THIS group of office staff on the eve of a wartime Christmas is unusual in that they were photographed in the Royal Ordnance Factory at Steeton, where, for security reasons, photographs were not supposed to be taken! This was Christmas of 1941, and the simple decorations and absence of festive cheer suggests the bleakness of the period.
Popularly known as The Dump, the Royal Ordnance Factory had started production earlier that year. By August, 1945, it was to have made 204 million munition components, including 63 million shells and 120 million cases. At its peak it employed more than 4,000, two-thirds of whom were women. Its workforce was brought in by special trains and buses from 62 towns and villages in Yorkshire and Lancashire.
There was a 1,000-seater canteen which merited an ENSA concert every fortnight, plus home-grown entertainment in-between, and which was supported by a farm keeping up to 30 pigs at a time.
The photograph was supplied by Mr Michael Shearing, of High Spring Garden Lane, Keighley, whose aunt is standing fourth from the right.
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