Ashton Munitions Explosion 1917 by Billings, John & Copland, David - 1992

Tameside MBC, 1992. Soft cover edition. 49pp. The Ashton Munitions Explosion of 1917 had an effect on the town of Ashton under Lyne which has been remembered for generations. This book describes the setting up of Dreyfus and Gaisman's munitions factory in Ashton as part of the effort for the First World War and gives a full account of the explosion and its terrible effects. Forty six people were killed, over a hundred and twenty of the injured were hospitalised and three to four hundred received minor injuries. About two thousand people were made homeless, the sewage works was damaged so badly it did not function and there was no gas supply to the town. The authors have investigated the cause of the disaster using documents which were kept secret at the time, so this book makes the full story available locally for the first time.. Paperback. New. 11 x 8.25 inches.