Mighty Atoms

While mothers make guns, children have fun: take a peek inside the Woolwich Nursery for the Children of Munition Workers

During WWI tens of thousands of women were recruited to work in munition factories, the largest of which was the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. While they risked their lives handling deadly explosives, their children were cared for by neighbours or at crèches like the well-staffed, state-subsidised Woolwich Nursery for the Children of Munition Workers, featured here.

Crèches like this one were set up in cities like London, Coventry and Birmingham in the vicinity of engineering and munition factories which employed hundreds of thousands of women war workers. They were subsidized by the Ministry of Munitions, which recognised the urgent need for the provision of childcare. The Woolwich Nursery for the Children of Munition Workers was located at 57 St Mary's St, Woolwich, and was opened by the Duchess of Marlborough on 3rd May 1917. A nursery remained at the site until 2005.