The Fauld Explosion and lots of MudBooting up

Geoff has wanted to see the location of this country's biggest ever explosion at Fauld in southern Derbyshire.
We set off at 07;00 as usual for this time of year and parked up across the road from The Cock Inn in Hanbury. We just followed the footpath and that's when the fun began. Although the fields were mostly nice and green they were very boggy and sometimes very muddy. This week's walk was very straight forward just follow the footpaths to the crater where we had our breakfast at the memorial there.  Then a short excursion and back to the car.

Booting up

Story of the explosion

Geoff getting his keg over again

Bit of mud

More mud

Even more mud

Apparently an old air shaft for the mines

X marks the spot

The crater is all fenced off and this is the best view.

Roll of Honour 

Cross on the memorial

Memorial dedicated to the dead from the explosion.

The RAF Fauld explosion was a military accident which occurred at 11:11am on Monday, 27 November 1944 at the RAF Fauld underground munitions storage depot. The RAF Fauld explosion was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and the largest to occur on UK soil.

Between 3,500 and 4,000 tonnes of ordnance exploded — mostly comprising high explosive (HE)-filled bombs, but including a variety of other types of weapons and including 500 million rounds of rifle ammunition. The resulting crater was 400 feet deep and ¾ mile across and is still clearly visible just south of the village of Fauld, to the east of Hanbury in Staffordshire, England. It is now known as the Hanbury Crater.

A nearby reservoir containing 450,000 cubic metres of water was obliterated in the incident, along with a number of buildings including a complete farm. Flooding caused by destruction of the reservoir added to the damage directly caused by the explosion.

The exact death toll is uncertain; it appears that about 70 people died in the explosion.

Rob, Geoff and Ike

Deep pool in the woods

Steep path up from the bomb crater

Another little sinkhole

Signpost to the crater

The Cock Inn Hanbury

Back to the car and off home.

This was a gorgeous morning for a walk only about 3 miles and somewhere none of us had been before. The footpaths are quite muddy around there and the fields are still saturated. The first job getting home was to rinse the boots down and give them a scrub and rub.
A great morning out in the spring sunshine.
See you next week.