Barnbow Lasses Memorial, Leeds: Memorial remembering the 35 women and girls who died in one of Leeds' worst disasters

The city was still mourning the loss of so many of its volunteer soldiers when an explosion ripped apart the Barnbow shell factory in east Leeds, killing 35 girls and women. Many more were injured.

The factory was built on agricultural land between Cross Gates and Garforth following the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 and became Britain’s largest producer of explosive shells.

It operated a 24-hour three-shift system on six days a week, and by the autumn of 1916 had a workforce of 16,000.

Because so many men were required to fight in Europe, the workers were almost entirely female.

Cordite used to propel the shells turned the skin yellow of anyone who came into contact with it, earning the women and girls the nickname of the Barnbow Canaries.

On Tuesday December 5, at 10pm, the nightshift began work in the factory’s Room 42, filling 4½in shells, fitting fuses and packing them in crates.

At 10.27pm, a shell that was having its fuse screwed in place exploded. Other shells in the room also blew up and the whole building was destroyed with terrible loss of life.

Strict wartime censorship meant that the disaster was kept out of newspapers for fear of affecting wartime morale.

In 2012 a memorial to the Barnbow Lasses was unveiled in Manston Park, Cross Gates, and in 2016 a play called Barnbow Canaries, written by Alice Nutter, premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.