Maidenhead - Badnells Pit

Story update

Badnells Pit was used from the start of the war until the early 60’s as a general dump for Slough industries and Maidenhead. The lack of regulation during this period meant that by an large the contents of the pit are unknown and can only be guessed at.

The Subterra is almost certainly straight into the water table, where any leakage will go, the contents of the tip will be metal “swarf” from the lathes of Slough and chemicals used in metal finishing (usual sulphuric and nitric acid) some cyanide will also likely to be present from the chrome plating industry.

None of these are particularly dangerous and in all probability will have dispersed in the fifty years since the war.

Are there dangers, it is almost certain there are combinations of chemicals that can cause problems if mixed and movement is likely to mix these together, however the danger is more likely to the people who do the clean up rather than the local residents from these type. Others are more dangerous, during the war many processes that were used to clean up the by products of the manufacture of some components were simply abandoned as a consequence waste was dumped untreated and unsafe. Whether this was the case in this pit is unsure. The fact is that it is one of a few at that time close to Slough and the small manufacturing units that supported Slough along the railway line in either direction through Maidenhead