FEATURE | Kimbolton Fireworks
I was born in 1931 and as a young boy always enjoyed fireworks in the garden on November the 5th. Huddersfield, our home town was the northern centre of the UK firework trade with three manufacturers in the town, the oldest factory only a few miles from our house. At the highest point of the town there is a memorial tower to Queen Victoria and I vividly remember a display for the Coronation of the King in 1937. Interestingly fireworks have not played a great part this year for the 90th birthday of HRH Queen Elizabeth II. During the war years, along with a cousin, a big hobby was distilling our own charcoal to make gunpowder type mixtures. We had no interest in its explosive properties but rather used it to make rockets, learning which charcoals made the best sparks or the fastest propulsion.
The Reverend Ron Lancaster MBE CChem FRSC
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Potassium chlorate from pharmacies was quite expensive but we were aware of the problems and knew that potassium chlorate throat tablets could be ignited on a safety matchbox. Nevertheless we did occasionally make our own chlorate from sodium chlorate weedkiller which was unadulterated in those days. Universities and National Service occupied the next ten years until I was ordained into the Anglican Church in 1957, after deciding against a career in medicine. It was also an opportunity to renew contacts within the firework trade where I was actively encouraged to start undertaking research in the post-war trade, which had restarted after a five year period focusing on munitions. I am eternally grateful to the Greenhalgh Family of Standard Fireworks who employed as many as 600 personnel on four sites at one period and there was a need for some changes. In 1963 I moved to Kimbolton in Cambridgeshire to work at Kimbolton School as Chaplain and to teach Divinity and Chemistry, with permission to build a laboratory. This was in effect utilising the old ‘Small Factory Licence’ of 1875 which > required at least two workshops and a