BANG!!!

The largest explosion of the first and second world wars, outside of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was in a tiny village in Staffordshire, Hanbury.

I have a 50 walks in Staffordshire book, that I don't use very often, but today we decided to investigate The Secret of the Hanbury Crater.
At 11am on 27 November 1944 approximately 3700 tonnes of ammunition and high explosives stored in abandoned mine shafts just outside Hanbury exploded. The mine shafts were being used as storage depots for high explosives during the war. The explosion devastated the area, wiping out an entire farm and its occupants, causing a reservoir to break its dam and flood a factory, and creating a crater 100 yds deep and quarter of a mile across.

The explosion killed over 70 people, 18 of whom were never found.

As you can see, the crater's been re-colonised now by trees and plants. Although it's still cordoned off by the MOD, and there's a memorial to the people killed as you walk around the outskirts of the crater. Unfortunately my camera really didn't do it justice, it really is...erm impressive(?)