1917 A DAY in the LIFE of a WORKER in a BRITISH munitions national SHELL filling FACTORY…
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- Опубліковано 16 кві 2023
- PART 1 - A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A MUNITION WORKER
Manual work done by women at a British munitions factory (Chilwell, Nottingham) 1917.
The staggering demand for artillery shells posed a problem for a British army that was hopelessly ill-equipped at the war’s commencement. Woolwich arsenal could not match the demand, leading to such a shortfall of shells that, over a year into the war in 1915, artillery units were still having to heavily ration the number of shells they could fire in a day.
During World War One, there was a high demand for munitions, which led to an increase in the number of women working in factories. The Chilwell shell filling factory in Nottingham was no exception, where women played a vital role in the production of shells.
The day of a young woman working at the Chilwell factory started early. She would leave her home at 5 am and take the train to the factory. After changing into overalls and boots in the locker room, she would clock on and begin her work on finishing 8-inch shells. This involved pouring molten explosive into the shell cases, capping them using a wheel to clear the screw threads, adding the detonator, and stenciling them. A trolley would then take the shells away.
Other women, wearing masks against the fumes, were responsible for topping up heavier shells. The women were given a brief medical examination on-site, with blood samples taken in some suspect cases. The women wore shifts to wash, which was compulsory before meals and on leaving the factory.
PART 2 - DAILY LIFE IN NATIONAL SHELL FILLING FACTORY No.6 AT CHILWELL DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR
The rare footage of the National Shell Filling Factory No6 at Chilwell in Nottingham provides a glimpse into the daily life of workers during World War One.
The video highlights the work of both male and female workers in the factory, but it is clear that women played a significant role in the process.
Female workers are seen unloading shell cases from wagons, marking them using stencils and paint, preparing plugs for sealing filled shells, and operating cranes to move shells around the factory. The video also shows women wearing masks while filling heavier shells with explosive material.
It is worth noting that the first women employed at the factory were employed as crane operators, a role traditionally reserved for men. This shows the extent to which women were willing and able to take on manual labour during the war effort.
The Kodak film, which was found in a shed in a town, was restored by staff at the Imperial War Museum in London over a period of four years.
Finding workers to address the problem of shell production was another challenge since the heart of Britain’s engineering workforce had been sent to the Western Front, and retraining older workers proved difficult. The solution was to hire women who had not previously been tapped as a workforce.
Female workers were efficient in performing delicate tasks involved in shell production and soon proved themselves more than able to produce shells. By 1916, the Chilwell factory, established by Viscount Chetwynd, had produced over a million shells, 25,000 mines, and 2,500 large bombs for the RAF, with around 40% of the workforce being women. The factory employed 4,000 women who worked 12-hour shifts, and by June 1918, it set a national record by producing 46,725 shells in a single 24-hour period. Despite the hazards and constant safety concerns involved in the work, human safety was overlooked in favour of efficient productivity.
In July 1918, just four months before the war's end, a devastating explosion tore through the factory, killing 134 people and injuring another 250, and causing the biggest explosive disaster in Britain’s history. The cause of the explosion remains a mystery to date. A small obelisk stands at the site to commemorate the victims of the disaster. The factory played an integral role in Britain's war effort, and the unexploded shells from that time are still being discovered today in Flanders Fields, with at least one fatality a year, and a dedicated Belgian army squad deals with the collection and destruction of the dormant shells.
In 1921 Royal Ordnance took over the National Filling Factories.
This material is used on a non-commercial basis for educational purposes only, specifically for teaching and bringing discussion about local history. It is featured on Royal-Arsenal-history.com, a website that is primarily information-led, research-oriented, and not behind a paywall.
I worked in the Royal Arsenal in 1945 as as Messenger Boy aged 14 years, in the Metallurgy Laboratory and learnt quite a lot of the dissolving in nitric acid of German gun samples to find their composition and well remember the Locomotives hauling huge gun barrels about also the huge lathes for turning to size. I used to get a workers tram at the old Welcome Inn Eltham and get a boys workers return ticket for 2 1/2 Imperial Pennies (about 1 1/4 pence) My pay was 16 shillings a week (80 new pence) for a 44 hour week, 5 1/2 day week!. One day a week was spent at the Day Continuation School part of Woolwich Polytechnic. My father was at the time a fitter in the Royal Gun Factory and was wounded in the neck when his workshop was hit by a V2 rocket. All he can recall is a brilliant flash and waking up in the Royal Herbert Hospital, he was very lucky.. I never saw my father at work as he worked odd shift hours and in his spare time he was in the Home Guard manning the rocket anti aircraft launchers on Blackheath. Happy Days and memories of those far off days!
Wow! Thank you for your memories of the Royal Arsenal. It’s rare to find someone who worked in the Arsenal in the 1940s. If not already please join our Royal-Arsenal-history.com (RAH) Facebook group if you can, it has 9000 members and many stories and photos. You may be able to help answer some questions etc.
Over 60years ago after the war ended, my brothers and mates used to go exploring in the old arsenal. We would find live rounds and all sorts of ordinance. There were large bomb craters, and it was a very eerie place to be. in 1955 I saw two soldiers standing by a bomb crater, they were smoking a cigarette, because it was out of bounds, we shouldn't have been there, and I thought that we were going to get caught, so I hid for a while in the long grass. the soldiers were digging at the rim of the crater. when I looked up from the long grass, the soldiers had vanished, and where there had been dirt, there was only grass. I can still see them, in my mind's eye. I can still see the smoke from the cigarettes. My brother who was with me at the time was puzzled when I told him (he had gone ahead of me) so he came back to look. and inspected the crater but could see no evidence of it being disturb. This has stayed with me all these years. My father was home on leave when the arsenal was bombed and was called back to go into the arsenal to retrieve the dead bodies and body parts. Well, that's one of my little stories about the arsenal. thank you for letting me wander down memory lane. 😊😊
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I can only imagine the sort of freedom kids from your gen experienced growing up. Now its al so so sad to be growing up as a kid.
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