A Whiteparish local history page from younsmere-frustfield.org.uk
Pains set up their firework factory in the disused chalk quarry on Chalkpit Farm in 1984, and this is now (2019) the head office of the company (Pains Fireworks). According to Pains Fireworks, history suggests that the barrels of gunpowder used in the infamous plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament were "manufactured by a gunpowder manufacturer within earshot of the Bells of Bow". At that time the only such business was one John Pain, the founder of the modern day Pains Fireworks. After several mergers Pains became Pains-Wessex, which was bought by Siemens in 1986 and is now part of the Chemring Group.. The precise history is difficult to trace, but Pains Fireworks was incorporated as a private limited company in 1979 and appears to have split from Pains-Wessex at that date. Fireworks.co.uk includes a brief summary of the history of Pains Fireworks.
Pains provides the village with an impressive firework display free of charge each year in aid of the school. The school arranges to sell tickets, proceeds of which go to school funds. This has generally taken place on the Memorial Ground and more recently on the field behind the Parish Lantern pub, where the slope of the field provides a very large gathering with excellent views of the spectacle. Many glowing reports of these events can be seen on the village website at Whiteparish.co.uk.
Pains has proved to be a very considerate neighbour over the 35 years that they have been there now (2019), although not long after they moved to the village there was an explosion on their site that damaged nearby house windows and caused a certain amount of alarm about our new neighbours. I returned from work to hear that windows in a nearby property had been shattered by an explosion in the factory. The crew of a fire engine standing by the gate at the sharp bend on Dean Lane looked across the field towards the pit and asked me whether they would be able to gain access that way. At least one local landowner is reputed to have faced down another fire engine crew at the gate to one of his fields. Nobody was hurt and in the ensuing 35 years there have been no more reported incidents. Lots of people remember this event and for another account see Richard Stevens' reminiscences at Whiteparish.co.uk [private viewers can see a local pdf archive copy of this page here - pdf file opens very slowly].
Firemen making checks after the explosion at the Firework Factory in 1985, Wilts & Hants Times April 1985
The article on the explosion from the Wilts & Hants Times in April 1985 from which the above picture comes. The text is as follows:
Blast sparks big probe
An explosion in a fireworks store triggered off a full scale alert at Whiteparish.
Wiltshire fire brigade were flooded with calls from worried residents within two minutes of the blast.
Two storage magazines, containing about two tons of chemicals and half a ton of fireworks disintegrated in the blast at the Pains Fireworks depot at the Chalkpit, Romsey Road.
Debris was blown 60 feet into the air, landing in fields around the deep disused chalk pit.
None of the five workers at the site was injured in the explosion, which caused £4,000 damage, and is thought to have been causesd by decomposing chemicals.
An investigation by the explosives inspectorate is to be carried out at the site, which opened last June after licences were granted under the Explosives Act.