British Xylonite

BX Plastics was a plastics engineering and production company. The company was one of three subsidiaries of the British Xylonite Company established by 1938. BX Plastics made xylonite (also known as celluloid or ivoride) and lactoid (also known as casein) at a plant to the south of Brantham in Suffolk, on the north bank of the River Stour across the river from Manningtree in Essex. The company was liquidated in 1999.

The British Xylonite Company had been established by English inventor Daniel Spill in 1877, with American investor Levi Parsons Merriam. It established factories at Hackney Wick and Homerton, in East London, and then expanded to Brooklands Farm near Brantham in 1887 and Hale End near Walthamstow in 1897.

By 1938 British Xylonite had established three subsidiaries - BX Plastics, Halex and Cascelloid. Halex was based in Highams Park, Hale End, in North London and made finished goods (including table tennis balls). Cascelloid, based in at Leicester and Coalville, made toys and had been acquired in 1931. Cascelloid was later renamed Palitoy and sold to General Mills in 1968 and then to Tonka 1987, which was acquired by Hasbro in 1991.

Distillers acquired a 50% interest in BX Plastics in 1939, and Distillers then acquired the rest of the British Xylonite group in 1961, merging it into a 50:50 joint venture with Union Carbide's Bakelite company in 1962 to form Bakelite Xylonite in 1963. Distillers sold its 50% interest to BP in 1967, and Union Carbide's European interests were acquired by British Petroleum in 1978, including the remaining Bakelite Xylonite plants.

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