Blimey! It seems the centre of Stoke-on-Trent could have been gassed during the First World War, had things gone awry and the wind been in the wrong direction. A forthcoming local history article has the details, “The Most Dangerous Factory in Britain: First World War Gas Warfare and the H.M. Cylinder Depot, Stoke-on-Trent“. The factory was located a mile or so west of Hanley, at Bucknall…

“By 1916 it was storing some 70,000 defective, dud and partially-discharged poison gas cylinders salvaged from the Western Front [the battlefield frontline in France]. With desperate gas shortages, cylinders were emptied, repaired and sent on to regional manufacturers to be refilled. The factory operated on a 24/7 basis.”

And there were escapes. For instance, William Heath of Silverdale was a worker there and was awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire for his bravery. From his citation… “This man, on numerous previous occasions [in addition to bravely rescuing a man saturated with escaped gas], has also displayed bravery and promptitude in dealing with serious escapes of poison gas”.