Abandoned Gunpowder Works in Kennall Vale Nature Reserve

Kennall Vale Nature Reserve is off the usual tourist's radar but we like to think of ourselves as not your usual tourist. :) Although we did experience the usual tourist stress of trying to find parking! As usual in England, there weren't any easy spots near the entrance of the park so we found off-street parking in one of the surrounding neighborhoods. The walk to the entrance is very pretty at this time of the year though --flowers were in bloom along the way.

Within the fairytale forest of Kennall Vale are the remains of Kennall Gunpowder Company, built in 1812. The works employed 50 men and produced about 5 thousand barrels of gunpowder per year. Majority of the gunpowder produced was used in Cornish mines.

98 years in operation did not go without incident --there were several. The first known fatal incident occurred in 1826. A well-meaning woman named Elizabeth Rutter visited the Mixing House bearing a basket of hot roasted potatoes for the three men working there. She arrived unknowingly carrying a spark to the highly volatile building and caused an explosion, killing Elizabeth and one of the men. The company adopted safety precautions but was still unable to prevent accidents. The largest accident occurred 10 years after the hot potato explosion, in which five mills blew up one after another leaving behind, surprisingly, only one casualty. Despite these tragic events, Kennall Gunpowder company was quite a successful operation. In total, there were approximately 50 separate buildings. After the turn of the century however gelignite and dynamite grew in preference to gunpowder and in 1910, the factory was forced to close.

The quarry, a source of Cornish granite.

The forest has slowly overtaken many of the structures that remain, leaving behind a scenery that seems straight out of a fairytale. I wouldn't be surprised if an elf popped out but you're more likely to encounter a ghost --Kennall Vale is considered one of the most haunted places in Cornwall.