Cause remains a mystery

A FULL investigation into the explosion by the HM Inspector of Explosives failed to find the cause of the blast.

Major T H Crozier said there were several theories including malice, sparks from an ‘external cause’, an electrical lighting fault, or a mistake by some of the workers.

The factory off Bridge Street, what was then a subsidiary of William Blythe and Co, manufactured TNT during the First World War and contained large amounts of pitric acid.

In his report Major Crozier said workers and police at the site heard a ‘fizzing noise that sounds like fire’ at 4.30am on April 27, 1917, and they quickly found one of the stoves on fire.

Police officers and firemen used hoses to try and put out the blaze but it ‘gained in volume and spread’. Between eight and 10 minutes after the alarm was raised the pitric acid in one of the stoves exploded ‘most violently’, killing PC Hardacre.

Major Crozier said the damage was ‘very extensive’ and one stove was ‘completely destroyed’. Craters were also formed with some measuring 59ft long, 8ft wide and over 2ft deep.

The blast broke almost every window in Church and, a mile away, the windows of the Co-op Drapery Department on Abbey Street in Accrington.

St James’ Church lost all its windows including stained glass designed by Edward Burns-Jones, a pre-Raphaelite artist.

The investigation found that the men working on the night shift had ‘received no definitive instructions as to their duty in case of fire’ and PC Bradbury said the police also had no instructions either.

However, concluding his report, Major Crozier said: “I cannot find that the management are to blame for the outbreak of fire in the stove.

“All the evidence I was able to obtain was to the effect that the work was proceeding normally and properly when the fire was discovered.”