[meteorite-list] Fauld Crater, Staffordshire, England

[ensoramanda]

Hi Paul,

I live about 20 miles from the Fauld crater and have visited many 
times...quite a sight and quite a story behind it. There was recently a 
memorial set up for those who died at the site. The fields around are 
strewn with the gypsum blown from the mine under the crater....many with 
shatter cones visible.

I have an extra chilling tale about the crater and one of the reasons I 
visit with my friend. My best friend from school and now my brother in 
law belongs to a farming family who go back for many generations. His 
father's cousins and relatives farmed the land on and around the crater. 
On the day of the explosion the children from the farm left and went to 
school as usual. At 11:11 on that Nov 27th 1944 the whole school shook 
and the children hid under tables as windows blew in and tiles few 
everywhere. Some children then ran outside dispite warnings from 
teachers that it might be an air raid. Stones where falling from the sky 
and they were lucky not to be injured. The children where sent home.

When the children returned home to their farm it had disappeared. The 
farm was on or very near the crater and had been completely wiped of the 
beautiful fields it once cared for. Their parents and farm hands were 
never found. My father and mother remember hearing/feeling the explosion.

Graham Ensor, Nr Barwell UK

Paul wrote:

>Dear Friends, 
>
>While looking around, a friend found something, which 
>looked like an impact crater at: 
>
>Latidue 52.847117N, Longitude 1.730608W
>
>After a quick search, I found that it although it was
>indeed a crater, it was not the result of a meteorite
>impact and had more earthly origins. It was the site
>of the Fauld explosion, which occurred when in 1944, 
>some 3,670 tons of RAF bombs exploded being stored 
>underground exploded. A paper about thsi event is:
>
>Waltham, T., 2001, The Fauld Crater. Mercian Geologist. 
>vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 123-125.
>
>A 536Kb PDF file can be obtained from:
>
>http://www.emgs.org.uk/files/local_geology/15(2)_fauld_crater.pdf
>
>The “Fauld Explosion” web page is at:
>
>http://www.carolyn.topmum.net/tutbury/fauld/fauldcrater.htm
>
>and “The world's largest-ever explosion (almost) - in 
>Staffordshire 60 years ago” at:
>
>http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/features/history/2004/fauld.shtml
>
>Yours,
>
>Paul H.
>
>
> 
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