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Harpur Hill, Derbyshire, 2012Former Maintenance Unit (M.U.) No.28 is located 6 miles south east of Buxton in Derbyshire. In 1940 this was the biggest chemical weapons reception and storage (phosgene and mustard gas) depot in the United KingdomAt its busiest, it is estimated that there was up to 46,000 individual chemical weapon bombs stored on the site of approx 500 acres and on the surrounding country lanesAfter the war wholesale burning of munitions including chemical weapons was undertaken by ‘X’ Stations, the RAF’s division that decommissioned captured chemical weaponsThis proved unreliable as it rendered a lot of the surrounding landscape void of vegetation.The Harpur Hill site closed as a military facility in 1960Since then the underground storage tunnels have been used to store cheese, bonded storage of alcohol and the growing of mushroomsThere is also a toxic quarry lake where ordnance testing took place during WWII, that locals know as ‘The Blue Lagoon’ and which the local council has identified with a ph level of 11.

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