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Crane’s fireworks, by their own admission, were acknowledged to be the best quality and value fireworks on the market.

They made coloured lamps and lanterns as well as their famous fireworks just off of Deanery Road in Warmley. But with the outbreak of World War One the need for rockets, crackers and shooters was significantly less.

The production turned to Mills bombs, with the grenades being tested in the disused collieries at Grimsbury, Syston and in a nearby quarry. This proved popular with the local boys as they would collect the shrapnel of the exploded grenades.

The company’s personnel nearly doubled to around 100, mainly made up of local girls from the Warmley and Kingswood areas.

Some 10 million Mills bombs are thought to have left Warmley train station destined for battlefields, and when the soldiers would open the box packed in Bristol they would find a note sent by one of the girls in the Crane’s packing room. Sometimes they would get a letter in return.

Location: Crane’s Lane, Warmley, Bristol BS15 4LT
Image: ‘Warmley Grenadiers’ tug of war, courtesy of Alan Bryant

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