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[crystal palace fireworks]

http://www.old-maps.co.uk/index.html

[pyrotechnist]

Just a question but does anyone know for sure if the Sanquhar brocks factory is still being used in small scale by Brocks Explosives or not? just that I read a post written by someone driving past saying they saw old nissan style huts in Sanquhar and it looked like people where using them as allotments. Now this got me curios as I am sure such a site would be to toxic for someone to use as a general use such as allotments due to heavy metals etc. Would love to hear any heads up that the site is still occupied and safe(ish). While I am at it does anyone know the level of security the site has?

[mark01]

i drove past the old astra firework factory site last week, sad to say all has gone .not one brick is left standing .not even the power station(richbourgh) next to astra .i worked there as a chargehand/supervisor from 83/87 on the military side .have great memorys .a good time. sad to say i did not take any photos i wished i did .

[spectrum]

Just a question but does anyone know for sure if the Sanquhar brocks factory is still being used in small scale by Brocks Explosives or not? just that I read a post written by someone driving past saying they saw old nissan style huts in Sanquhar and it looked like people where using them as allotments. Now this got me curios as I am sure such a site would be to toxic for someone to use as a general use such as allotments due to heavy metals etc. Would love to hear any heads up that the site is still occupied and safe(ish). While I am at it does anyone know the level of security the site has?

Still there, still being used for explosives work. There are in fact two sites on opposite sides of the road, the one on the eastern side (the older original site) is derelict and no longer in use. 

 

I have visited the site on several occasions and have seen the work they do there, it would be inappropriate and illegal to comment on either subject - suffice to say the occupiers take their work very seriously and despite appearances, the site is secure and very closely monitored. 

 

During a visit I happened to be talking in a pub out loud, was overheard and found myself in the company of an older gentleman with a longstanding connection to the place. The following morning I was treated to a guided tour which answered all the questions I could think of and more. It was a real eye opener. 

[spectrum]

i drove past the old astra firework factory site last week, sad to say all has gone .not one brick is left standing .not even the power station(richbourgh) next to astra .i worked there as a chargehand/supervisor from 83/87 on the military side .have great memorys .a good time. sad to say i did not take any photos i wished i did .

I have sent you a private message Mark, I was employed there from 1983 through to 1989 on the military side in R&D. I did grab one photograph and included it in an article I wrote which covered the last two issues of fireworks magazine. The last time I was there I walked across the old site, there was one remaining magazine left down by the burning ground as well as the dump shed, the dump itself - live burning and paper waste was still intact, I picked up what may have been the last two souvenirs likely to reveal the sites past - a baton round and an extruded aluminium rocket case.

 

I have just written an article for a local history group on the site too and managed to dig up an old plan of the place before it was a firework factory - Lord Cowans Camp. Interestingly, it had exactly the same site boundary with ammunition magazines both within the factory and across the other side of the river stour to the rear - I recall having to go over the power station bridge to the fields beyond the river when, on occasion, we were called to test things that could not be safely fired within the factory. On one occasion Larry Oliver asked me to check out the terrain there for evidence of the magazines that were supposedly once there, nothing left but scraps of masonry so I dismissed the idea until I found the old war ministry plan.

 

It really was a fascinating place, the last of its kind in this country I reckon. 

[spectrum]

A picture of the Astra I remember - and I am sure Mark does too. Hope it brings back some happy memories mate!

 

Apologies to those who have already seen it accompanying the article in Fireworks magazine.

[spectrum]

Tried to attach an image but failed. Got a message saying I am not allowed to attach the sort of file I am trying to. Will try again

[mark01]

thankyou paul

 

you have picked up two souvenirs ,the baton round ,i had the pleasure of working on this line , as i recall there was not a lot to assemble .it a shame  would of been nice if you had come

 

across the black cartridge case . you said also the aluminum rocket case , could it of been a case from a mini rocket (jet rocket ?)

[spectrum]

Sent a picture over of the Rocket - you are spot on in your guess mate.

 

For those of you following this thread, Mark and I worked together 25 years or so back. I remember him well and he does me - albeit through the prompting of memories such as the building I was in that blew up in the evening - Mark arrived in the morning to find bits of it scattered over the field. I remember Mark working ten to the dozen administering contracts in which up to a dozen processes were being conducted at any one time, all in different buildings simultaneously and all, under the auspices of QA, Production Management and Safety Officers. Not an easy task and one which I have to say, the nostalgic or health and safety minded could comfortably accommodate these days. You didn't know you got it right until the QA Inspector fired it off at the very end of the job, if it didn't work you were in deep s**t. All the time you had to make sure that a racing workforce didn't do something silly or dangerous. Mark worked in the companies Phosphorus plant. I wont even go there......your couldn't begin to know the problems that place caused. A fire every two days has left me with a lifelong dread of the devils element. 

[mark01]

i can still see it now ,a young Qa standing in front of a what once was a nice clean bay, with a new and very expensive custom made press ,witch now looked like a missile strike.and you didnt have a scratch on you.

but i take my hat off to you ,all lot of peaple would not of stepped back into a bay after that.

astra was a firework factory at the end of the day ,military was the new kids on the block,we had to use what was avalible to us .yes we did get some things wrong ,but 90% of the time we got it right.and our production sheets got the dimond stamp from the Qa. i could go into some great fails and some very funny ones ,

THE PHOSPHOURS PLANT,  and the production of float smoke and flame (FSF) this gave me nightmares , i tryed keeping away from the plant itself ,once i was in there that was it for the day , i could not go back on to the field,  i would check on the women first thing in the morning before they went down into part of the phosphours assembley line. all other contact was made in the tunnel between the phosphours fill assemble and the main assembly block.but the plant itself, i could guarantee i would get down to the QA office and i would hear the fire bells and 99% of the time it was the plant and as a member of the fire team you got back as quick as you could .  i like to say no one ever ran if you saw some one running you rang the fire bells .you didnt need to be told you rang them bells .it was the drying stage of the proses which was a problem no one permited into this part of the plant whilst this was in progress , first thing you new it was alight smoke every were ,the lads that worked in the plant would then put on the sprinkler system .a complete nightmare.

[spectrum]

Astra's work with Phosphorus left me, as I said previously, with a complete dread of the material. So much so that I won't even touch the striker panel on the side of a matchbox, you couldn't trick me into doing it if you tried. Having said that, working with Chlorates as I do, I can't afford any contamination however slight.

 

For those reading this, Phosphorus was used in two key military pyrotechnic items, one was a float smoke and flame sea marker which, as the name clearly suggests, floated in the sea and burnt to produce smoke....with a flame! The second was a practice bomb produced for the States, it was basically a cartridge with a double base propellant charge blowing out - and igniting - a healthy dose of Red Phosphorus. The company grew at a phenomenal rate, in fact it outgrew the confines of the Sandwich factory. This meant that Phosphorus operations were conducted in the factory - far too close in reality to other processes. The effect was that on occasion there would be an ignition in the factory, possibly caused by contamination. Most commonly though, there would be an ignition in the Phosphorus plant itself, almost daily in fact.

 

When Red phosphorus burns, it produces small quantities of white which, when the fire has been damped down and extinguished, causes re-ignition when the embers are dried out. Efforts were made to eliminate this by drenching the aftermatch of every fire with Copper Sulphate solution but without great success.

 

Mostly the fires would be incidental, clouds of white smoke and a calm evacuation, sometimes a horrendous explosion and a response that was anything but calm. My incident involved an ignition on the bed of a press above which was a hopper containing around a kilo of slow flash. Half hour before the ignition there had been more than 45 Kg of flash in the same room packed in boxes, three boxes each holding three 5 Kg bags of composition plus a part box, It was removed when the press gave a hint of things to come by sparking before my eyes - I certainly wouldn't be writing this if I hadn't removed the composition, there were three women working in an adjoining compartment to the building, I'm certain they would have been killed too along with others. The small (!!!) quantity of composition blew a wall out - I was actually scrambling through a doorway in the same wall as the machine blew, perfect timing really as it blew glass up the field and out of windows in a number of the smaller buildings along the way. It also a huge chunk of the roof off - this landed in front of me some 20 m away. The noise was reported heard in Margate 6 or 7 miles away where the police were called.

 

The next day I came in late, the factory was a buzz with the gossip about what had happened, I was told not to talk about it and never bothered until now.

 

The worst incident I recall was in Marks Phosphorus building though - a fluid bed dryer containing a fair quantity of phosphorus ignited and blew the top of the plant off and over the main road, literally a three quarter tonne chunk of metal flew 50 m leaving a trail of white smoke behind it. Shockingly a lad was unloading the equipment at the time of ignition and took the full force of the blast, Mark - you must remember that? I shan't name the lad but I knew him well and recall seeing him semi conscious being dragged barefoot up the top track to the offices and away from the fire that followed. One person either side with his arms draped over their shoulders and his head hung low.  Absolutely bloody horrific. 

[mark01]

sorry paul for bring back memories . like you i have seen things that are bloody horrific at astra .and i remember this incident well .and being a member of the fire crew ,and when them fire bells rang (and they did) you didnt know what you was going to face .what made it worse for me ,my wife work at astra as well.

no matter what you did to ensure the safety ,making sure that the licences were heard to ,you followed every rule to the book , it could still turn round and bit you

the workforce at astra were some of the best peaple i have worked with , and when things like this happen , there was always someone to help

[spectrum]

sorry paul for bring back memories . like you i have seen things that are bloody horrific at astra .and i remember this incident well .and being a member of the fire crew ,and when them fire bells rang (and they did) you didnt know what you was going to face .what made it worse for me ,my wife work at astra as well.

no matter what you did to ensure the safety ,making sure that the licences were heard to ,you followed every rule to the book , it could still turn round and bit you

the workforce at astra were some of the best peaple i have worked with , and when things like this happen , there was always someone to help

 

The memories are on the whole very warm and happy. it was the best time of my working life. Like you I had enormous respect and complete trust in the people around me, these were the cream of the industry at a time when there still was an industry. I felt the people I worked with and under were more like a family. Older staff - Vic Stone, Marion and the others had worked with the materials and in the environment for so long it was second nature to them. If you were an arsehole, you wouldn't last and didn't stay. Therefore everyone in the factory bonded with one another and meant something to one another. People reading this won't understand it if they haven't worked in such a place - I'm sorry if that comes across as arrogant but that's how I clearly recall it.

 

When we were working, there was always a sense of potential danger - which was addictive. But at the same time, you couldn't possibly work alongside someone who didn't share that awareness and respect it. Even if you didn't actually like the person on a personal level, professionally they were accepted and valued as a member of the team. 

[spectrum]

By the way, I'm sorry if I bring back uncomfortable memories for you too Mark

[mark01]

no problem ,i have some great memorys and some funny ones to .

Up past  the military packing was the test sight , and to one side was an area with banked sides with a shed to one side for the QA to stand in and in this area was a 45 gallon drum with the lid taken off and

turned up side down so the QA could test small items ie port fires ect, and over time its rusted and a small hole had opened up .a QA that you know very well paul .and i will not say his name .was in this area,

testing finished products from the production line,and i was with him waiting for results. well he was testing i think was maroon tubes ,so just to see what would happen he put the tube into the 45 gallon drum via the rusty

hole connected the electric fuse up, and pressed the button.there was a very loud thud,the drum launched sky wards followed by the electric fuse wire .the windows in the packing were nearly blown out ,let alone the girls in side

that were busy working. and it made windows in the field rattle ,i got  out of the area very quickly followed by the QA .we walked past the military packing bay with our heads low only to see, one of the directors and manager with others 

walking round by the storage bays doing an inspection. standing there looking up at the test sight pointing fingers.if a hole had appeared i would have jumped in it.

 though outright bladey dangerous  no one got hurt .

Edited by mark01, 04 September 2013 - 06:45 PM.