National Shell Filling Factory, Chilwell

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The National Shell Filling Factory, Chilwell, was a World War I United Kingdom Government-owned explosives Filling Factory. Its formal title was National Filling Factory No. 6. It was located near Chilwell, at that time a village, in Nottinghamshire on the main road from Nottingham to Ashby de la Zouche. During WWI it filled high explosives into some 19 million shells - some 50% of all shells fired.

At the end of the war, in 1919, the site became a Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) storage depot.[1]

Contents

[edit] Foundation of the Shell Filling Factory

The factory was created as a result of the Shell Crisis of 1915. At the beginning of World War I shells were filled with Lyddite but this needed imported raw materials and so TNT was adopted. TNT was expensive to make and as in short supply so Amatol, a mixture of various proportions of TNT and Ammonium nitrate, was adopted instead.[1]


On 20 August 1915 Godfrey Chetwynd, 8th Viscount Chetwynd was given the task of designing, building and superintending the running of a factory to fill large calibre shells with Amatol.[1]

The Chilwell site was apparently selected as it was close to a railway line from which a siding connection could be constructed, and sheltered from surrounding areas by hills.

From the start, women were employed. This may have been another reason for the choice of location, as there was a tradition of women working in local textile factories in the nearby towns. Owing to their exposure to the chemical compounds, many women's skin turned yellow, and they were known as the "Chilwell Canaries" or "Canary Girls".

[edit] The 1918 Explosion

A substantial part of the National Shell Filling Factory was destroyed in an explosion of eight tons of TNT on 1 July 1918. 137 people were killed, of whom only 32 could be positvely identified, and a further 250 were injured. The unidentified bodies are in a mass grave in Attenborough churchyard. The blast was reported heard twenty miles away.

The factory returned to work for the war effort the next day, and within one month of the disaster reportedly achieved its highest weeekly production. Winston Churchill, then Minister for Munitions sent a telegram:

"Please accept my sincere sympathy with you all in the misfortune that has overtaken your fine Factory and in the loss of valuable lives, those who have perished have died at their stations on the field of duty and those who have lost their dear ones should fortify themselves with this thought, the courage and spirit shown by all concerned both men and women command our admiration, and the decision to which you have all come to carry on without a break is worthy of the spirit which animates our soldiers in the field. I trust the injured are receiving every care."

The factory was collectively awarded the Victoria Cross and subsequently known as "The V.C. Factory".[1]

Scotland Yard was called into investigate. Lord Chetwynd is alleged to have told them he was convinced it was sabotage and to have gone as far as naming the culprit.

However, the more likely explanation is lax safety standards as the workforce competed to meet increasingly challenging production targets, coupled with the instability of the TNT compound on an unseasonably warm day.

At the time it was only reported in the newspapers as - "60 feared dead in Midlands factory explosion." A further fifty years were to elapse before a memorial to the dead was erected within the army base. The pyramidal design is of such a timeless nature that when it was recorded as a listed building in 1988 the memorial was listed as being contemporary with the explosion.


[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Haslam

[edit] References

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