Buckle up, because we’re going on a groovy time warp to #1957BarrowinFurness. Forget poodle skirts and jukeboxes, because the coolest thing in town was the brand new British Cellophane factory, setting up shop near Sandscale Haws. This wasn’t your average factory, no sir! Imagine a place that pumped out invisibility film – well, not exactly invisibility, but pretty darn close! They called it cellophane, and it was about to revolutionise the way Barrow wrapped everything.
The factory was a wonderland of whirring machines and bubbling potions (okay, maybe not potions, but definitely some fascinating chemicals!). Wood pulp went in one end, and out came these crystal-clear sheets that made anything look ten times cooler. Think about it: your favourite candy bar, suddenly it looked like it was floating on air! Or that pack of dad’s cigarettes, vanishing in his hand like a magician’s trick (although smoking isn’t recommended, even if the pack disappears!).
The factory quickly became the heart of Barrow’s hip scene. By 1962, over 750 people were grooving to the #FactoryBeat, making it the biggest employer in town. It was a place where hard work met far-out ideas, and the sound of laughter mixed with the symphony of the machines. And it wasn’t just the work that drew people in, as Dick Young recalls on the Furness Whisper Facebook page: “They had a very good canteen and popular club (cheap beer) when they were in full swing.”
But it wasn’t all sunshine and cheap beer. Locals often complained about the distinctive smell that emanated from the factory, a pungent aroma that served as a constant reminder of the industrial processes taking place within.
But, as with all good things, the party eventually ended. In 1991, the music stopped, and the factory doors shut tight. Some folks say a rival factory stole their secret cellophane recipe, others whisper about a giant spool of the stuff getting tangled beyond repair. Whatever the reason, the magic faded.
“Lot of lads from the paper mills went up there when the mills closed down,” Jack Johnson remembers on the Furness Whisper Facebook page, highlighting how the cellophane factory provided new opportunities for those who had lost their jobs in the declining paper industry. “And when
cellophane closed some of the lads from cellophane moved into a unit across from the site and started up a company called Norslit. Don’t think they lasted long, knew a couple of the lads who worked for Norslit.
Today, the site where the factory once stood has been transformed. A recycling plant now occupies the site (a candle factory was the previous owner), and it’s had a couple of uses since the cellophane factory closed and was demolished. Though the cellophane era has ended, the site continues to play a vital role in the town’s economy and evolution.
Listen closely on a windy night when passing the site, and you might just hear the faint echo of laughter and the crinkle of invisible sweets – a phantom reminder of the time Barrow-in-Furness became the coolest place on Earth, all thanks to a factory that wrapped the world in a sheet of transparent magic.