Discounted special edition of Fauld explosion book available to buy
COPIES of a special edition of a book about the RAF Fauld explosion are available at a discounted price via a supply in the village of Hanbury.
The 2019 edition of Voices From the Explosion, by Valerie Hardy, commemorated the 75th anniversary of the blast.
The disaster happened when 4,000 tonnes of explosives blew up at an underground wartime munitions store at Fauld in 1944.
Readers may recall how in 2019 Valerie spoke of how she was enjoying supper with a family at a farm hours before they were killed in the blast. Just eight at the time, she was at school when she heard a huge bang but did not know what it was. When she got home she found the farm next door had gone – leaving only a crater.
On November 27, 1944, almost four kilotons of bombs exploded – three times greater than the amount that fell on London during the worst night of the Blitz, and around 70 people died, including servicemen working in the munitions store and local people living around Fauld.
Although seismic waves were felt as far away as Casablanca, the catastrophe was hushed up at the time.
The Fauld Mine explosion has been described as a mere footnote to the history of the Second World War but to those who witnessed its devastation, it was a day that had a huge impact on the area.
In her 2019 interview, Ms Hardy said what happened that day and the aftermath, including finding out her friend’s parents had perished, would live with her always.
She said: “It had an enormous impact. My father witnessed the explosion and he was one of the first on the site searching for survivors. “On my return home from school, I saw how our farmhouse and building were particularly damaged. My mother and father were lucky to escape serious injury.
“My significant memory was the neighbouring farm of our friends at Upper Castle Hayes Farm which was above where the bombs were stored in the gypsum mines. We had only been for supper at the farm the previous evening on the Sunday. Their youngest daughter was my closest friend and the farm just disappeared forever. It is now just a crater. That gave me a deeper, more personal sense of loss. It is a war grave like no other. There were 18 victims’ bodies who were never found. It is as close and personal as it is.
“My friend was at school but both her parents, aunt and all the workers on the farm were lost in the crater.” Ms Hardy’s book features the stories of those who remember that dreadful day, and includes her own memories and those close to her. She said: “My sister has described how my father and a person who was on the neighbouring farm were first on the scene and were prodding mud looking for people. The reason I was so concerned about recording this was for two main things – I needed to capture the memories before it is too late and they are lost.
“This is firsthand witness accounts and told by people like myself who lived through it and its aftermath. I also wanted to provide a unique chronology of the disaster the nation forgot. It changed the history and geography of the area but the crater is a event that has become a mere footnote in the history books. “It transformed a peaceful, rural landscape into a scene of horror. It was a worse explosion than the fields of the Western Front.
“I have worked in a great many places over the years around the country and people haven’t heard of it. It is a mere footnote of history but it was terrifying that suddenly the Second World War came to the small village of Hanbury. It is the world’s greatest accidental explosion.”
On November 27, 1944, she remembers hearing a loud rumbling, with the table shaking under her hands. After the initial shock of the explosion and questions from the children to their teacher, the class was brought back to order and they carried on with the lessons, she said. A few of the pupils went home for lunch and when they came back they told them the “dump had gone up”.
Her book is unique as it is the only one to actively record first-hand witness accounts and personal testimonies of people who were there and lived through all of this.
The book first came out in 2012. Valerie said in 2019: “I appreciate the fact that I could be trespassing into people’s distress but they were really welcoming as I was part of that community.
“I used oral history, accounts in both statements that were given at the time and those recalled from memory. First and foremost I spoke to those who experienced the disaster and its consequences.” She also obtained information from accounts given within the Court of Inquiry, which were all kept in secret archives until 1974.
Finally, she used information from coroner’s officer Albert Thomas Mackay, who used his own records together with many statements taken from the time.
Ms Hardy was educated at Hanbury village school and Uttoxeter Girls’ High School before reading geography at the University of Leeds. She studied education at Bristol and Nottingham universities and taught in Leicestershire and Derbyshire before going into educational administration in Sheffield, Cumbria and Gloucestershire followed by working for the European Business School, London.
Ms Hardy, who now lives in the Cotswolds, is a frequent visitor to the area as it is where she researched her first book, Old Derbyshire and the New Worlds.
The Fauld book is available at the discounted price of £12.50 by calling Judy Ireland, editor of St Werburgh’s Church’s parish magazine, on 07765 500768. A portion of the proceeds will go towards the church.