The Development and Production of Penicillin in Clevedon

Antibiotics are compounds produced by bacteria and fungi, which are capable of killing or inhibiting the growth of other microbial species. Before their introduction as medicines, there was no effective treatment for infections such as pneumonia, meningitis or rheumatic fever.

In 1928 Alexander Fleming, who was a Scottish bacteriologist working in London, first noticed that the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus wouldn’t grow in the parts of a culture, which had accidentally been contaminated by the green mould Penicillium notatum.  He conducted research on the mould and discovered that it produced a substance capable of killing many of the common bacteria, which cause infections in humans.  However he was unable to produce a purified form, which was also stable.

Further research was carried out in the late 1930s by British biochemist Ernst Boris Chain, Australian pathologist Howard Florey and others at Oxford University to produce penicillin in a form that could be used as a human medicine. By 1941 they had developed an injectable form of the drug, which was available for use in humans. During the Second World War development of large scale production of penicillin took place in the United States.  However it was also produced in Clevedon.

In September 1939 the Royal Naval College Medical School, which was working on the production of vaccines against cholera and typhoid, was evacuated from Greenwich to Barrow Gurney Hospital.  However, the site at Barrow Gurney didn't have adequate water, gas and electric supplies, so they moved to White House in Highdale Road, Clevedon.  

When the Royal Naval Medical School also began to produce penicillin in Clevedon in 1943, they needed more space than they had at the White House, so they moved to the house that is now 5 Elton Road, although at this time it was No 4 and was called Eastington House.  The rooms in the house were used for research and assay laboratories.  The penicillin was produced in a factory built on land behind the house. 

Penicillin was produced by growing the Penicillium notatum mould on a culture medium at a controlled temperature.  This was done in sterilised milk bottles.  40,000 were used at Clevedon, as each one only produced a very small amount of antibiotic.  Many local people were employed in the laboratories, in addition to the Royal Navy staff.  The freeze dried powder was packed and distributed to the armed forces and a few civilian establishments.  When reconstituted with sterilised water, it became injectable.

After the end of the Second World War the Royal Navy sold the Clevedon factory to Distillers Company Ltd.  They moved in at the beginning of 1947.  They worked on developing new antibiotics but in 1949 the research station was transferred to the Medical Research Council.  They continued research in to antibiotic alternatives to penicillin and also manufactured other drugs.  The Clevedon site closed in 1961 when their work was transferred to Porton Down.

Further Reading:

Clevedon Places and Faces: Rob Cambell (editor). Matador, 2010

Clevedon's Social and Industrial Heritage: Further studies in the history of Clevedon: Clevedon Civic Society, 1998

5 Elton Road, Clevedon

Plaque outside 5 Elton Road, Clevedon