Plan of Red Quarry in 1962 Not to Scale
The
Quarry was worked from
1940-1963 producing Wilmslow red sand for the metal casting industry,
the
method of working was by explosives
To
drill the shot holes a
10ft twist drill with tungsten carbide tip driven by electric motor
hand held,
the type used in coal mines to drill the coal face.
Explosive
used was polar
ammon gelignite in 4oz 11/2”X4” sticks fired by No 6 electric
detonators, the
soft sandstone was drilled into at an angle at the base
The
layout of the Quarry
was as you entered of the Mottram road the office and weighbridge was
on your
right, strait on a small shed then the sandhopper with roof in the
centre of
the Quarry, behind the office and up a path was the magazine set back
into the
sand hill as plan.
Magazine Height 4 foot ...Width 5 foot
IT WAS THIS MAGAZINE, Explosive Store that was broken into twice, first in October 1962 and November 5th (Guy Fawkes) night 1962.
The Magazine was MODE A Licence explosive store made of brick with a concrete base and roof, detonator store was to the right hand side the main store, the main door was steel with 2 locks, detonator store door was steel with one lock.The
raiders used a sledgehammer taken from the Quarry shed to brake the
brickwork
on the right hand side of the detonator store door and stole 60
detonators
electric No6.
The
second raid on Nov 5th the raiders blew the two locks on the
main
door of the explosive store using safety fuse No6 aluminium detonators
and
polar ammon gelignite, the police arrived within 6 minutes if any
gelignite was
stolen it was a small amount, this raid is the first were explosives
were used
to blow the locks on an explosive store.