper Pass and Son

51.441332°N 2.595112°W / 51.441332; -2.595112 (Capper Pass, Bedminster works), Bedminster works

The Capper Pass family business originated in the West Midlands, but moved to the St. Philips area of Bristol in 1812.[1] In 1819 Capper Pass himself was convicted of handling stolen metal and transported to Australia.[2] The sentence was for 14 years, but he stayed there, remarried and had a family, whilst the Bristol operation was run by his descendants.[3] In the 1840s the business relocated to Bedminster. The factory there extracted the non-ferrous metals copper and lead from their ores, as well as processing silver and gold. By 1860 the factory had begun to manufacture solder.[1]

The company was developed and expanded by Alfred Capper Pass, doubling in size between 1872 and 1888. He was born in Bristol in 1837, and took over the business in 1870 when his father died. He became a paternalistic Victorian industrialist, building houses for his workers in Windmill Hill, and donating to the newly founded Bristol University.[1] In 1894 the family business was converted to a limited company.[4] He died in 1905, after which the company was run by non-family members.[1] A chair in chemistry was established at the University in his name.[5]

The works in Bedminster was constrained by its locality,[1] and in 1928 a new factory site was acquired at Melton, East Riding of Yorkshire; the great depression delayed the project; the factory construction and opening occurred in 1936/7.[6] The Bristol works closed in 1963.[1]

53.71585°N 0.52822°W / 53.71585; -0.52822 (Capper Pass, Melton works), Melton works

Construction of the smelter in the East Riding of Yorkshire began in 1936, and the plant became operational in 1937. The plant was located west of Hull on the banks of the Humber Estuary. It was served by the Hull and Selby railway line, and was close to old clay pits on the bank of the Humber.[6][1][7] The plant was designed by civil engineering firm Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners for £170,000,[8] including a row of houses for plant workers built in 1936.[9][note 1]

Rio Tinto Zinc acquired the company in 1967.[10]

On opening the plant had one blast furnace, and 75 employees; by the beginning of the Second World War three furnaces were operating. During the war ore was difficult to obtain due to shipping warfare. Alternative sources of tin were sought and tin slags from former works in Cornwall were smelted.[6] In 1946 the plant employed 226 people; by 1952 the number of employees had risen to 400, after which the employment numbers levelled.[6]

The plant specialised in smelting low-grade ores and other feedstocks,[11] particularly Bolivian tin ore,[12][13][14] and the recycling of flue dust, processing materials other facilities or countries were unable or had refused to process.[15] Tin was the plant's main product; it also produced silver, cadmium, lead, copper, antimony, bismuth, indium, and gold.[16] The plant employed rectangular blast furnaces for tin production,[17] with additional processes such as electrorefining employed to obtain purified by-products.[18]

In 1971 a 600 ft (180 m) chimney was built, replacing the 200 ft (61 m) chimney built in 1938.[13]

In 1980 the plant was the largest smelter of tin from secondary sources, and contributed 10% of the world capacity for tin production. In 1985 the world tin price collapsed, making the plant uneconomic. It closed in 1991 and was decommissioned;[19] the site was sold in 1995.[10]

Redeveloped site, 2007, the brick gatehouse dates to the Capper Pass era

In the 1970s levels of arsenic and lead found in farms near to the plant were such that crops and livestock were condemned.[20] The plant also discharged into the Humber Estuary,[20] resulting in significant arsenic pollution;[note 2] in 1997, levels remained slightly elevated in estuary sediments, and it has also been speculated that arsenic discharge has been carried into the North Sea, resulting in high levels in sediments off the Norfolk coast.[22]

In 1984 a bismuth alloy supplied by the plant to a company in Germany was found to be radioactive: alpha radiation was found to be emitted by by-products of the smelting process due to the presence of polonium 210 (a radioisotope with a half-life of about 140 days), thought to be produced via radioactive decay of naturally occurring isotopes in tin-bearing ore bodies such as granite. The plant was subsequently licensed to emit 592 MBq (16 mCu) (1985) and typically emitted less than 10% of that amount, less than background radiation. Most (about 95%) of the polonium bearing materials and radioactivity were confined to the factory, as a result of the high temperature smelting process causing it to volatilize and condense within the plant.[23] The plant's polonium emissions license did not become public knowledge until over two years after it was given.[24]

The works gained notoriety because they were linked in the 1980s with a child cancer cluster in west Hull and surrounding villages; (Willerby and Kirk Ella)[24][25] in 1988 the plant was part of a feature on radiation in Channel 4's Dispatches documentary "Radioactive Britain".[26] A report from Professor M.S. Baxter of Glasgow University was commissioned by the East Yorkshire Health Authority;[27] which found the previous statistical limits on radioactive exposure to be too high (by a factor of more than 100 times) and recommended revision of the Radioactive Substances Act 1960.[28] A 1996 report recommended improvements in assessment, mitigation and monitoring of radioactive agents in the metallurgical refining industry be made.[29] The Baxter report could not establish a link between the smelter and the cancer cases.[note 3]

After closure of the plant and sale of the site, the former owner Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) denied any responsibility or liability for its former asset for over two decades.[20] In 2002 RTZ began proceedings to offer compensation to persons associated with the plant who were affected by disease, which would be reviewed through an independent panel; RTZ did not accept legal liability, whilst the claimants did not need to prove negligence.[30] Over 600 claimants lodged 1,788 claims: 29 claims for lung cancer and 9 claims for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were settled. The remaining 1,750 claims were rejected.[31]

A study publisher in 2005 led by Sir Richard Doll showed an elevated risk of lung cancer amongst workers at the plant,[32] which was found to be statistically associated with exposure to arsenic and other heavy metals.[33][34] A study in 2005 of lead and tin levels in soil around the former smelter showed deposition up to 15 miles (24 km) with a distribution trend towards the north-east; the study estimated that about 2,500 tons of lead and 830 tons of zinc had been introduced into the soil surrounding the plant.[35]

The former industrial site at Melton has been converted into a 32 acres (0.13 km²) industrial development named Melton Park[note 4] used for open storage and warehousing including two industrial units of over 400,000 sq ft (37,000 m²) total, and another unit of approximately 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m²).[36][37][38] As of 2012 the site is under development.

During the Second World War two companies were acquired: Victor G. Stevens Ltd, of Felling-on-Tyne; and Messrs George Pizey (London). The Pizey plant was moved to Felling. In 1959 plant and equipment of the Stevens' works was relocated to Bristol.[6]

• Little, Bryan (1963). "Capper Pass – The First Hundred and Fifty Years".