including
Woolwich & Districts
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Woolwich
Arsenal
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The Arsenal in Victorian Times. Photo: Alan Gibbs
(Click on photo for a larger view)

See stories: An
Arsenal Lad; Recollections
of Plumstead & Woolwich, early 1930s - 1950s; A
short history of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich

Ammunition Packers and the main Administration Building

Main Gates 1845 and then in the late Victorian era

Middle Gates at lunchtime (c.1940's)
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'The ‘Main Gate’ entrance to the Woolwich Arsenal
1960 (from postcard) Photo: Joe Duncan
(Click on photo for a larger view)
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Middle gates in 2007 (Click on photos for a much larger view)
Photos: Derek Crompton
The disused Woolwich Arsenal Middle Gate used to open straight
onto Plumstead Road. There is a post card of workers leaving
through this gate. It had been closed off and metal sheets put
up to hide and protect the original gates for many a long year.
When they came to remove the sheeting to restore the gates they
were gone. The building behind is now called Middle Gate House
(Council offices). Used to be the storekeeper's house. The Arsenal
itself is now a mixed housing and industrial site. Mostly reusing
the original buildings
Multi-views of the Arsenal and the Wheelers Shop

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Munitions Workers at the Arsenal . Photo taken before 1920.
'A'. being my great-great-grandmother Frances Mary Card and
'B'.Jessie Goodrich, Frances's cousin.
(Click on the Photo for a much bigger view)
Munitions
worker
My
grandfather's brother's wife, Lillie Manwaring, worked in Woolwich
Arsenal during the first world war. The armband (below) was
the one she wore. I think she was a supervisor or charge woman!


The badge shows a munitions worker. Lillie was very public spirited
and a member of the Salvation Army.
Her
husband was a police constable in Plumstead, PC Harry Manwaring;
they lived in Manor Road, Erith; before that he was in the 3rd
Volunteer Battalion, Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, based
at Woolwich.'
Thanks
to Spike (Hubert Manwaring-Spencer) for this interesting information.
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