Gunpowder Plot Tested in ITV Documentary

Four hundred years ago last Saturday, Guy Fawkes and a few conspirators tried blowing up Parliament. The result has become “A penny for the Guy,” fireworks and bonfires. Historians have long maintained that the plot was doomed from the outset because the gunpowder meant to destroy the English monarchy and legislature in one blow had decayed. However, new research, televised last Tuesday on ITV, shows just the opposite. History turned radically in just a few hours.

In The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend, historians turned to engineers to test the plot. Using 650 tons of concrete and some floor plans from four centuries ago, they built a replica of the Palace of Westminster as it was in 1605 out in the Cumbrian countryside. The chamber was loaded up with crash test dummies, disposable cameras and various sensors. It was as fair a recreation as possible – although the ITV team didn’t bother with a cotton rope fuse. Wisely, they relied on an electronic detonation triggered about 2,800 feet away.

Thanks to tests by Sidney Alford, who was explosives consultant on the show, the world now knows that decayed gunpowder from the 17th century recipe will still explode. Indeed, Mr. Fawkes and his pals had enough to have their explosion heard 5 miles away.

In a statement, Arup (the engineering company that devised the test, and got a huge amount of publicity at marginal cost) said that if the blast itself didn’t kill, then “Any of the other physical effects of the explosion, such as direct blast pressure, scorching, impact of high-speed timber fragments and the impact of falling back down to the ground could also have killed many, if not all, of those present. But the extreme upward thrust would have been the primary cause of death.” The concrete foundations would have channeled the explosive force directly upwards into James I and the rest.

Had it succeeded, the Gunpowder Plot would have resulted in the deaths of most of the English ruling elite, a child princess (Elizabeth, James’ daughter) on the throne, a strengthened Catholic Party, and almost certainly, no union with Scotland. “Briton” would at best be a geographic rather than political description, and America would have been populated by a much different bunch of Englishman.

David Hadden, Arup’s blast consultant, said, “After years of speculation, the test has proved once and for all that Fawkes’ plan would have had devastating consequences for anyone present in the House of Lords that day, though not for the surrounding areas as previously thought.” Which goes to show that history is a living topic of study.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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