Lydbrook Munition Workers in World War I.
Margaret
knows that one of these Lydbrook Munition workers is her father's sister
Dorothy (Dorrie) Bundy (nee Morgan) but unfortunately she can't identify
Dorrie
now. The date is between 1914 and 1918. Margaret added (May 2007): "This
is definitely the Edison Swan Cable Works site at Lower Lydbrook, my Aunt
did not work at any other site in the Forest-of-Dean. Edison Swan made
munitions in the first World War. My Father was an ARP Warden in the
second World War, he always spoke of how the Germans dropped a string
of bombs with many other bombs along the river bank at Bishopswood, they
were
trying to hit the factory as their intelligence was based on the first World
War information.".
Terry Halford added (May 2007): concerning
another World War I factory in the Forest: " ..... the old Electric
Fuse Factory which was at Brierley. This plant made electric fuses for
use in the mining industry. They were used
for blasting coal at the nearby Trafalgar mine. I know that the factory
produced hand grenades during WWI. If you go to the site now you can
still see parts of the flooring which had a leather coating to stop sparks.
This factory was derelict in 1922.
Alfred Nobel also did some work in
the Lower Lydbrook area with dynamite research, so it's possible this
photo was something to do with that,..."
Top left is a railway locomotive.
Thanks also to Rita James who added (July 2007): "My grandmother worked at the munitions factory with bombs with TNT. She told us that they had to smoke to alleviate the effects. She was Agnes May and her sister Ethel Amelia Phillips".
Peter Young added (Aug 2007): "The photographer is G.W.Young from Howle Hill. At that time he had his studios there in the old post office.He was my great grandad. With respect to the bombs landing at Bishopswood, they fell on the fields by the Wye. One place they fell was near the house called 'Bishopswood Leigh', which is a house by the main road running through the hamlet. My Grandad told me that - they used to live there and I can remember seeing the shrapnel marks on the front of the house. At the time the bombs fell, the house was lived in by the Hoyts,and all of the windows in the house were smashed (imploded). A piece of shrapnel narrowly missed one of the resident's head and hit the mirror on the wardrobe".
Jerry Jenkinson wrote (November 2013): "... I am the Chair of Gloucester Local History Society, in addition, we have a number of Facebook Groups where people discuss day to day stuff and post old photographs. I recently asked people if they knew anything about the Munitions Factory that stood in Quedgeley. I was bombarded with information and amongst this, the attached picture was posted, the person posting it said that one of the ladies was her Grandmother and she worked in the Dean Munitions factory. I saw the picture on your web site and noticed that It was in Lydbrook. Do you have any other information I could share with this lady, or do you know anyone who does have more information?".
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