A detailed history of each of five gunpowder mills operational in the Lake District from the 1790's onwards with information drawn from archive documents used to reconstruct their site layouts and operations plus a description of the process of combining charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre (potassium

The history of gunpowder production in the UK from C17th onwards with particular reference to the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey and the historic blackpowder milling sites around Faversham, as well as preventative measures taken in the C19th to reduce explosions during manufacture.