The waterways of the Royal Gunpowder Mills are a unique three level industrial canal system, originally extending to ten miles, with locks between the levels and a cut to the Lee Navigation to enable the transportation of finished product by sailing barge to magazines on the Thames. Smooth shock-free water was preferable to roads for transport of materials between the process buildings.

Making explosives is a dangerous business. The Royal Gunpowder Mills were engaged in that business for nearly 300 years and accidents do happen. This is the record of those accidents in which people lost their lives either in explosions or in the waterways which provided much of the early driving force for the Mills. The information comes not only from the official enquiries and inquests but from contemporary local and national newspaper reports and parish magazines.