Munition Workers Memorial - York Cemetry

After I left school and started work I did a day release course to further my qualifications and travelled to Leeds by train for a day of study lasting from 9 inthe morning to 9 at night. On the train as we passed between Garforth and Cross Gates there was an area where you could sometimes see tanks being tested up over mounds and round tight cornered tracks. This is the site of the Barnbow works and scene of a tragic explosion on Tuesday 5 December 1916 which caused the deaths of 35 women. Some of the women killed were workers from York who travelled daily from York by one of the many trains that served the Barnbow works. Below the memorial stone is a fragment of the headstone for Mary Wortley one of the women listed on the memorial.