Munitions factories in the East Midlands

[PeterThorn]

This is both general questions on munitions workers in WW1 and more specifically munitions factories in the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire/Leicestershire areas,

 

My grandfather Harry Thorn (b.1876) was living & working in London as a bus conductor up until at least May 1916. But at some time after May 1916 his wife and three children moved to Kegworth/Castle Donnington in Leicestershire where my father was born in Sep 1918. His father's occupation is given as a Munitions Worker. So I am assuming this was directed war work and that Harry was ordered to work in the munitions factory. The general question I am asking is were civilians ordered/directed into war work and would they & their families be moved from their homes to do this work?

 

More specifically I'm trying to work out what factory he worked in and find any historical details on that factory. On the Historic England website https://historicengland.org.uk there is a PDF that lists munitions factories. The nearest factory to where my grandparents were living was National Filling Factory Chillwell No.6, Long Eaton, Nottinghamshire. There was a big accident at this factory where 134 workers were killed. Does anyone know more about this factory or where I could find out more information on this factory specifically and also more generally on munitions factories and how they were operated. How did they get their workers etc.

[Simon R]

You will be interested in the following from RA Leeds - https://collections.royalarmouries.org/#/archives?search=chilwell&sort=relevance

 

'Shortage of labour was the next trouble, owing to the ridiculous stories circulating in the neighbourhood as to the dangers of the factory. It being impossible to obtain sufficient labour locally, an appeal was made to the War Office for soldiers, and in the middle of May a Labour Battalion was sent to Chilwell. These men were useful up to a point, but in order to comply with military regulations it was necessary to run the operating departments in which the soldiers were employed on three eight hour shifts, which necessitated still further labour to keep up the output.'

 

'At this time the War Office agreed to allow us to enrol the services of 1, 000 attested men between the ages of 35 and 41 and the majority of these men were engaged in London in June. These "Derby" Men, as they were called (Lord Derby being responsible for the attestation scheme) proved so useful that no inconvenience was experienced when the Labour Battalion was withdrawn at the end of the month. The Factory management fully recognises the value of these "Derby" men, drawn from all walks of life, who came here with a common purpose which they have fulfilled most admirablly' (from "A short history of the National Shell-Filling Factory, Chilwell, Notts.")

 

That's certainly one route in to munitions work in May 1916, but there's no certainty he was at Chilwell - if he was Derby man in a Labour Btn., he should have service papers etc, they should add to the picture.

 

Note that 'munitions work' was in fact a very broad term and National factories weren't the only employers.

 

Edited 5 May , 2020 by Simon R

[MPS]

The attached list contains information on Chilwell, Langwith and two further separate munitions industry sites in N. Derby and Notts during the Great War.

https://war-work.com/world-war-i/