Hi Anne Thanks for the info, I had a look at your website. I can add you to my website links page if you like, not that I get that much traffic. My site is a family history one, the Bloors were the Bargees, and the address is www.ky.lewis.btinternet.co.uk Let me know if you would like me to add you website.(Oh and that goes to anyone else too, providing it has some vague relevance) Regards Karen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Anne" <Anne.Nichols@ukgateway.net> To: "Karen Lewis" <ky.lewis@btinternet.com>; "CANAL-PEOPLE-L" <CANAL-PEOPLE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 7:40 PM Subject: Re: [CANAL-PEOPLE] Regents Park explosion 1874 > Hi Karen, > > Thursday, November 29, 2001, 6:40:08 PM, you wrote: > > KL> Hi > > KL> Does anyone have any info on the gunpowder explosion on /by > KL> Regents Park in 1874. One of my relatives Joseph Bloor (1853-1916) > KL> received a ducking and blackened face but I know very little about > KL> it. I would appreciate any info anyone has or where I could get > KL> further info from > > I found this in the book referred to at the top of the extract, there > is also an illustration which I have scanned in and posted to my > website here: > > http://www.yobunny.freeservers.com/canals/regents-pk.htm > > Source: British Canals, by Charles Hadfield. Published by Phoenix > House, 1950 Pages 68-69, and illustration on pages 56-7 > > In 1874 the Illustrated London News carried an account of the famous > Regent's Park explosion. The following is an extract: > > "An extraordinary accident, which happened yesterday week at five > o'clock in the morning, cost the loss of several lives, much damage to > houses and furniture, and a vast alarm to the north-western suburbs of > London. This was the blowing up of a barge laden with petroleum and > gunpowder for blasting, which was one of a train drawn by a steam-tug > along the Regent's Canal... . The train of six light barges, of which > the first was a steamer, left the wharf in the City-road about three > o'clock that morning. Next after the steamer, the Ready, was the > fly-boat Jane, whose steerer or captain was named Boswell. Next to her > was the Dee, the steerer tdwards; and next came the unfortunate > Tilbury, whose steerer was Charles Baxton, of Loughborough, in > Leicestershire. The Jane "had a little gunpowder on board". The > Tilbury's lading is thus described by the official report: "The cargo > consisted chiefly of sugar and other miscellaneous articles, such as > nuts, straw-boards, coffee, and some two or three barrels of > petroleum, and about five tons of gun-powder." . . . Three or four > minutes before five o'clock, this train of barges was passing under > the bridge at North Gate, Regent's Park.... On board the ill-fated > Tilbury were the steersman, Charles Baxton, who was about thirty-five > years of age; William Taylor, a labourer, of twenty-five; another man > and a boy. The Tilbury was directly under the bridge when by some > means yet unexplained, the powder caught fire and the whole was blown > up. The men on board this barge were killed, and the barge was > shattered to pieces, while one of the other barges was sunk. A column > of thick smoke and a grea t blaze of fire followed the explosion. The > bridge was entirely destroyed; several of the neighbouring houses were > half-ruined, their roofs and walls being greatly injured; and in > hundreds of other houses, a mile east or west of the place, the > windows were broken, and many fragile articles of furniture.. . . The > noise and shock were perceived in every quarter of London, and in many > instances ten or twelve miles away, both on the north and the south > side of the Thames.... Women and children rushed out of the houses, > screaming for help, some in their night-dresses, others wrapped in > blankets, and were not easily pacified by those of cooler mind whom > they met. People soon hastened up from every quarter of town. The > police, the Fire Brigade, and a detachment of Horse Guards (Blue) from > Albany Barracks, presently arrived and kept order, while the task of > saving what remained and searching for the lost was actively begun." > > -- > Cheers, > Anne mailto:Anne.Nichols@ukgateway.net > > ListOwner: Docwra, Dockery, Garton, Hampson, Schofield > > Message Board Admin: Docwra, Dockery, Dockerill, Dockrey, Dockrill, > Garton, Hampson > > Webmistress: http://stop.at/canalcaholic > >