Ashton Munitions Explosion Memorial
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Ashton Munitions Explosion Memorial by Gerald England as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Ashton Munitions Explosion Memorial
Image: © Gerald England Taken: 4 Aug 2014
The Ashton Munitions Explosion Memorial is sculpture by Paul Margetts. The sculpture is fabricated in stainless steel and electro-polished. It stands 3.5 metres high above a plinth. http://www.forging-ahead.co.uk/Ashton%20Munitions%20Sculpture.htm According to the plaque on the front: "This sculpture was designed with considerable help from children at St. Peter's Primary School, Ashton to remember THE ASHTON MUNITIONS EXPLOSION. At 4.22pm on Wednesday 13 June 1917, 5 tons of TNT exploded at the Hooley Hill Rubber and Chemicals Factory on William Street, near to Oxford Street in Ashton. A plaque is located near to the site of the disaster on William Street to commemorate where 46 people were killed and more than 400 were injured with hundreds more made homeless. Many of those killed were children on their way home from school on that fine June afternoon." For more information see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashton-under-Lyne_munitions_explosion GM 1914: The First World War in Greater Manchester: http://gm1914.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/tragedy-on-the-home-front-munitions-explosion-in-ashton/ BBC World War One At Home: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01q7vd4 For a list of the victims see http://www.c5d.co.uk/munitionsfactory.php
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
53.484793
Longitude
-2.102285