Factory complex with railway siding shown but not named. Large structures in Toton parish, welfare buildings (including hospital and institute) in Chilwell parish. Several of these still stand.(1)
On 20 August 1915 Godfrey Chetwynd was given the task of designing, building and superintending the running of a factory to fill large calibre shells with Amatol. 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 explosives, many women's skin turned yellow, and they were known as the "Chilwell Canaries" or "Canary Girls". A substantial part of the National Shell Filling Factory was destroyed in an explosion of eight tons of TNT on 1 July 1918. In all 134 people were killed, of whom only 32 could be positively identified, and a further 250 were injured. The unidentified bodies are in a mass grave in St. Mary's Church, Attenborough. The blast was reportedly 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 weekly production. At the end of the war, in 1919, the site became a Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) storage depot. (2)

<1> OS, 1939, 1:2500, County Series 1939 (Map). SNT1035.

Other Refs: 41/15

<2> Haslam MJ, 1982, The Chilwell Story, 1915-1982: VC Factory and Ordnance Depot (Article in serial). SNT2622.