Flixborough 1974 Memories – Debra Harding-Morris
At the time of the Nypro explosion I lived with my family at 9 Stather Road, Flixborough. Stather Road had a small row of houses belonging I believe to Nypro, and employees were allowed to apply for them. The houses were one field away from the chemical works.
My family consisted of Michael Armitage aged 30, Joyce Armitage aged 28, myself (Debra) aged 9, Kevin aged 7, and Sarah aged 3. I believe my parents and I moved there in 1965 when I was around a year old. My grandparents Phyllis and Lawrence Armitage lived further down Stather Road at number 17. Michael and Lawrence both worked at Nypro. I vaguely recall neighbours named Mr and Mrs Nimmo, Mr and Mrs Sherwood, and Mrs Fish.
On the day of the explosion my family had been for a rare day out to the coast, possibly Cleethorpes as I recall. We were totally oblivious to what had happened. As we got closer to home we could see smoke in the sky and my parents talked about it possibly coming from the Lysaght’s steelworks in Scunthorpe. I recall the car being stopped by police at a junction near Flixborough, and asked where we were going. On being told that we were headed home to Stather Road they informed us that there had been an explosion and that the area was sealed off.
Our other grandparents lived in Scunthorpe so we headed over to them where we stayed for quite some days. We later discovered that Phyllis and Lawrence had been taken to hospital but fortunately only suffered superficial cuts and bruises. I was sent to stay with my aunt and uncle, and three cousins for a few weeks. My eldest cousin and I have maintained a friendship from then onwards. Sometime later, again I’m hazy on the details, my family moved to Winterton, and my grandparents moved to the newly built Bodmin Close in Scunthorpe along with some of the neighbours from Stather Road.
I’m not sure of the timescale but we were eventually allowed back to the property to see if there was anything to salvage, and it was a shocking sight, windows blown in and the roofs severely damaged. Things like pots and pans were retrievable, but there had been so much flying glass that soft furnishings etc were completely unusable.
Looking back, it must have been a tremendous shock losing homes and employment, but to me it felt like an adventure, I wasn’t old enough to know any different!
My husband Phil and I have often spoken about the disaster and shared our memories. He was on Brough golf course, about 15 miles away from Hull, being a caddy, and he recalls being stood and hearing an extremely loud bang, the air shifting, then looking over towards the Humber and seeing a huge mushroom cloud in the sky.
Over the years Phil and I have often visited the site where the houses once stood, our children have visited with us and know the history of the explosion. All I have now are a couple of house bricks and some garden plants that we retrieved from the demolished house and garden, and the memories of course.
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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Barbara Nimmo
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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Eddie Hotchin
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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Heather Barczak
Memories of the Nypro disaster recorded by Heather Barczak, whose father Denis Lawrence, was one of the 28 who lost their lives.
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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Jacquie Carter Irving
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Flixborough 1974 Memories – John Irvine
Memories of the Nypro disaster recorded by John Irvine, an instrument technician at Nypro who was on site when the explosion took place.
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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Liduina Beckers
Memories of the Nypro disaster recorded by Liduina Beckers, daughter of Nypro’s then General Manager.
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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Tony Clark
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Flixborough 1974 Resource Pack
To assist local schools with this topic, Arts and Heritage Learning have produced a number of teacher resources that are available to North Lincolnshire schools.
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