Billingham Scene

A green and pleasant land is never far away from the huge chemical works at Billingham.

The vast industrial ICI Billingham site nestles in a Tees river valley of elemental beauty. Stockton, Yarm, Norton and Croft are praised as near-by towns and villages of considerable history, convenience and charm ideal locations as homes for ICI workers. A romanticised pre-urban Teesside is evoked in this 1950s ICI public relations exercise, accompanied by a series of descriptive voiceovers, which end in poetic style: The voice of industry is a million miles away

The ICI Billingham Film Unit made a number of films in the pictorial tradition that emphasise the pastoral beauty of the neighbouring Teesdale and Cleveland landscape a remarkable contrast to the sprawling industrial chemical complex, first founded by Alfred Mond in 1929.