Terrible explosion at Royal Navy dynamite factory killed five and rocked Cornwall

National Explosives Factory at Upton Towans in Hayle has just been awarded protected status by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on the advice of Historic England

The National Explosives Factory in Hayle, as it looks today

A dynamite factory that supplied the Royal Navy with explosives and has just been given industrial heritage protection was the site of a huge explosion that literally rocked West Cornwall and killed five men.

The National Explosives Factory, hidden among the sand dunes at Upton Towans near Hayle, became one of only two suppliers of cordite to the Royal Navy during the First World War. The remains of this unique site tell an important story about the way explosives were manufactured in the late 19 century, and how production was scaled up during the First World War, with a tenfold increase in the number of (mostly female) workers.

However, a decade earlier, it had been the site a terrible tragedy, sending shockwaves around Penwith that could be felt and heard as far away as Sancreed, some three miles west of Penzance - and prompting fears of an earthquake.

On the day of the explosion, January 5, 1904, James Stevens wrote in his Diary: "Explosion at Hayle dynamite works heard at Sancreed and other places, 4 or 5 men killed and many wounded. Estimated £1000 damage done at St. Ives in broken glass etc., the east end window of the Church completely smashed."

One of four surviving roofless structures thought to be the earliest known surviving group of mass-concrete magazines, dating to the 1890s

One of four surviving roofless structures thought to be the earliest known surviving group of mass-concrete magazines, dating to the 1890s

A few days letter, on Thursday, January 7, West Cornwall's weekly newspaper The Cornishman reported there had been a 'Terrible explosion at Hayle'

"The most serious accident which has taken place at the National Explosives Works, Gwithian, near Hayle, occurred on Tuesday morning," reported The Cornishman

"Just before eleven o’clock the whole of the inhabitants of West Cornwall were started by a sudden shock of the ground and in many places windows were smashed.

"At first it was thought it might have been an earthquake but it was soon found that this was not the case, but that the shock and sound was the result of an explosion at Hayle. At once the utmost consternation was felt, and the wildest rumours rapidly spread. Over 700 men are employed at the works, and it was at once seen that an explosion would not but have terrible results. In many a home in St. Ives, Hayle, and neighbourhood, and Penzance – the residences of many of the employees – the dull, hollow boom sounded like a death signal.

"And so it proved, for four men in a fraction of a second had been blown to pieces, and four homes had been rendered desolate. At once a large crowd set out for the towans, on which the buildings stand, and many an agonised wife looked for a husband, and many a terror-stricken father and mother for a son. From the works a black cloud, so dense as to surround everything like a pall, gradually swept over the sand-hills and town, adding horror on horror to the terrible uncertainty, a dread uncertainty which is almost too much for the loving heart to bear.

Building platforms on the summit of New Nitro Hill where nitroglycerine was made. This was the danger area of the factory

"Not knowing if there was danger still, and if another explosion might not speedily follow, these loving ones pressed on to the works and thence to danger area, near which strangers are not allowed to go, and it was soon found that here the accident had happened.

"It had occurred in the very centre of the danger area, in two of the nitro-glycerine rooms of the missing house. The greatest care had been taken that if an explosion took place in one of the wood-houses, in each of which two men work, and which are about 60 yards apart, protected by a mound of sand, the other parts of the building should not be endangered, and it was only the excellence of these precautions which prevented what must have proved one of the most awful calamities of modern times.

"The exact way the accident happened cannot be ascertained, and it may be that the true solution will never be found. By some means in one of the sections of the nitro-glycerine portions of the danger area an explosion occurred, and two men were killed by this. Almost immediately afterwards another shed blew up, and two others were also instantly killed. The names of the deceased are:-

• Andrew Curnow, Connor Downs, about 50 years of age, married, leaving wife and two children;
• Willie Luzmoor, Gwithian, a young married man;
• Simon Jory, 22, Mount Pleasant, unmarried;
• Wm Clift, jun., Gwithian, about 21, single.

"All were terribly dismembered, the sheds being blown to matchwood, and the scene was a terrible one.

"In the other sheds the immense force of the explosion was felt severely, in spite of the defence afforded by the mound of sand. A Swede named Oscar Shaholme, who had not been very long at the works, was so much injured by the shock and internal injuries received the being thrown violently down, that his life was despaired of, and he died that afternoon.

The National Explosives Factory in Hayle, as it looks today

"Most of the other men sustained more of less nasty cuts and bruises, principally from the wreckage of the sheds, four of which were left standing. The courage of promptness which these men showed is worthy of the greatest praise, for though they knew the nature of the peril which threatened them and that at any moment they might be blown into a thousand pieces, they did all they could to prevent danger in their own shed.

"Although between three and four miles off and the sea separating the places, the shock was so bad that the damage to glass alone is estimated at hundreds of pounds. The beautiful east window at the parish church is entirely destroyed. High-street suffered very badly, several of the plate glass windows being smashed. In Fore-street the damage was considerable…. Private houses also suffered severely and people were terribly frightened."

In a later update, The Cornishman reported: "The explosion did not originate in a mixing house as at first reported. It was either in a filter house, to which the nitro-glycerine goes after it has been nitrated and washed; or in a temporary storage house, also within the danger area.

View from inside the remains of the former nitric acid factory to its chimney (the chimney is listed at Grade II)

The National Explosives Factory in Hayle, as it looks today

"These two houses were connected by means of a lead-lined conduit, through which the liquid explosive runs. Both houses were utterly destroyed, and only the surviving banks indicate their site. There were three men in the filter house and one in the storage house, where usually the nitro-glycerine is only kept for a short period, about twelve house. How the explosion happened can only be surmised.

"A man may have upset a bucket, or a small quantity may have been spilled and struck by something; but all the men were provided with the nailless boots, the use of which is compulsory. The factory was started about fourteen years ago. Including this accident nine lives have been lost.

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