BBC News, Northamptonshire<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Netflix’s new drama Toxic Town revisits one of the UK’s biggest environmental scandals: the Corby toxic waste case. <\/b><\/p>\n The series tells the story of families fighting for justice after children in the Northamptonshire town were born with birth defects, believed to be caused by industrial pollution.<\/p>\n Corby’s steel and iron industry expanded rapidly in the 1930s with the construction of Stewarts and Lloyds steelworks. <\/p>\n By the 1970s, half the town worked in the mills, but when the steelworks closed in the 1980s, toxic waste from the demolition process was mishandled, leading to widespread contamination.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 2009, after a long legal battle, the High Court ruled Corby Borough Council was negligent in managing the waste. <\/p>\n Families affected won an undisclosed financial settlement in 2010, held in trust until the children turned 18.<\/p>\n Alongside the drama, a BBC Radio Northampton podcast series offers a deeper look into the real-life events, using original court transcripts and newly uncovered documents. <\/p>\n Hosted by George Taylor, 32, who was born with an upper limb defect linked to the case, the podcast features testimony and interviews with those directly impacted.<\/p>\n Here are some of the key voices behind the story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n George Angus Taylor was born on 11 March 1992 to parents Fiona and Brian, in Corby. <\/p>\n Brian had worked at Stewart and Lloyds, a job that left him covered in dust and debris at the end of each shift. <\/p>\n Fiona, a former Boots No7 beauty consultant, vividly remembers George’s birth, an event that would change their lives forever.<\/p>\n Born “navy blue” as a result of pre-foetal circulation issues, he was immediately ventilated and placed in intensive care.<\/p>\n It was then Fiona noticed something unusual.<\/p>\n “I remember just seeing his little hand; his pinkie ring finger and middle finger,” she says.<\/p>\n “It was like a fist; you know how babies make a fist? Then his index finger; his thumb was sticking out.<\/p>\n “I just kept thinking, ‘He’s here because of me,’ and you just look for blame. You look, and the first person you are going to blame is yourself.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At 14, doctors discovered a tumour in George’s hand so large that amputation became a real possibility. <\/p>\n The surgery, experimental at the time, was gruelling. “When I woke up, I was so full of morphine,” he remembers.<\/p>\n “They said it was like climbing Everest with no practice \u2013 my body just shut down.” <\/p>\n The experience, particularly the smell, left lasting memories. “They burn flesh as they [operate]: very quiet sizzling, like sausages in a pan. And that’s the smell that still comes to you from time to time.”<\/p>\n Despite everything, George was determined to move forward. “The first time I saw my hand, I wasn’t shocked. I wasn’t sad. It was better than before.”<\/p>\n But George was not alone. Other children in Corby were born with similar conditions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lisa Atkinson was a security guard at the Corby steel mills, where her duties involved outside patrols, checking parking permits, and often having to move dust that had settled over everything.<\/p>\n On 27 June 1989, she gave birth to her daughter, Simone, at Kettering General Hospital. <\/p>\n Simone was born with three fingers on each hand.<\/p>\n Doctors reassured Lisa, saying the only thing she would not be able to do was play the piano.<\/p>\n Just as Fiona Taylor did with George, Lisa initially questioned whether she was responsible for her daughter’s condition. <\/p>\n “There was probably part of me that sat there and went, ‘What did I do? Did I do this?'” she says.<\/p>\n “Because I’ve had a couple of miscarriages before Simone… I always thought maybe I was lucky; maybe I was given Simone… but she wasn’t quite perfect. But I was lucky to have had that baby and not the two previous ones.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Despite her initial self-doubt, Lisa “knew” she had done nothing wrong, as she had neither drunk nor smoked during pregnancy. <\/p>\n She recalls the lack of follow-up care or investigation into her daughter’s condition.<\/p>\n “You’re let out into the world with a child that’s a little bit different,” she says.<\/p>\n “But there was nowhere to go. There was no follow-up or anything, no ‘We’re going to look into it.’ So you just deal with it. And you did, because you had to.”<\/p>\n Lisa quickly adjusted to life with Simone’s condition, saying: “It shocked other people more than it shocked me. I got used to it really, really quickly.”<\/p>\n Winning the subsequent legal case against the borough council brought with it overwhelming attention.<\/p>\n “I’m not famous, but I feel like that’s how famous people must feel… It was crazy.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Growing up, Simone, now 35, faced relentless bullying. <\/p>\n “I had a great family and friends… but [school] was hard. I wasn’t a very confident child, and I was an easy target,” she remembers. <\/p>\n Simone coped by using humour. She would joke that her mum had chopped off her fingers or that she was part alien, turning her differences into something entertaining. <\/p>\n “It was a bit of a front, because if I make a joke about myself, nobody else can. Just accept that’s who you are; it’s not going to change.”<\/p>\n At 18, she was offered surgery to reshape her hands, but declined. <\/p>\n “They admitted they didn’t really know if it would help. By then, I’d adapted. I live with daily pain, but I didn’t want to risk making things worse.”<\/p>\n Meeting her now-husband, she initially hid her hands, subtly positioning herself to avoid detection. <\/p>\n Eventually, she told him – through a long message and sending him a link to the 2020 Horizon documentary about the case. <\/p>\n His response? “It’s really not a big deal.”<\/p>\n Today, she is grateful for the legal battle her family fought. “It set me up for life,” she says.<\/p>\n “I was able to start my own life, and I went to university. I’ve got my own house and my daughter had the best start in life.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lewis Waterfield was born in 1994 with deformities to both hands. <\/p>\n His father worked near the contaminated site as a roofer, and his pregnant mother often visited him there.<\/p>\n “My dad noticed something wasn’t right straight away,” Lewis recalls.<\/p>\n As a child, he endured disruptive hospital stays, including an unsuccessful attempt to graft a toe on to his hand to create a functioning finger. <\/p>\n “I’ve had extensive surgery, but there are limits to what can be done.”<\/p>\n During the legal battle, Lewis’s parents fought to prove a link between industrial pollution and birth defects. <\/p>\n “The council, I remember, was dismissive. It felt like we were an inconvenience to them.”<\/p>\n Now a senior lecturer in public health at the University of Northampton, Lewis acknowledges how his experiences shaped him. <\/p>\n “Every now and then, someone asks about my hands, and it takes me right back.” he says.<\/p>\n “But I don’t mind. It’s part of who I am.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/b6b7\/live\/60922730-f047-11ef-aa6c-fde471cc1a41.jpg.webp\")
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/3eba\/live\/8edd5d90-f375-11ef-9e61-71ee71f26eb1.png.webp\")
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘The first person you are going to blame is yourself’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Kate Bradbrook\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Tim](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/13ac\/live\/89fe68f0-ed21-11ef-b057-d7115843701e.jpg.webp\")
Tim Wheeler\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘Did I do this?’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Supplied<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Supplied](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/849c\/live\/8d6bb720-f03e-11ef-afe3-3909ee34e697.jpg.webp\")
Supplied<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Archive](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/b565\/live\/60161d80-f375-11ef-958e-8b9bf28c4572.jpg.webp\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘It felt like we were an inconvenience’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![\"University](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/3941\/live\/a0f6d240-eebb-11ef-ba19-ad5401ddcbbb.jpg.webp\")
University of Northampton<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"University](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/67fc\/live\/939d4f70-eebb-11ef-ba19-ad5401ddcbbb.jpg.webp\")
University of Northampton<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n