THIS week in Down Memory Lane I am looking into a question asked over the garden fence!

Alan Brown, of East Tilbury, is one of several people who have asked me what I am doing about the lions in Corringham? I pointed out I may be a curator, but not a keeper!

Of course they mean the pair of stone lions which once guarded the gated entrance to the Birmingham-based Kynoch’s Explosive Works.

Kynoch’s purchased 750 acres of land in 1895 comprising the Borley Farm, near Shell Haven Creek, to open a new explosive works.

They needed to expand production of explosives for orders to supply the British War Office.

The explosive works contained all the production buildings interlinked by railways to the magazines to store the end product kynite.

It was also designed to house many employees on a new estate called Kynochtown and was further linked by the Corringham Light Railway to barrack accommodation for the many ladies employed in the works and for those who lived further afield.

During the Great War period the Kynoch factories were producing on average 200 tonnes of explosives, mostly at Corringham.

My featured photograph shows the main gate with its security guard checking vehicles and employees to ensure no matches or other items that could produce a spark entered.

Flanking are the two lions representing the brand logo of the company from its Lion Works in Witton, outside Birmingham.

I will be checking out the lions this week to try and ensure their life and access at Corringham continues, despite the change of land ownership.