Snippet from Liverpool Mercury 1832
The Magazines
Many of our readers do not know perhaps that many thousands of barrels of
gunpowder are stored in the Magazines, situated on the Cheshire shore,
between
Egremont and the Lighthouse, but knowing that fact they will hardly believe
that so large a quantity of this dangerous combustible is kept in common
brick
sheds, covered only with slates, and consequently that no means are adopted
to protect it either from fire or lightning, as is usual elsewhere
An explosion would be attended with the most dreadful consequences both to
the neighbourhood and to Liverpool
During the late fire at Mr NORCLIFFE's Hotel situated within a hundred
yards
of the Magazines, the shore was covered with men, women and children,
roused
out of their beds, and many of them walked to Egremont without shoes or
stockings in order to get out of this dangerous neighbourhood
The public safety requires that some measures should be taken to prevent
so
terrible a catastophe as an explosion