The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-16 00:00:00

Explosion at the Ewell Powder Mills.

About 6 o'clock yesterday morning a fearful ex-
plosion of gunpowder, by which three lives were
lost, took place at the mills belonging to Messrs.
Sharp and Adams, of Birchin-lane, London. The
manufacture is carried on in five detached buildings,
distant from 150 to 400 yards from each other.
These are known as-1, the mixing-house ;2, the
mills, which are worked by steam ; 3, the press-
room ; 4, the corning-house and glazing-room ; and
5, the dust-houses. The corning-house and glazing-
room formed one building of only one story ; it was
40ft, square, and was divided into two apartments
by a water wheel, which drove the machinery of
the mill, and by a thin partition. It was in this
building that the explosion took place. The noise
was fearful, and alarmed the whole neighbourhood.
The shock was like that produced by cannon and
file firing. Within a quarter of a mile of the spot
windows were broken in every house. In the High-
street of Sutton, three miles off, the shock was
severely felt, and the noise caused alarm at a dis-
tance of from six to seven miles. One of the work-
men engaged at the time in the press-house, about
400 yards off, on hearing the explosion, said to his
companion, "There's a blow," and made his way
into the open air. On looking up he saw a cloud
of smoke and black spots, which he knew to be
charred timbers tossed high into the air by the ex-
plosion. The workmen, on repairing to the place
after the accident, found the whole space within 100
yards of the mill covered with charred timb_nres
a few inches to many feet in length.a
tlea'brn not
itself was levelled with the grounsches
square
less than 12 feet long and
15roulniad at a dis-
standing almost upright ini
Tee wghere it had been.
tance of 30 yards from the p
It had evidently been teite • •
h trees in Ding without
blowna.ovor the tops of the
young elms and as
I ees Were
touching them.
twheereroboinlo:finueydp
and the old press which
torn up by the roots,
was
also
u„stood
Two large ash and elm t
outside the building
_. p irom its socket.
llybeumildpilnoyge,dannd
gone to work. They
were just
Three men are usually
with it. Their bodies (
l
Or port •
wate 0r e o'clock
retehieny
portions of them) were
picked up in the adjoining field, belonging to I M
1.
Gardener, ltuxley Farm. One body, that of Tilos,
Woolman, was found at a di,tance of 90 yards.; the
other two, those of James Baker and Henry Hook
ham, in different directimill. The ons 60 or 70 yards from the
body of the former was the least muti
lated of the three, one arm only being blown off.
Of the others the heads and limbs were separated
from the bodics and scattered abcut the field. 01,e
of the heads hes not been found. 112 r.
Sharpe 's pri-
vate residence, at some distance fr6m the scene of
the accident it; much damaged. Scarcely a pane of
glass remains whole, and the woodwork is much
torn. The walls arc shaken to the foundation. Two
of the deceased men left families—James Baker, a
wife and six children, the eldest only 11 years of
age, and Henry Hookham, two daughters, one a
widow, with children dependent on him. But either
he or the other sufferer bad had just secured to him,
through the kind exertions of Mr. Sharpe, a pen-
sion from Sir Henry Bridges, the former owner of