I was reading the article "The Impact of WWI" in Gwynedd Roots earlier. It
mentions the Munitionettes working at the explosives factory at
Penrhyndeudraeth.
Anyone interested in these and travelling to Scotland should make a short
detour off the M74 at Gretna and visit The Devil's Porridge museum. This
tells the story of the explosives factory built there in WWI, the world's
biggest at the time, which similarly had many women doing the work.
http://www.devilsporridge.co.uk/
I looked up Penrhyndeudraeth in Wayne Cocroft's book Dangerous Energy so
just for the record.
Penrhyndeudraeth, SH 618 389. Opened in the 1870s Patent Safety Gun-Cotton
Company, New Explosives Co. Ltd, explosive factory - guncotton; 1908
Steelite Explosives Co. Ltd, explosives factory - steelite; H M Factory
Great War 1915-1918 Ergite and Co and Cooke Miners Safety, explosives
factory - picric acid, TNT.
(It also records a gunpowder works at Dolgellau Tyddyn, Gwladys, SH 735 274,
1887 - 1901)
The factory in Penrhyndeudraeth was originally built in 1860 by the Patent
Gun-cotton Co Ltd manufacturing an explosive made of guncotton, starch and
india rubber (I think this must be Ergite).
The TNT factory was built on the site of the former Ergite explosive works
Martin Briscoe
Fort William
martin(a)mbriscoe.me.uk