Courtaulds Red Scar Works Preston
53°47′04″N 2°38′43″W / 53.7845°N 2.6454°W Red Scar Works was built in 1939 by Courtaulds and produced continuous filament viscose rayon. It was located in Ribbleton, Preston, off Longridge Road. The closure of the works was announced in November 1979 and the issue raised in the UK Parliament House of Commons by the constituency MP. At the time of closure, approximately 2,600 people were employed there, but there were approximately 4,000 at its peak. It was at one time the largest rayon producing site in Britain. Two main products were manufactured: one being tyre yarn made by a process known as CSPT (Continuous Spinning Process), trademarked Tenasco, in two principle deniers; the other being a general-purpose textile yarn called Bright. A range of deniers of this were produced; pigmented variants were Matt (pigmented with titanium dioxide) and a wide range of colours trademarked Duracol (including Duracol Black, pigmented with carbon black). At the time of closure, one reason given by management for the closure was the rising popularity of steel belt radial tyres, thus reducing demand for viscose tyre yarn.
The factory was connected by rail as a branch of what was the Preston and Longridge Railway. The plant had its own power production facility. The main raw materials brought in by rail were coal, sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide, carbon disulphide and wood pulp.