'Munitions Workers Need New Arboretum Memorial'

A campaign to raise funds for a memorial for munitions factory workers at ROF Swynnerton is gathering support.

Factory employees were known as the 'Swynnerton Roses', and spent years producing shells and bullets needed on the front line during World War Two. 

In 2009 a tree was planted for the women at the National Memorial Arboretum and in 2013 a rose bed was planted at ROF Swynnerton, which is now an Army training base, to remember the workers who put their lives on the line every day.

The campaign believes that the women require a more significant memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum.

95-year-old Sheila Glover worked filling detonators, and is one of the last remaining Roses. She described the work as "very dangerous":

"We had a lot of blow ups on the machines, a lot of girls got injured, arms blown off, that sort of thing."

Stoke-on-Trent South MP, Rob Fello, has been a big supporter of the campaign since it launched in 2013. He said:

"Sadly many of the workers are no longer with us so we have got to get on with this.

"We have to get this memorial in place so that the munitions workers we currently have with us are able to see it, but even more importantly for future generations, just to know the sacrifice of so many people."

The factory where the Swynnerton Roses worked closed over 70 years ago.