Mills munitions factory bridge st west

[Astoness]

whenever i look at photos like this i often wonder if any of my ancestors are amonst the group and sometimes it is so easy to forget that the women of this country contributed a great deal to the war effort..great pic of the ladies who worked at the mills munitions factory in bsw and there is no doubt in my mind that the building in the distance running the length of the pic is c brandaurs in new john st west..also a link to go with it..

lyn





https://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/exhibition/standard/child.asp?txtKeywords=&lstContext=&lstResourceType=&lstExhibitionType=&chkPurchaseVisible=&txtDateFrom=&txtDateTo=&x1=&y1=&x2=&y2=&scale=&theme=&album=&viewpage=/engine/resource/exhibition/standard/child.asp&originator=&page=&records=&direction=&pointer=&text=&resource=2077&exhibition=1434&offset=0

 

[sistersue61]

Pictures like this fascinate me too Lyn, just looking at the stance of some of the people and the different styles of dress, leads me to wonder like you if any of them would be relatives. Just think of the stories they would have to tell between them.
Sue

 

[Astoness]

i agree sue..i go into another world looking at these old pics lol..most of my harrington..wood and moseley side of the family lived in a lot of the streets surrounding bridge st west at this time and actually i have one in the street so its most frustrating that any number of them could be on that pic and wouldnt know...its nice to think they maybe though..

lyn

 

[paul stacey]

They certainly made brilliant hand grenades.
paul

 

[Key Hill Brian]

whenever i look at photos like this i often wonder if any of my ancestors are amonst the group and sometimes it is so easy to forget that the women of this country contributed a great deal to the war effort..great pic of the ladies who worked at the mills munitions factory in bsw and there is no doubt in my mind that the building in the distance running the length of the pic is c brandaurs in new john st west..also a link to go with it..

lyn

Ever see Upstairs Downstairs when Ruby the scullery maid left to work in a munitions factory in WW1 and got blowed up in an explosion?
You had to be so very careful in them places!
Yet it was unskilled people like that that helped Industry to produce enough stuff to help win the war - same again in WW2!

 

[Wendy]

Grenade makers at Mills Munitions Bridge Street West c 1916

 

[Astoness]

oh gosh wend if only we could put names to the faces...as brian has already said such a dangerous job for the unskilled which of course they were...smashing pic

lyn

 

[Astoness]

interesting advert in a book dated 1918..i bet they couldnt turn out the grenades fast enough...

lyn

 

[Vivienne14]

Nice find Lyn. The girls in Wendy's photo are holding the grenades as per your ad. They seem to have a funnel too, I suppose to fill up the grenade with explosives. Don't think I'd have the steady nerves to work on grenades! These women were priceless. Viv.

 

[Astoness]

totally agree with you viv..the women played a massive and sometimes unsung part with the war effort...making all sorts of ammo to arm our brave men who fought for this country...someone was telling me that you could always tell a munitions worker because their skin was a yellow colour..

 

[Happyguy]

Mills Ladies at work.

 

[Vivienne14]

I think this is what the ladies in Happyguy's photo are making; a plug for the base of the grenade. Viv.

 

[mikebridgeford]

Good Morning - I am a new contributor to the forum from Plettenberg Bay, South Africa.
My great-grandfather - Daniel Noonan [born 1860 Woolwich - d.?] moved from the Munitions factory in Woolwich to 33 Hall Road Saltley sometime before 1901, and was at this address for the 1901 census. He was 41 years old, and a foreman in the Cartridge factory. In the 1911 census he was living at 216 St. Saviour's Road, Saltley and was a Munitions worker. His wife Honora is next found back at Woolwich where she died 2 May 1922 a widow. Daniel's whereabouts has not been located after the 1911 census.
Would he have been transferred from the Arsenal at Woolwich to perhaps the Mills factory in at Bridge Street West? Was this the only munitions factory in the area that he may have worked in?
I would be most grateful for any assistance in finding out more about my great grandfather.
regards,
Mike Bridgeford
[mikebridgeford@telkomsa.net]

 

[Key Hill Brian]

Hi Mike,
Saltley is the wrong side of the city for Bridge St west, but Birmingham was a great manufacturing city. Saltley area had car makers, train makers, steel works, gas & coke works, etc
I know of friends whose forebears came from Waltham Abbey gunpowder mills to Witton to help set up and supervise cartridge manufacture there.
I asume your Gt Grandad was similar. They imported Supervisors and skilled workers to help set up and oversee new production lines.
I'm sure other on here will be able to tell you of the local manufacturers inaltley & Duddeston areas.

Brian

 

[ChrisM]

Welcome to the Forum, Mike.

Taking up Brian's point, Kynoch at Witton was at that time the biggest manufacturer of ammunition in the area. My link below will lead you to a potted history of the Company.

Chris

 

[bumblebee]

Have just picked up on this interesting thread. My late mom was born in 1925 and always lived in the Aston area. She worked in a hand grenade factory making the "pull rings" she never mentioned the name of the factory & I've often wondered where it was. It may well have been Mills.

 

[Astoness]

hi bumblebee and welcome to the forum...cant be certain of course but i would say there is a very good chance that your mom worked at mills...so far i have not come across any other munitions factories in that area..

lyn

 

[Astoness]

another photo of the mills girls at work..

 

[bert morel]

Hello,
I'm new to the group and am researching an ancestor of mine named Charles Bertram Morel, who normally lived in Lambeth but worked at a munitions factory in Birmingham from at least December 1916, when the job (though not Birmingham) is noted on his marriage certificate. I am trying to narrow down the possibilities of where he might have worked, and also to find out more of the male experience of working in these factories. Most of what I come across is about the female workers. Does anyone out there have ancestors like my Bert, or any information that might help me? Why would he have left London to work in Birmingham? Family lore says that he worked here rather than enlisting because of a shoulder problem; and that he died young, in his 30s, due to lung problems -- perhaps cancer as a result of his munitions work? I have also just found out that his brother, Herbert Henry, who also lived in Lambeth, married in 1916 in Birmingham and worked as a browner. This seems an interesting coincidence to me. Could "browner" mean gun browner?

 

[Astoness]

cracking pic here folks....caption is all wrong though...there was never a mills st west but there is a mills st which is close to the science park...

also mills muntions only had one factory and that was at bridge street west...

it could be that this was a victory parade but i would think the photo is taken en route and not at bridge st west... looks far too leafy and the houses in the background are far too grand looking to be bsw..more likely to be somewhere like hamstead road handsworth or heathfield road etc

lyn

 

[Key Hill Brian]

Great pic Lyn,
Looks like the boxes just have Mills Munitions Ltd, Birmingham? Maybe the captioner, misunderstood and googled Mill St? Mill St was an extension of Chester St, but the other side of Dartmouth St to Aston Rd North, backing onto the Canal, by AB Row. AS you say though - they were all made in BSW, and that house is far too grand !
Bri

 

[Key Hill Brian]

Bert, only just seen this. Father of a friends of my wife, came from Enfield - sent up to work at IMI (Kynochs), Witton making ammunition - they sent a core of skilled chaps from the Gunpowder Mills and Enfield Factories to set up a production line. Strangely his wife to be, was sent from Leeds to munitions work by the labour exchange! Having met in the middle - they made a pleasant North/South combination and settled here.
I'd have thought we had enough actual gun makers & browner's, but were not so skilled at the ammo side of things.
Bri

 

[Astoness]

Great pic Lyn,
Looks like the boxes just have Mills Munitions Ltd, Birmingham? Maybe the captioner, misunderstood and googled Mill St? Mill St was an extension of Chester St, but the other side of Dartmouth St to Aston Rd North, backing onto the Canal, by AB Row. AS you say though - they were all made in BSW, and that house is far too grand !
Bri

yes bri no doubt the captioner misunderstood and googled mill st but its best to correct as we dont want folk getting the wrong info from our old end lol..

lyn

 

[Phil]

Another photo of the girls hard at work in the Mills Munitions factory c1916.

 

[Astoness]

thanks phil thats great photo...we are so lucky to have so many showing the girls working at was undoubtably a very dangerous job indeed...

 

[oldMohawk]

The image which is missing from post#1 ... it had been blocked by Photobucket.Edit. Image copied to post #1.

 

[Brunetteandred]

Sir William Mills (Sunderland) Ltd (formerly Mills Munitions) stood at 192 Bridge Street West, until its demolition in the 90s. My mother worked there from 1967 to 1983. Firstly as a book keeper/wages clerk then in the latter years as General Manager. The factory and grounds were my playground as a child. The original machinery was still in use producing Mills' patented life boat release gear. They were still making 'shooting sticks' right into the 80s.

 

[Astoness]

hi brunetteandred just read your post...would you happen to have any photographs of the mills factory before its demolition please.

thank you

lyn

 

[mw0njm.]

Early in 1915, Mills opened the Mills Munitions Factory in Birmingham, making the Mills Bomb Hand Grenade. Until then, grenades had often proved as deadly to the thrower as to the intended target. The first grenade used when war broke out in 1914 was a cast-iron canister on an 18-inch stick, which was dangerous to use because it often caught on the trench front when lobbed.

Mills bomb - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

William Mills (inventor) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[mw0njm.]

Mills redesigned the grenade to make it safer and more efficient and decided to manufacture it by casting, By 1916 the Mills No.5 Mk 1 hand grenade was in wide scale production by many British contractors, including the Mills Manufacturing Company in Birmingham.
During the course of WWI, some 75 million Mills grenades were manufactured in various Marks, William Mills was knighted for his services in 1922.
An improved variant of his grenade, the No. 36M Mk1, remained in service as the standard British hand grenade until 1972.