History
All Saints Medieval Church and Graveyard
Amid ancient woodland, the remains of the Church of All Saints and its graveyard lie in peaceful repose looking out over the undulating farmland of the quiet village of Flixborough, and across Atkinson’s Warren to the southeast.
Sadly, the medieval church and its replacement mortuary chapel seen in the old photo is now derelict, but the prone gravestones tell their own story. A unique history of past lives lived locally. Names of the departed, some of whom still have a connection to the village of Flixborough.
The medieval church likely replaced an earlier building that served the wealthy Anglo-Saxon community living here. This Saxon settlement is known from archaeological excavations and is believed to have housed a nunnery.
The Flixborough Saxon site and remains of All Saints medieval church and burial ground is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
The Flixborough Disaster
The Flixborough disaster was a chemical explosion at a plant at the Flixborough Industrial Estate on Saturday, 1 June 1974. It killed 28 and seriously injured 36 of the 72 people on site at the time.
The disaster involved (and may well have been caused by) a hasty equipment modification. Although virtually all of the plant management personnel had chemical engineering qualifications, there was no on-site senior manager with mechanical engineering expertise. Mechanical engineering issues with the modification were overlooked by the managers who approved it, and the severity of potential consequences due to its failure were not taken into account.
The chemical works, owned by Nypro UK and produced caprolactam, a chemical used in the manufacture of nylon6 and was produced from cyclohexanone. It was a failure of the cyclohexane plant that led to the disaster. A major leak of liquid from the reactor circuit caused the rapid formation of a large cloud of flammable hydrocarbon. When this met an ignition source there was a massive explosion. And the plant control room collapsed, killing all 18 occupants. Ten other workers were killed including a delivery driver. Around 1,000 buildings within a mile radius of the site were damaged; the blast was heard over thirty-five miles away.
This accident led to a widespread public outcry over process safety and HSE regulations were changed after this accident.
A memorial to those who lost their lives has been erected at the parish church in Flixborough.
