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December 2020 December 2020
BERE REGIS WI BERE REGIS HISTORY SOCIETY

Every year, Bere Regis WI members have an FIREWORKS IN WAR AND PEACE
outing to a local (or sometimes not so local)
place of interest. We’ve had guided walks Some years ago I was shown the work diaries of two of
around Wareham and Dorchester and visits to Britain’s major fireworks companies going right back to the
manor houses, country parks and museums, all Second World War. Both companies were operating
rounded off with appropriate victuals – be it ice cream or fish and chips or a normally until 1939, when all work was diverted to
cream tea. As we had to cancel our visit this year (a bespoke guided tour of supplying military contracts.
Minterne House and Gardens), we’re using our trusty word search as a method of They produced practice grenades, smoke flares, thunder-flashes, tracer charges
sharing with you some of our past outings. Please note, we didn’t all just go for bullets, special effects, decoy munitions, and decoy pyrotechnics, all the way
shopping in Tesco, this was a behind-the-scenes tour of the Blandford branch to up to marker-flares for the RAF Bomber Command Pathfinder Squadrons with very
see how everything works! Besides this, there are 11 others to find. accurate colour codings. After the war, it was not before November 1946 that
How did you get on with last month’s search? If you didn’t quite find them all, things got back to normal.
we’ve included the answer here. Bere Regis was no exception and we had our
own firework display at the Recreation Ground
For details of future meetings, or further information about the WI, please contact
Di Pitts on 01929 471322 or Moira Mathers on 07900 906278. You can see more on 5th November 1946. As might be expected
about our past meetings and activities on our Facebook page @BereRegisWI. of such a demanding job we selected a one-
legged man to light the fireworks and then run
away as fast as he could. I will not name him
here as his bravery should still be admired and
he was also a great friend of my Grandfather.
There were, according to a reliable witness,
lots of gaps between each firework and the
display went on for almost an hour. It did,
however, culminate in what seemed to be the
biggest firework in the collection and called a
"Super Mine". The fuse was lit and our man
legged it in the definite singular as fast as he
could go. The crowd were tense, knowing that this was the culmination of the
show. The firework fizzled then purred for a moment or two, then went "plop" as it
fell apart in a small cloud of smoke. Round of applause please.....

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