The first recorded non-mining industrial activities at Cligga dates from 1893 with the opening of the "British and Colonial Explosives Company factory. The site was chosen both because it was close to a number of mines and because the steeply sloping ground made the site favourable for the production of explosives.
British and Colonial was not successful however and was ‘bought out’ by ‘Nobels’. However this was at the beginning of one of the great depressions in Cornish Mining and ‘Nobels’ production stopped in 1909.