Loud bang still a mystery

Several residents in Wash Water and the surrounding areas heard a loud bang last Thursday morning

MYSTERY surrounds the cause of a loud bang that was heard in Wash Water last week.

Wash Water resident, Heidi Lewis, said that she heard a loud bang at 6.23am last Thursday morning (November 17), which she said sounded like it had come from the Hungerford direction.

She added that her husband Brynley said it shook the windows of their house, adding that he also felt the ground shake.

Mrs Lewis said: “I thought it might have been a gas explosion.

“It was so loud and it is not what you expect to hear - it was more like what you might hear on Salisbury Plain.”

After a story was published on Newburytoday.co.uk last Thursday, several other local residents in Wash Common and Wash Water contacted Newburytoday.co.uk to say that they too had heard the bang, with Angela Money, of Glendale Avenue, adding that the noise had woken her up.

She said: “It was really really loud.

“I couldn't hazard a guess at what it was, it seems a complete mystery.”

A couple of residents suggested that the noise was similar to that of a field gun, while David Lewis, who was walking his dog in the fields on Andover Drove, said he believed the noise came from the west, adding that he thought it may have been from a vehicle on the A34 bypass.

However, Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman, Ellie Gray, said the fire service had received no reports of an explosion or of any incidents in the Enborne and Wash Water areas.

Thames Valley Police also confirmed that they had received no reports of any incidents in the surrounding areas.

In December 2009, a similarly mysterious blast rocked homes in Chaddleworth and the surrounding areas, with the finger of suspicion initially falling on RAF Welford after witnesses reported that a plume of smoke had appeared over the base.

The blast, which occurred at about 1.30pm on Sunday, December 27, was heard as far afield as Newbury and Thatcham and it later emerged that the cause of the blast was a fireworks factory in Westbrook.

Thames Valley Police spokeswoman, Laura Deane, confirmed that the firework factory was disposing of some fireworks, adding that due to the weather conditions on that day, the sound travelled further than usual.

She added that this was a regular occurrence that usually went unheard.

However, Thames Valley Police had no records of a similar incident last week - still leaving the cause of the noise a mystery.