West Midlands 2022
Fauld Explorer Trail
On the old mine’s surface, Upper Castle Hayes Farm simply disintegrated – the farmhouse, the residents and the livestock. The greatest devastation was caused by the bursting of a reservoir, releasing a huge flood into the nearby mine and plasterworks, drowning many.
The investigation was kept secret until the 1970s. At the time, local rumour blamed sabotage by prisoners of war who worked at the site. The secret report actually blamed poor health-and-safety: a worker likely used a brass chisel to knock off an exploder fuse, which caused a spark and detonated the bomb store, causing the world's largest non-nuclear explosion in the entire war.
The civilian dead from the Fauld explosion are commemorated on the CWGC’s Civilian Roll of Honour in Westminster Abbey at the entrance to St George’s Chapel, and six Italian prisoner graves can be found among other military graves in nearby Burton Upon Trent.
For more information on the West Midlands 2022 event, August 1-8 2022,
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