We are The Friends of Port Sunlight River Park
Although the Nature reserve we help maintain and educate people about is based on the former Lever's (Unilever) dock.
And Lever is famous for the founding of the factory and the building of the village of Port Sunlight for his workers.
There is another firm who did this before Lever.
The vast majority of the story presented here is the work of other people. But has not been accessible.
There is a book by Mel Roberts - who acknowledges a great deal of his book is the work of an unknown author.
Glynn Parry presented us with a large collection of photographs of the Candle Works and developments in Bromborough Pool Village, and also the newer developments of Kings Hill and ?? as well as newspaper clippings and other documents.
Its quite a complex story
Price's the candle makers - still produce candles. But there was no Mr. Price (or Mrs. Price)
William Wilson and Benjamin Lancaster founded the company in 1830
The Factory at Bromborough was built in 1853
And although most locals refer to the works as Prices, or the Candle Factory, it actually stopped producing Candles in 1950's
It was bought by Levers in 1919. They acquired it, and Prices soap brands. The factories main purpose was the processing of a wide range of mineral, animal and vegetable oils and fats to produce the basic oils and fats used in many different products and industries.
Uniqema (UniQEma) part of ICI
Eventually in 2006 ending up as part of Croda, who closed the factory in 2009, 156 years after opening
Some pictures of the site after closing
https://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/threads/croda-chemicals-bromborough-december-2015.38373/
Report by Oxford Archeology (2011) on the Croda (former Prices) prior to building of the Persimmon Homes Mersey View estate https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mtJiNU1_9J6CksGaYeXnj8ze14pz2RW9/view?usp=sharing