Statue to war-time Canary Girls ruled out due to costs

GLOUCESTER will commemorate the so-called Canary Girls, who risked their lives to provide ammunition for the front-line, with boards telling their story in Quedgeley.

- CARMELO GARCIA

The Canary Girls was the nickname given to British women who worked in munitions factories during the two world wars, and were known for their exposure to dangerous chemicals.

Gloucester’s Naas Lane Farm site known as Kingsway now, was requisitioned to be the location of National Filling Factory Number Five by way of land acquired by compulsory purchase.

The site was first occupied in 1914 and would later close as an RAF site on 13 February 1995.

The factory produced over 10.5 million 14 and 16 inch shells, 7 million cartridges and 23 million fuses and other components.

The site also included a horse convalescence unit.

The workforce, predominantly women, filled millions of shells and cartridges at the factory before operations ceased when the armistice with Germany was signed in November 1918.

The women workers were known locally as canaries, because many across the country suffered toxic jaundice caused by the phosphorus used to make TNT.

This turned their skin yellow and caused the premature death of untold numbers. And while the buildings were demolished between 1924 and 1926.