Coalite

It is easier to ignite, burns with an attractive flame, and is lighter than coal, making it an ideal fuel for open domestic firegrates.

Coal delivered by rail, first from the nearby Bolsover colliery, and later from other sources, was heated in eight large air sealed ovens called "batteries".

The residual Coalite solid fuel was cooled, then sorted into various grades based on size and stockpiled for distribution by road transport.

In the 20s, two more plants at Askern near Doncaster and at East Greenwich in London were opened, the latter being operated under license by the South Metropolitan Gas Company.

These included sheep farming, Dormobile camper vans, Builders merchants, Pyrometer Instrument manufacturers, vehicle sales and many others as well as industrial land across the country.

At the same time, it was embroiled in legal actions concerning land and river pollution and the resulting adverse publicity affected the sales of its products.

The remaining debts were left with the much diminished Coalite Chemicals Ltd which went into administration and then receivership,[11] and finding no buyers, closed down finally in 2004, leaving a considerable number of redundant employees with much reduced pensions.

[12] The company gained attention as a manufacturer of the chemical, 245 trichlorophenol, a precursor of Agent Orange which was a defoliant used in the Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War.

[13] There was more controversy when the company appeared reluctant to reveal the location of sites where the contaminated plant debris was buried and when the case notes of an independent investigator were mysteriously stolen from her home.

A specialised 245 unit was built soon after, with stringent controls and safety measures to prevent any future accidents but when the Seveso disaster in 1976 reawakened public concern over this issue, Ted Needham, the company chairman, deemed it expedient to close down this now uneconomical plant.

This caused further public protest and instigated official investigations that culminated in prosecution and a fine of £150,000 for contamination of the river Doe Lea and surrounding farmland in 1996.

[9] In 1994, the river gained the dubious distinction of being the most polluted in the world with regard to dioxins, 27 times higher than the second worst waterway, a Norwegian Fjord near a Magnesium processing plant.

[16] In November 2016, decontamination of the area began and the Environment Agency was made aware of an increase in odours from the site after complaints from local residents.

This was attributed by the company to the delayed response of the regulating authorities in granting licenses for the sale of the tyre oil as fuel.