WE’VE printed dramatic photographs of the Penn Bros. Works Boiler Explosion before, and here is another to add to the impressive archive. It is yet another image that we can attribute to prolific Cradley Heath photographer of the day, Edwin Beech.
On the morning of July 4th 1906, a tremendous explosion occurred at the works of Penn Brothers in Providence Street, Cradley Heath, sending large sections of a boiler hurtling into the sky, and landing with great destructive force hundreds of yards away. Here is one such section of boiler, which had narrowly missed the buildings in the background, though an outbuilding had been flattened, as seen. Two workers were killed and several other people were badly injured, but the carnage could have been far worse.
This image is taken from a copy of an Edwin Beech postcard issued shortly afterwards, and recently acquired by regular reader Dennis Wood.
