Topic: The World’s First Oil Refinery – in Riddings, Derbyshire!
Speaker: Cliff Lea

In 1847 almost 180 years ago in the Riddings area of Derbyshire there was a flow into a coal mine of a smelly dark coloured liquid which we now know as crude mineral oil. This unexpected commodity was a severe nuisance to the pit owners . But James Young, a chemist, was asked if anything useful could be from this curious, irritating material.

Young’s research work to see if useful products could be derived from this strange liquid. This led to the start of the world’s oil industry, here, in Derbyshire, not 10 miles away from Cromford. By 1848, Young had set up an early refinery to exploit oil by distillation and fractionation, producing lighting and lubrication fractions for direct sale to customers.

This technology for oil refining became the basis for all later refineries around the world, and Young gained a global reputation. His technology was patented in UK and USA and was adopted by the commercial refineries that were to follow in the USA and elsewhere within the next 10 years as the world’s oilfields sprang to life.

Cliff Lea  is currently chair of Northeast Derbyshire Industrial Archaeology Society, and is a tour guide at Cromford Mill. He is a Chartered Chemist whose career was in the petrochemical and oil industries.  

Venue: Cromford Mills, Education Room
Time: Doors open at 7.00pm for refreshments. Talk starts at 7:30pm.
Cost: Tickets £6 online, £7 on the door.  Please note; if room capacity is reached, regretfully we will need to turn people away if they have not booked a ticket. (Gold Arkwright Society Members need to book their complimentary ticket online)
Booking and information: Cromford Mills event pages