Tri-Service

The Munitions Factory Explosion That Killed 35

Almost 100 years ago Britain’s top shell factory during the First World War exploded, killing 35 of the women that worked there.

Barnbow, officially known as National Filling Factory No.1, was near the city of Leeds between Cross Gates and Garforth in Yorkshire.

Just after 10pm on Tuesday 5 December 1916, several hundred women and girls started their shift working on four-and-a-half-inch shells.

27 minutes later 35 women would be dead and many more injured.

In Room 42, which was mainly used for filling, around 170 women were delivered the fully loaded shells.

All that remained for them to do was add the fuse and screw the shell cap down.

The fuse was inserted by hand and a machine screwed on the cap.

It was in this room that the explosion took place.

Many of those that died could only be identified by the disks containing their personal details worn around their necks.

Despite the carnage, production was only stopped for a short while as the bodies of the women were removed.

Because of censorship at the time, no account of the disaster was made public, although many death notices appeared in the Yorkshire Evening Post.

The public were not told of the disaster until six years later.

There were two further explosions at the factory; one in March 1917 killing two girls workers, and one in May 1918 killing three men.

Barnbow was Britain’s top shell factory during the war, producing 566,000 tons of ammunition to be shipped overseas.

The majority of the 16,000 people who worked there were women, known as the “Barnbow Lasses”.

They also became known by another name, “The Barnbow Canaries”, which came from their skin turning yellow due to working with cordite, a propellant for the shells, in barely tolerable conditions.

They did the work in their underwear while wearing smocks and caps and wore the provided rubber-soled shoes.

They worked long hours and had no holidays while dealing with severe food rationing, although they were allowed to drink as much barely water and milk as they liked.

Smoking was not allowed.

By the end of the war the “Lasses” made up 93% of the workforce as men were called up to fight on the frontline.

A blue plaque was unveiled last year at the site of the factory and a memorial has been erected at Manston Park for the people who worked and died at Barnbow.