Wartime munitions sculpture finds permanent home

The Rothewas Angel will officially be unveiled on Saturday

A sculpture honouring wartime munition workers is set to be officially unveiled on Saturday in Herefordshire.

The 2m tall (6.5ft) Rothewas Angel now has a permanent home at the former site of the Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) in Rotherwas, Hereford.

The sculpture was created by art students in the city and commissioned by Hereford City Council in 2019.

Community historian Clare Wichbold said she believed the structure would stand as a "permanent memorial" for local people whose family worked in munition production.

"There are lots of people who live in Herefordshire and beyond whose mothers, fathers, grandparents and other relatives worked at the munitions factory," she added.

"Just to have that permanent memorial so when they see it they can think 'yes, that is part of my family history'."

On Friday, Ms Wichbold and other supporters of The Rothewas Angel gathered at the Shell Store for an unofficial unveiling for those who could not make Saturday's official date.

The sculpture commemorates wartime munition workers who worked at ROF Rotherwas

Before moving to site of the Rotherwas ROF, the sculpture stood in Hereford's skate park for a year.

It was then donated to the history group Rotherwas Together but Covid-19 delayed plans for a permanent home.

It was then put in storage at the Hereford Archives and Records Centre.

The Rotherwas factory in Hereford was one of Europe's biggest explosive-filling sites during World War One.

A campaign by BBC Hereford and Worcester had munitions workers, who at the peak of World War Two numbered over 4,000 woman and nearly 1,000 men at Rotherwas, recognised for their role in the Allied victory.