Ambleside Herald & Lakes News Issue #228 1 August 1884 Page 4 Gunpowder Works Exploded by Lightning On Saturday morning a thunderstorm passed over the Lake District. At the Blackbeck Gunpowder Works, two miles from the foot of Lake Windermere, three men had just entered the corning house, after breakfast, the machinery not having been started, when a flash of lightning exploded about 8 cwt. of powder in the corning house. The building was situated in the heart of a wood. Portions of the roof and timbers were blown a distance of a hundred yards, and the three men were lifted into the wood -- a distance of dozen yards. They died before remedies could be applied. Their names were: JOHN WOODEND of Bouth, aged 60 single; REUBAN STEPHENSON, Bouth, 35 married with five children; WILLIAM PHILIPS, Benthaw, 23 married one child. GEORGE GOSDEN, a widower, was standing outside the building at the time of the explosion. His clothes were set on fire, but he ran to a beckcourse, some fifty yards away and jumped in. He is badly burned about the body and legs but is expected to recover. He was burnt at the explosion of the corning house on the same site three years ago. David Leverton Leverton, Stevens, Clibborn, Dodgson, Hird, Stalker ulpha@telus.net