UKPS members at Blists Hill

UKPS Members Steve Miller and Phil Dunford have recently appeared in the prestigious BBC2 series, ‘The Victorian Pharmacy’.

Steve shows how fireworks were made before the 1875 Explosives act and Phil demonstrates the evolution of matches.

The program is available on iPlayer until the 16th of August Programme Website

When the series is complete, a DVD will be available from the BBC.

The UKPS has won a grant of £2500 from the Association for Industrial Archaeology (AIA) towards the rebuilding of the Wells sheds at Amberley.

This is excellent news and a real boost for the project.

The money must be used for rebuilding the old sheds, but it means that the £1500 we have already raised can go towards the creation of the new museum building.

We will be visiting Amberley shortly to draw up final plans to submit for planning permission.

Exciting times..

ps – this does not mean we can stop fund-raising!

Only 20 copies were printed and only two have ever been sold outside the Wells Family, so this is a rare piece of fireworks history.

Bernard was Alan’s uncle and was (among other things) responsible for bringing fireworks to Disney in America.

When the book goes on sale, we will let you know, both here and on the project website.

www.wellsatamberley.org

The Marlborough School
Shipton Road
Woodstock
Oxon
OX20 1LP
Saturday 27th March 2010 – Arrive 13.30 for 14.00 start

We need support both financial and practical. We need to raise about £6000 and we will need a dedicated group of people to do the work.

Full details are on the project website at http://www.wellsatamberley.org/

Please publicise this project and consider what you may be able to do to assist us.

We are pleased to announce that Spark Issue 5 has been published.

This is a bumper 36 page edition with something for everyone.

They were posted to members on the 10th October 2009.

Due to the current postal disputes we cannot be sure when they will be delivered. However, all members who have registered an email address with us have been sent a PDF file of the magazine.

It will held at Woodstock, just North of Oxford, hopefully a good central location that lot’s of people can get to.

We plan to invite some high-profile speakers and have many other interesting events.

Please put this date in your diary – more details to follow.

Hopefully we will have even more people attending than last year.

• Illuminate Consult Cat 4 course – Reviewed by Phil Dunford
• Made in China Part 3 – Jon Williams
• Tests on the use of Red Gum for granulating
  Black Powder – Phil Dunford
• Photographing Fireworks Part 3 – Richard Harwood
• Cake construction, Part 1 – Dean Graham
• Our ever-popular Pyro Crossword

Receiving a copy of Spark is just one of the benefits of membership of the UKPS. If you aren’t a member, why not consider joining us today?

Phil Dunford provided a slideshow talk of firework labels and effects of days gone by. Phill Cooper gave a demonstration of star rolling principles and technique, and Richard talked about his recent visit to Liuyang, China.

Stephen Miller M.I.Exp.E. of Live Action FX Limited presented a very informative and entertaining talk about a particular special effects project that involved explosively demolishing an Indian Temple for a film. The AGM was brought to a close with a professionally fired fireworks display featuring traditional English setpieces.

The UKPS kindly thanks Bishop Thomas Grant School, Streatham for hosting our AGM. A special thanks is due to all those who attended or helped in any capacity to organise the event. A copy of the opening presentation will be made available online shortly.