In September 1940 3 people were killed in an explosion and 3 were injured, I cannot find how this happened but it is the first incident that I can find a record of. A year later a machine that mixed ammonium nitrate and TNT caused an explosion that killed 3 more people and injured 6.
On July 27th 1942 the factory was bombed by a single plane. This occured at 06.00am just as the night shift was leaving and the day shift was taking over. Apparently due to it being a dull morning the blackout curtains had been taken down earlier than usual so the factory stood out from the surroundings quite a bit. Strangely the factory had virtually nothing in the way of defence against attack, instead relying on camouflage for protection. Apparently the factory site looked like a large lake from the air. The only defence was a machine gun platform, usually manned all the time but not that morning as the sole Lewis gun was being repaired. The plane was a Dornier 17 which was by all accounts flying very low. It dropped two 250kg bombs, the first hitting a transit shed and killing 17 people and injuring 24, the second bounced off the concrete over the factory perimeter and hit the factory police superintendents house killing five of his family. The bomber was shot down by Spitfires from Tern Hill and crashed in Gloucestershire apparently.
In Oct 1942 an explosion in a filling shed killed 2 and injured 4 but the worst accident happened in 1944. It was May 30th in the sea mine section with mines waiting for transport to distribution depots. It was a very hot day and the sun was shining through the window onto one particular mine that began to smoke. The alarm was raised and three workers tried to put out the mine with water and sand, but to no avail as the mine eventually exploded in the early evening. Astonishingly only one of the men was killed, the fire that was caused set off other ordenance in the vicinity and eventually the whole building collapsed injuring a lot of people. Surprisingly the fires were under control by 8pm. It was estimated that around 30 mines and 2000lbs of bombs had gone off during the incident. This was the last accident recorded before the end of the war.
I will post up any snippets I find out, when or if, I do find anything else, I believe there is a book about the factory so I will have to see if I can obtain a copy from somewhere.
Don