The retired clergyman whose 花火s factory has made people go 'Ooooohh' for 50 years

専門家技術者s in 全体にわたるs are beavering away in small 研究室／実験室s made of 増強するd 固める／コンクリート. They mix spoonfuls of dark, pungent 化学製品s on some old-fashioned 重さを計るing 規模s and then carefully decant the 砕く into little tubes which are gently moved to a 一連の armour-plated （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕s.

There are no 調印するs to identify these lugubrious, low-lying buildings, most of which are painted a dull, institutional green. Barbed wire, の近くにd-回路・連盟 cameras and trees guard the perimeter.

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It all feels like a わずかに 時代遅れの, 最高の，を越す-secret 省 of Defence 取り付け・設備 in a science-fiction thriller.

But these boffins are not cooking up some fiendish secret 武器. This is not Porton 負かす／撃墜する or Aldermaston. I am inside the （警察，軍隊などの）本部 of a company owned and run by a retired clergyman from Yorkshire who is celebrating 50 years of making people go: "Ooooh!"

"I often think we should 支払う／賃金 a historian to 明らかにする some new 証拠 that Guy Fawkes really tried to 爆発する 議会 on a nice day in 早期に September," chuckles the Rev Ron Lancaster, 76.

"It would be so much better for everyone if we didn't have to do all this in November."

Ron is the grandee of British 花火s. In the days ahead, his company, Kimbolton 花火s, will 推進する thousands of 星／主役にするs, ロケット／急騰するs, Roman candles and multi-coloured 惑星s through the night sky all over Britain.

Over the years, Ron's handiwork has been watched by tens of millions. Remember the Hong Kong handover in 1997? The British Empire went out with one almighty bang and it was Ron who lit the match.

When he blew up 18 トンs of 花火s on the Thames in 前線 of the Queen in 1995 to 示す the 50th 周年記念日 of VJ Day, he 始める，決める a new British 記録，記録的な／記録する. Perhaps if they had 雇うd Ron to organise London's 花火s on Millennium Eve, then the farcical "River of 解雇する／砲火／射撃" might 現実に have caught 解雇する／砲火／射撃.

He has won prizes all over the world. One of his favourites is the award he got at the 1984 Pyrotechnic Guild International 会議／協議会 in America. The plaque is 献身的な to the "Master Blaster 牧師".

So, as November 5 approaches, Ron's 20-strong 全労働人口 are entering the busiest 段階 of the year. And yet, for all his success and all the secret 花火 recipes stashed away in his 安全な, Ron believes that this proud little 産業 is under 脅し. 'It's never been harder to make money in this 商売／仕事,' he argues. The 推論する／理由 is 完全に predictable: bureaucrats.

In the run-up to this year's Bonfire Night, there have been many depressingly familiar tales of 伝統的な 集会s 存在 cancelled.

Health and safety commissars, 救急車 chasing lawyers and the 保険 産業 have conspired to make so many events impossible - even though 90 per cent of Bonfire Night 傷害s will be 原因（となる）d by the humble sparkler.

This year, the 環境 is also 存在 特記する／引用するd as a 推論する／理由 for banning 花火s. It's utter tosh, by the way. The 炭素 足跡 of the largest 陳列する，発揮する in 最近の years, the 200th 周年記念日 of the 戦う／戦い of Trafalgar out in the Solent (another Kimbolton 生産／産物), was no more than one 戦車／タンク of 石油 for an 普通の／平均（する） family car.

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Andy Hubble, 広報担当者 for the 1,000-strong British Pyrotechnists 協会, says that while big events are 繁栄するing, the smallscale Bonfire Night charity 集会 is on the 拒絶する／低下する.

"They are disappearing all the time and, once they go, they're gone for good," he says.

A 簡潔な／要約する 調査する of this year's cas ualties 含むs the loss of two 花火s 陳列する，発揮するs in York, Guy Fawkes' home city. And Bonfire Night in Slough, Berkshire, will be a chilly event に引き続いて the 会議's 決定／判定勝ち（する） to 捨てる the bonfire (on 環境の grounds).

Ron's company used to 供給（する） the 花火s for a 地元の Scouting organisation which would raise 基金s with a popular 陳列する，発揮する at a 地元の race course. Then the 地元の 会議 主張するd that the race course was a 冒険的な 円形競技場 and ordered the Scouts to 雇う a team of stewards, all of whom had to be in 永久の 無線で通信する 接触する.

By the time the 雇う cost of the 無線で通信するs was 含むd in the 予算, the event went into the red. It no longer takes place.

"The only growth 産業 in Britain is health and safety," says Ron. "Don't get me wrong. I take safety 極端に 本気で. I have had two serious 出来事/事件s in my time and that is two too many. But I always point out that you are a lot safer watching 花火s than you are in your car on the way home."

He is all in favour of rigorous 警戒s - and the 爆発性のs 産業 is second only to 核の 力／強力にする ーに関して／ーの点でs of 規則 - but he despairs of the relentless rise of the box-ticking nonentities whose 優先 is to 正当化する their own 存在.

In some parts of London, up to a dozen 当局 have to be 伴う／関わるd - and paid - before anyone can 開始する，打ち上げる a 独房監禁 bombette.

追加する to that new EU 指示的なs on the 輸送（する） and 貯蔵 of 花火s which come into 軍隊 next March and it is （疑いを）晴らす that the secret to a good 花火s 陳列する，発揮する is no longer a knowledge of the combusting 所有物／資産／財産s of potassium nitrate or magnesium. What you really need is a 法律 degree and the number of a bloke in 中国.

Because, however much the health and safety commissars stamp their boots here in Britain, the fact is that 96 per cent of 花火s sold in this country are 輸入するd from 中国.

Once there were 製造業者s all over Britain. Ron's home town of Huddersfield used to have two big factories, 含むing that of the famous 基準 花火s. It was their 載冠（式）／即位（式） 陳列する，発揮する of 1937 in honour of George VI which first attracted the boy Ron to all things whizz-bang. Today, 基準 花火s are made - where else? - in 中国.

Indeed, there are 1,000 factories making 陳列する，発揮する 花火s in the city of Liuyang alone. By contrast, in the whole of Britain, there is just one - Ron's. So I have come to the pretty Cambridgeshire village of Kimbolton to see the Master Blaster 牧師 doing his stuff.

Here you can buy everything from a £4 ロケット／急騰する to a £300,000 明言する／公表する occasion like the Hong Kong handover.

The first thing that strikes me is that Ron is …を伴ってd by a dog, his West Highland terrier, Holly. Don't pets hate 花火s? "Not this one," says Ron. "She can't get enough of them." We go to a 実験（する）ing zone to light a lively gerb (a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 fountain 指名するd after the French word for "spray"). Holly has to be 抑制するd from eating the thing.

Ron's 大勝する to pyrotechnic stardom has been a pretty unorthodox one. After grammar school, where he loved chemistry, he went to Durham University and 熟考する／考慮するd psychology with a 見解（をとる） to ending up in 薬／医学. Then the Church beckoned and he spent two years 熟考する／考慮するing theology at Oxford before becoming a clergyman.

It was in 1957, while serving as a curate in Morley, 近づく 物陰／風下d, that he decided to put on a 花火s 陳列する，発揮する for a 地元の 青年 group. "We couldn't afford them, but I had made one or two 花火s as a boy - unlawfully, I 収容する／認める - and the chemistry was still the same. So we made our own."

After その上の 地位，任命するs in Yorkshire, Ron 適用するd for the chaplaincy of Kimbolton School, an 独立した・無所属 school in Cambridgeshire. "At the end of the interview, I took a 危険 and asked the headmaster if I could build a 花火s 研究室／実験室. He thought it was an excellent idea and gave me an old 塀で囲むd garden to work in."

When he wasn't teaching, Ron was cooking up 爆発性の recipes. After one or two 地元の 陳列する，発揮するs, he started to receive more and more requests f or his talents from across the 地域.

Having 新採用するd a few other members of staff to the 原因（となる）, a little 商売／仕事 was formed. "We were all teaching on flexi-time so when we weren't on 義務, we could do 陳列する，発揮するs."

Ron became a 熱烈な 広報担当者 for the 産業 and ended up as the 花火s 顧問 for the Queen's Silver Jubilee. And the work kept coming in - as long as it did not 衝突／不一致 with choir practice or Lower Sixth chemistry or the 需要・要求するs of his wife and family. His work earned him an MBE.

By the late Eighties, 退職 beckoned. But then Ron's son, 示す, 表明するd an 利益／興味 in the 商売／仕事 and so all the company's 資産s were spent on building the 現在の 前提s. It is not so much a factory as a cluster of 爆破-proof buildings 始める，決める apart from each other. But it feels very much like a family 商売／仕事.

Although Ron is slowly winding 負かす／撃墜する and 示す Lancaster has left the company to become the 保守的な MP for Milton Keynes North East (he still blows things up with the 領土の Army and spent last summer serving in Afghanistan), the staff 含む Ron's son-in-法律 and two of his former Kimbolton pupils.

In one room, I 会合，会う a jovial French couple who are busy sticking fuses into pink tubes which turn out to be multi- coloured gerbs. "It's a 静かな time in フラン so they come and help us during the Bonfire Night season and we go over and help them in the runup to Bastille Day," explains 陳列する，発揮する director Darryl Fleming.

The entente seems 公正に／かなり cordiale in this 商売／仕事. I go inside the despatch room which could be a regimental armoury. Here are 迫撃砲 tubes, ロケット／急騰する 発射台s and taped-up bundles of 爆発性のs which look just like 風刺漫画 sticks of dynamite.

減少（する） a 逸脱する cigarette end in here and you could have your own Olympic 開会式.

So where will the Master himself be lighting the blue touchpaper on November 5? "Oh, I don't light them any more," says Ron. "I've got a new 膝 and I can't move 急速な／放蕩な enough. I'll just watch."