A special memorial service is being planned for the 100th anniversary of a First World War factory explosion which killed 134 people in Chilwell.
The Chilwell Shell Factory Disaster on July 1, 1918, was a vast explosion of eight tonnes of TNT in what was one of the country’s largest munitions factories.
Many of the dead were so badly injured they were never formally identified, and most were buried in a mass grave which remains at St Mary’s Church, Attenborough. A further 250 were wounded, five of whom died later.
As part of a series of events marking the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, Nottinghamshire County Council is planning a memorial service at the church on Sunday, July 1 this year.
In a report to the council’s policy committee, discussed today, council leader Kay Cutts outlines how a reception and exhibition of the disaster will take place in the village hall after the service, for which the council is expected to allocate £1,000.
Production resumed at the factory the day after the disaster, such was its importance to Britain’s war effort. Within weeks it was back to pre-explosion output.
A Home Office inquiry was convened on July 8 1918 and closed on August 7 1918; the report was classified ‘secret’ but the cause of the explosion was believed to have been accidental.
On March 13 1919, the Duke of Portland, then the Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, unveiled a memorial on the site of the explosion.
The site of the factory is now Chetwynd Barracks, Chilwell.
Other events planned later this year include the lighting of a beacon at County Hall in November as part of a national event, and a pop up museum at Rufford Abbey.
The council has already confirmed it is contributing funding to a planned new war memorial at the Victoria Embankment, which will include the 14,000 names of the Nottinghamshire fallen during the conflict.
The report on the county’s 2018 anniversary events and projects, states: “The County Council has commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Great War through a
range of events and community projects during the period 2014-17.
“This outlines a series of activities that will mark the return of peace in 2018 and commemorate the impact on, and sacrifices made by, Nottinghamshire communities.”
