I was amused to read The Sun and the DailyMail over someone's arm on the tube this morning and see that the blue pigeons of Manchester have finally hit the headlines. When I did my Master's thesis there in 1994 I looked at the issue of contaminated land on the Olympic bid site. At the less than salubrious Miles Platting area was not only the derelict Tripe Colony, but the Prussian Blue factory run by the firm Degussa.
Prussian blue had been manufactured on this site since the 1850s, and despite the fact that some remedial action had been taken in the past the earth around it was known to occasionally explode deep underground. The council even had concerns about building a flat carpark over it, in case it blew up.
The blue pigeons were a common sight, both in the factory and outside. I have many photos of these blue birds, and the blue factory rising up from the contaminated land. Its another wonderful example of why we need to understand the history of our technical industries. You can't hope to clean a mess up without knowing what was put into the ground and the water supply, let alone what is still going into the pigeons.
