This week marks a new beginning for me. I have decided to take part in the 52 Ancestors event, attempting to tell a story on a different theme every week. Hopefully, that will get me back into the swing of regular blogging. Let’s see. This week’s theme is ‘beginnings’, which seems a sensible place to start.
The Whittall St explosion of 1859 may sound more like an ending than a beginning. But it so shocked the people of the UK, that it helped bring in the Act of 1860. This governed the way that firearms, ammunition, and fireworks were manufactured and their components stored. In essence, it was one of the first occupational health and safety acts to be enacted. And at a personal level, there were new beginnings in the Groocock and other bereaved families as a result of this disastrous accident.
The Whittall St Explosion
Pursall and Phillips was a percussion cap factory located at 22 Whittall St in the heart of Birmingham’s Gun Quarter. Birmingham was one of the major centres of the global gun industry, employing thousands in the manufacture of guns and ammunition. In 1859 guns had largely moved from using flintlock to percussion caps to ignite the gunpowder. Percussion caps, however, were extremely dangerous. The fulminate of mercury used in the caps was very sensitive to sudden movements or pressure and extremely explosive. Factories in Birmingham at the time were usually small and jammed closely together.
On the 27th of September 1859, the unthinkable happened. A huge explosion tore through Pursall and Phillips mid-morning, reducing the entire factory to flames and rubble. There were around 70 employees at the factory. Many were women and children, who were often employed to do the small fiddly work. Indeed of the 20 people known to have died, 19 were female, ranging in age from 10 to 31 years. The one man who died, Humphrey Wood, had initially survived but ran into the aftermath to rescue his wife Elizabeth who also worked there. He was crushed when the building collapsed on top of him.
The cause of this (inevitable) explosion was a broken gas main in the basement, which added to an already volatile atmosphere. The three-storey building exploded, burned and collapsed around the unfortunate workforce, many of whom did not stand a chance of escape.
The Whittall St explosion made huge news all around the country, with a collection taken up for the families of those bereaved. The local community gathered together too. Most of the victims ended up being buried together on the same day at the local parish church, St Mary Whittall St. They only remained there until the 1950s however, as they were amongst the many who were exhumed and reinterred at Warstone Lane Cemetery in order to expand the grounds of the Birmingham General Hospital. Ironically, this was where most of the victims had died.
Martha Groocock
Martha Groocock was born Martha Benton around 1829 in Birmingham. She was one of the two eldest to die in the explosion. The other was Fanny Dollman, nee Earp.
Martha was born to John Benton and Mary Ann Wainwright. This Benton family originated from Kings Norton, as in ‘All roads lead to…’ if you are a regular reader! She used to be one of a handful of people in my tree who I was related to on both sides. Or more accurately her children were. She’s still related to my (now half-)uncle, but due to an unfortunate ‘Misattributed Parentage Event’ uncovered by DNA after my first 25 years of traditional research, she is now only related to me by marriage!
Martha married Henry Groocock, who to the best of my knowledge is still a blood relative(!), on Christmas Eve, 1848 at St Philips Cathedral in Birmingham. Henry was a cooper, born in Gilmorton, Leicestershire in 1827 to William Groocock and Betsy nee Boulton. Henry and Martha went on to have two sons, Henry (1853) and Joseph (1856). The marriage was not a successful one. How do I know this? Because Henry was already making new beginnings before the Whittall St explosion even happened.
Henry Groocock’s new beginnings
By the time of the Whittall St explosion, Henry had already bigamously remarried over two years earlier. His second wife was a young woman by the name of Emma Mason. She was in the very early stages of pregnancy with their first child when Martha died. Henry almost immediately married Emma again, legally this time and they went on to have four children together over the next 17 years.
He was not the only one to quickly make some new beginnings following the tragedy though. Remember the other ‘senior’ victim of the explosion, Fanny Dollman? Her husband William George Dollman remarried on Christmas Day 1859 – one of those oh-so-common Christmas weddings of the era. This was to be forgiven, and possibly expected in those times, as there were children who needed a mother. It was common practice to marry again without a long courtship. And at least he didn’t ‘pre-marry’ like Henry did. Although, wait…his bride was none other than the widow of the loyal Humphrey Wood who had died trying to save her from the explosion!