The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-08-19 00:00:00

THE EXPLOSION AT STOWMARICET.

The ti ihtllllexploAni w Inch occurred r..n Friday in Led
WI eV,. at the works ot the ilun Cotton Manufacturimtill
pant (limited), in w filch Messrs. Prentice are the principal
partners, was attended with even lata 0 disastrous ea.,
4iltelleea than were at tint apparent. 'twenty-two human
beings are {NWu ii tin have perished : several I.them are re•
',mica to he missing, alai hate possibly shared the same
tate . and at many as fifty SCVell more are wounded.

flun-cotton has been manufactured at Stowinarket for
nearly ten years, and when the sad disaster of Friday or.
carrot, Messrs. Prentice—or, more pneperly speaking. the
limited liability company in which they are the master
spirits—were executing it large center leer the British (invent-
merit, Ike that they hml as much as 10 tons of the explosive
agent stored up XVith a steadily increasing business,
the Skill has gnielually colargetl its works, which, al-
though now virtually elestmeyeel, covered a large space of
greamil near the Great Eastern Railway. The number of
persons employed at the works when the sail occurrence
happened was ate.e,tt 130, and most of these were
upon the premises at the fatal moment. A dense column of
smoke rose several hundred y aids into the air, and spread
out gradually into a fandike shape : then there cattle is
deafening near, the explosion being felt tei every corner of
the pleassurlittle market-town, w hich it plunged into sudden
desolation. The effects of the explosion upon the build-
ings of the town were very capricious, wane being spared
almost entirely, while •thers had their nails slightly in-
jured, and many sustained damage to their windows. The
Post (Mier, the Church, the Independent Chapel, and
other buildings suffered noire or less in the matter
of glass. At the Independent Chapel, willed' in-
eluded Messrs. Prentice among its congregation, and which
is A handsome and comparatively new structure, the
amount of glass broken was especially large. The window s
are of the lattice pattern in vogue in the fairies of the
thidch of England, and this description of WiIISIOW SteelllS
to have been wholly unable to resist the force of the eon.
ctission. 'rile chapel stands rather high, and in a large nice.
elow looking towards the shattered works not a single pane
of glass is lett. The church suffered considerably, but not so
seriously as the chapel. As for the works thenuielves, the
ruin wrought in them was almost complete. The build-
ings were, with the exception of an old water-mill, which
was turned tel account when the manufacture of gun cotton
Mils first commenced ley Messrs. Prentice. all of one story ;
and it was confidently believed that, in consequence of the
material being in a wet state when passing through the
various processes of the manufactiwe, and lii C0113.3111e11e,
also of measures having been taken to isolate the different
buildings. a Its,llollS S‘plolSiUll could never ,ietair. An explo-
sion. In which tee o or three lives were lost, occurred soine
live years since, lint it was fondly hoped that the extra pre-
cautions since taken would prevent a recurrence of any
similar disaster. 'lice experience of Friday unhappily
proved the delusivness of this expectation.
'lice explosion maimed about tell IllellUte3 paid thee 111 the
afternoon. None of the Messrs. Prentice were ad the works
at the time, the 11111,11StiCr. Mr. Enstitee Prentice, better on the
Continent. while Mr. Nlanning Prentice latest iii goo.' health.
Soon after the explosion—which, it should have been stated,
had occurred is tier 1111SZISSille, ci littiblillSS at emcee shattered to
abatis—Mr. E. 11. Prentice, one of the partneis ell 31311 V city.
mioal works also cc tmlueted in the neighbourhood, hurried to
the !woke of disaster ; SIM MT. W. R. Prentice, seemiel son
of Mr. 31anning Prentice, was also soon 011 the spot. EVell
the se gentlemen 313311011 to have failed to fully realize the gni-
vity 11 the situation, for, collecting as many other persons as
possible, they set tel w ork to save such of the rem: ki kk ing
headings as were still standing at the shattered works, but
hich had taken tire in consequence of the explosion. These
Intiblikkgo trl. Sheds 13 31thelled le 111111111er 11( (coxes of cartridges,
and although skolile waiming voices were reused, Mr. Edward
Prentice, relying upein some experiments alleged to have
been lately made by cotain I lovenunent officials, replied that
there was noel:diger, allot eollttlllleti teeth:lW scale of the boxes
ccl caitridges towards hint, while his nephew, Sir W. R.
Prentice, assisted in pushing them further from thee n:11213. The
result was most disastrous. torten,/ the boxes ..miderily caught
and 3 Seeeollit eNeel.olo3 cf ,3,3 t ejolo3o, (0114.0 30,1
00101.1eeteel the genenel wreck of the pronimw 113. zso.
mont of the second explodmi nothing Mote season, leel
is,, Messrs. Prentice. As regards Mr. Edward Prenti. e, his
hat was aliens ards found and hie:dined, but his !e ly aas
torn to pieces and tossed a cunbilleraltle 01,tatti • he
iiireCtisSlS. Mr. William It. Prentice's ininelkereld, f sect
pb•ke.l up, SUSI recognised by the monogram iiiion it, thic of
his boots was also feemillr and was identified by Isis gr...eiti et,
ha, ing been eleaned icy Inin liii the morning. (Cecil the nerseitis
ve led Were with the Messrs. Prentice, seeing the tire communi-
cating with the min cotton, took to Night and fell into a deep
pit caused by the first explosion. This act ikloktal fall pro-
bably saved cia life, as the fragments passe:l over him as he
lay.. When the snrviving bystanders had recovered from the
shock eet the second explosi tttt they resumed their efforts, if
not to save the groups 4.,f building.. Wlll,ll were by this time
quite past rvklckaptiool, at any rate to prevent further
disasters arising from fire. Gradually five Me-engines were
brought to bear upon the burning ruins, and the efforts k,f
the Mullen, who worked with untiring energy, were re-
warackl witlk skticcess, and when evening fell all farther
danger was at an end.

The ground on which the shattered sheds stood—and
especially the site if the magazine—x as torn and twisted
about in the most surprising incliner, and a row :
poplar trees were uprooted and stripped if their I.•juliet
The telegraph wires on the n.lhieent line of rail,. Were
cornet away, :not oven the permanent 5) 01 the . utwap
itzeh' was considered to he slightly injured.

following additional particulars 14 Ud
ch..ly accident awe from a local conteniponir:-.
although slightly recapittilitory of the foreg•dle.!, w.il
neleerthelcm be intere,ting : -

The sects,' of the desolation -which was presented .me two
leans and a hall after the explosion, ia hard t,. d
Ch.,e by the river the tall chimney shaft stool lir orecd,
but all the la w buibliugs so lately creel ed at the . tarry
thousands of pounds were level with the ground,
smoke hang iris r the w hole scene. .1 itst, over ti, •
whi.•ll rise, the river, live tire eiv4i11..., sire plav i on the
still burning parts of the worl,s—t he Stern market
that belonging to the svorks, that from the
Needham hiarket engine, w hich had heeli .1. .atelled
directly after the explosion. svtrh, it shook the 11., .• s and
al:Wined the inhabitants of Needham Market, cot the
enghie from the IVorklionse at Ow:house. 'Elie v :./rts sri
the engines were directed to prevent the tire ,p,•,aditig
to three long sheds ,tantling at that part of the
ground belonging to tin,' verbs nearest the railway sta-
tion. At intervals was heard a dropping lire ire rifles,
as cartridges exploded .ate after allotiler one Spot a
party of men were releasing the charred and itsrssr.irrl re-
mains of some unfortunate creatures froill the rlCr,s that
had fallen upon them, awl at another search Was being
made for such remains as would prove that 0110ther who
was missing w. actually lost. Tire t awful exhibition
of the force if the explosion was to be foiled at the spot
where the three mag.ines, in which were stored something
like ten tons of Wail cotton, stood a few 1111111, before.
These consisted of three separate Imildings to feet by 8,
built of wood covered with slate roofs lined with canvas and
calk., Now every vestige of these has diaappearell. and hi
their place is an enonnous timid., Pit smile forty yards in
circumference and apparently ten feet deep, but it is riilhieuttt
to judge the depth, the earth 113Vill',; lieeli scooped out to
such a depth that the water stands in the yawning chasm.
For a wide space around, the earth is covered with ch.& of
earth ihig out and cast up ity the explosion, the heaps in the
immediate ricighlmnrhowl heing several feet iii height. (b.:
by these stood SI re'r,t hdty poplar trees; of these those
nearest the magazines are uprooted mid all are stripped of
their branches, many of wlikh are blongi long distances
sway. There seems no doubt that it WWI here that the ex-
plosion originate.l, lint tile unfortunate nian who could s.rive
that question—llowes, the foreman if what Is called the
dry department of the works—is alioslng. laid either
lies buried beneath the rubbish, or has been so completely
1114.W11 away, tint no vestige of him can he found. drying
Alleds were covered with corrugated iron roofs, and come of
these lie 100 yards and niore from where the sheds Stood,
whilst bricks and bits of wmoll were thrown three and four
times that distance. Nearer the engine-honse were tire sheds
ins which the gun-cotton, haying been minced to pulp, was
weighed by girls and women and pressed into moulds by
men. These have not been burnt, lint were simply levelled
to the ground by the explosion. and the poor creatures who
were at work in them were much cut by the glass and slates.
The appearance of the town was truly heart-rending, and
the excitement was naturally intense. General consternation
prevailed, and the agony 1,1 expectation of what the results
might be added to the terrible reality which had art sin [doily
occinTed. Never have Ire ut this quiet part tlf the country
been thrown into more painful excitement ; indeed, the
disaster ion., terrible, the consequences nra fearful, awl the
ass great, that the catastrophe comes upon us
like a dream, as though it would cheat the senses out of
their sompr,hension and elude the grasp of the mind to
take In all its tentble detains. Stowinarket, the neat
little, busy, but quiet toWti, was thrown into fearful dis-
may. The appearaime of the piace is if it had
lice. 1.041111.1. Not a whole shop w below e ..11.1 he
found lit the place. On both sides of the Ipswich- treet
the main thoroughfare, lined with shops—it Looked. though
ii .5 rite of antral'', tises hall been at Work at the windows.
Plate-glass a taunter of an ifich thick was Mown into
Ili) ria,lA of pieces. In many instances tiles awl slates
thrown itito the roadway. lii the aisle of the line
I 11,11,11 there IA scarcely a witnitrire lila lies suffered I.y being
partially blown suit. 'lire ea,t window of the nos-his n.h hers
snacred out, then any other, the stow. mullions 6011.1 4,11i1i•
1.1.AV11 rust, wirier, many of the Indeponlent I 11,1 twlwi endows.
The shock scents to have been more severely felt I mtwcen 11—
Yrich-street and the works, where a number od new lions. A
IlaVO Will Within the last few years. At 3lr. 'l'. F. Wm
on the Ipswit hr-road, the roof was pretty nearly 141111.1,1
of Mr% awl the windows are antashed. me old
hollses hi this : nut some of tile are
wine Moira oat. mid the window frialies inrrsrnr 11r411 ins
Splatters. The i !anions of litany Potpies ids., hear I,,thooesy
to the frightful character id the ,doick. I !um.
deliers fell 151 the tables, crockery w smasl.l.
At the raihray station Windows ivere broken ; as tvere s.mie
at lianghley railway station. As is generally the case with
expl.Mtno of this serf, there is a certain amount of partiality
hi Ow; shock. For hist:lure, the lioust, oil Violet •trill Imre
not a window broken, but half-a-mile farther lo,e, at Mr.
Samuel rage's the 55 hobowe are all broken.