• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Munition Factories during the Great War

Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Three rare photos which were quite small but worth recording showing the Women Planemakers in the Great War.
Photo's were very likely taken at the Longbridge plant
First photo shows the Women Woodworkers making the wooden parts for the planes
Two small photo's show the wings being assembled,fabric being put on etc.
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Welfare of the Workers
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Advertisements like the one below became commonplace in the newspapers of the time
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Great Photo of the King walking past the Women Munition Workers outside the Town Hall Birmingham
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

The Manufacturers never missed a trick in getting their products across to the public
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

How the factories of Birmingham turned their production from car to vehicles and munions in the space of a short period of time was quite amazing as these 3 pictures show.Bottom pic shows the lorry on the Somme just outside Bapume
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Lanchester 1906
Lanchester Armoured car from newspaper 1918
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

John, great shot, I have one of those shells and the timer that goes on top, much like an egg timer which was set for a set period to explode in the air or bury into the ground and explode at the time the timer was set which could be a hour later
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Incredible those women John, I have a photo which I will post later of the Women in a classroom before going into the factory learning all about what they was going to make, and it was a crash course and then the had to go on machines that worked to close tolerance's and by golly they learn't quick but were great at their work and did more for womens rights than all the suffragette movement put together.
It showed that Women were on par with men and in some cases, better.
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Wonder how old was this boy 12 - 14 - Child labour how different now
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

John thats an absolutely cracking photo of that lad working with gun powder, during the Great War they use to call the women who worked with TNT "Canaries" as it made their skin go yellow
Here is a great pic of the workers streaming out of Kynoch's on eve of the Great War 1914, then nearly all the men joined up
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Kynoch's Poster before the Great War when it was Lion Works note the B'ham coat of arms (unofficial)
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

The railways provided a vital link to the coast for the munitions, and up to yet I have never come across a women engine driver or coal miner during the Great War but the women worked in their thousands on the railway to keep the wheels of the war machine turning. This photo shows the women on board a Midland Railway lorry going on a recruiting parade in 1915 and as I have reduce the pic the words on the banner read
Midland Railway 215,00 men joined H.M.Forces. Women "Carry on" as Goods Workers
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

A float showing the job of the Munition girls
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Another one of the "Win The War Waggons" outside Kynoch's Wellhead Lane Entrance
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

My father, who lived just up the road from Kynochs in Wyrely Road, used to talk a lot about all the shows of support for the war effort during those years. He would have been about ten years old when this photo was taken. It must have been fascinating for young children.

It was a very sad year for his family when their eldest son William was killed in France. Thanks for posting this Cromwell.
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Brookvale Rd entrance of Kynochs
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

That's a superb pic of Kynoch's entrance. Trying to date it, the only clue seems to be the one motor vehicle in the distance which I think is from the very late 1920s. Still more horse traffic though. The northern part of the Outer Circle bus route 11 opened in November 1923, and the Perry Common route 5 started in June 1926, but neither would have been very frequent in those pioneer days, because that part of Brum was only then being built up.
Peter
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

I remember than Cromwell, of course. Great photo very clear. That's probably about right Peter for the date. I don't remember those houses to the left of the main gates. They must have been demolished or bombed in WW2. My mother lived off Tame Road in Brantley Road so this would have been very familiar to her. Beyond
Wyrley Road it was pretty wild in those days. There were the cottages close to the canal on the right hand side of Brookvale Road and then nothing much until you came to Witton Cemetery on the left hand side for that entrance. Across the road were the
Gravestone Memorial makers Roddis & Nourse.

I suppose the buses were infrequent because there weren't any houses except a couple of farm houses in Boulton Walk and Gypsy Lane and nothing else until you reached Stockland Green.
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Yes Jennyann.
Here is one of the buses used to open the Outer Circle bus route in 1923. A bit different from the huge lumbering monsters we have today.
Peter
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Great photo, Peter. Were the bus colours the same in those days as later on? Also, do you know how the colour scheme for Birmingham public transport came to be?

These days many cities and municipalities have gone back to the single decker style buses that look very much like the one in the photo only in a modern style, of course. They usually service suburban areas where a large bus is not needed because people use their cars. It took them decades to get to this level here. Thanks for posting.
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Cromwell

My Great Grandmother worked at Birmingham metal and Munitions Factory at Adderley Park.She worked there for a number of years,my Mum has loads of details,I am getting them emailed to me and I can then given you some details
Shannie
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

shannie,

I believe that Cromwell has left the forum. But please still post your information which I am sure others will find of interest.

Chris
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

Thanks ChrisM will do
Shannie
 
Re: Muntion Factories during the Great War

A very interesting thread indeed.When I was a trainee at Nechells Power Station in the 1960's,some of the older hands there made mention of a temporary power station that had been built at Nechells during WW1,to help supply electricity to the munitions factories.

Birmingham Corporation had started construction of what later became Nechells A Power Station in 1913,but when the war started,the Government promptly ordered work to stop.The existing power stations in Dale End,Water Street and Summer Lane,along with those in Chester Street,Aston and in Handsworth were hard pressed to meet the demand,so much so that the Government,with the City of Birmingham Electrcity Supply Department,decided to construct a temporary power station on the Nechells site.

It was situated just to the north of the Aston to Stechford railway line,and to the east of the River Rea and B'ham & Warwick Junction Canal.The ground wasn't entirely suitable,so a large reinforced concrete raft had to be cast for the power station's foundations.Coal was brought in by canal and by rail from a connection with the Midland Railway's sidings at Washwood Heath.

For the technically minded,the station had 12 water tube boilers;two 5,000 kW and two 6,000 kW steam turbine driven generators with condensers fitted beside each turbine rather underneath which was the more usual arrangement.Nine wooden cooling towers were built,six by the Aston to Stechford railway line embankment,and three more near where the switch house for the later power station would stand.The buildings were clad in corrugated iron sheets.There were also offices,battery rooms,switch rooms and transformers,as well as a workshop and locker room.This was the first recorded use of steam turbines for electricity production in Birmingham.Additional power was also obtained from the power station at the Dunlop plant.

Work started early in 1915 and generation commenced from the two 5.000 kW sets nine months later;the station being complete early in 1916.Two books held in B'ham Reference Library both agree that this was quite an achievement.Work resumed on the permanent power station in 1918,and although it wasn't complete until 1929,it was officially opened by Edward,the then Prince of Wales in 1923.

The temporary power station continued in operation after the war ended and it wasn't finally closed until 13th June 1936.All trace of the temporary power station has disappeared under the Nechells Parkway road scheme.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top