This Month In History: The Low Moor Munitions Explosion, 21st August 1916

August 2025 Edition

On 21 August 1916, during the height of World War I, the Low Moor Chemical Company, renamed Low Moor Munitions Company, Factory No. 182, exploded catastrophically in Bradford. The plant had ramped up its production of picric acid, a powerful high explosive, from 35 tonnes weekly pre-war to nearly 200 tonnes to meet the unrelenting wartime demand.

A fire began in a drying shed when a worker unloading an uncovered drum saw the acid burst into flames. The blaze spread rapidly into the packing shed, then to further stores filled with explosives. Eventually this caught up to the largest store of all. The explosion of this was so powerful that it ignited a nearby gasometer, sending a massive fireball skyward that was visible as far as York. About 2,000 homes were damaged, 50 houses destroyed, and 30 railway wagons obliterated. Wartime censorship restricted full reporting, but local accounts later suggested that early warnings had allowed many workers to escape before the worst happened.

Photograph, originally printed in the Yorkshire Post, depicting the aftermath of the tragedy

According to Gordon Smith’s book Bradford City Police, Acting Sergeant 328 Harold Reveley died from injuries sustained at the scene - a stark reminder of the dangers faced by police working alongside the fire brigade during such emergencies. Acting Sergeant Harold Reveley was actually off duty and en-route home from his shift when the fire at the munitions works broke out. Despite being off duty, he jumped into action and is believed to have helped rescue two individuals before returning toward the site, tragically perishing when a sudden explosion occurred. Crucially, although the firemen who died were later formally remembered on the memorial, Reveley received no official recognition at the time, nor any pension - leaving his family without support. His great-grandson, Anthony Greenwood, has since launched a campaign urging West Yorkshire Police and local authorities to posthumously honour Reveley’s bravery and sacrifice, finally drawing overdue public attention to this forgotten hero. Here at the Bradford Police Museum, Sgt. Harold Reveley is included on our Honour Board in the museum foyer, and his family have since visited the museum and donated two photographs of him.

Photographs (above & right) donated by Sgt. Reveley's family when they visited the museum.

In total, the explosions and resulting fires claimed 41 lives, including workers, a railwayman, and six Bradford firefighters. Around 100 others were seriously injured. The Bradford Watch Committee later commissioned a special medal to commemorate the bravery of the men involved in the incident. One of those medal recipients, P.C. Sheffield, later recalled having to persuade a firefighter not to flood one of the remaining stores. Sheffield understood there was already a critical shortage of high explosives for the services and felt it was important to try to preserve what could still be saved - an extraordinary example of presence of mind in the midst of chaos.

In 1924, Bradford City Council erected a granite memorial statue at Scholemoor Cemetery for the fallen firemen. In 2003, it was moved to the West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service HQ in Birkenshaw, and in 2019 it gained Grade II listing. On the 100th anniversary in 2016, a plaque listing all 40 victims was unveiled on the Spen Valley Greenway, on the former site of the works. The Low Moor disaster remains one of the darkest days in Bradford’s history, not only for its scale of destruction but for the acts of selfless courage shown by those who ran toward danger.