Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills

For PERME Westcott, see Rocket Propulsion Establishment.

Napoleonic War battle reenactment event

The Royal Gunpowder Mills are a former industrial site in Waltham Abbey, England. It was one of three Royal Gunpowder Mills in the United Kingdom (the others being at Ballincollig and Faversham). Waltham Abbey is the only site to have survived virtually intact.

The Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey, were in operation for over 300 years. Starting in the mid-1850s the site became involved in the development of revolutionary nitro-based explosives and propellants known as "smokeless powder". The site grew in size, and black powder became less important.

Shortly after the Second World War it became solely a Defence Research Establishment – firstly the Explosives Research and Development Establishment, then the Propellants, Explosives and Rocket Motor Establishment Waltham Abbey; and finally the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment Waltham Abbey.

History

The Government acquired the site, at the instigation of deputy comptroller of the Royal Laboratory at Woolwich, Sir William Congreve, 1st Baronet, for the production of gunpowder in 1787. ^[1]

During Second World War, Waltham Abbey remained an important cordite production unit and for the first two years of the war was the sole producer of RDX. RDX is one component of torpex, the explosive that was used in the Bouncing Bomb. ^[2] RDX production was transferred to ROF Bridgwater and cordite production was dispersed to new propellant factories at ROF Bishopton, ROF Wrexham and ROF Ranskill. ^[3] The Royal Gunpowder Mills finally closed on 28 July 1945. ^[4]

The establishment re-opened as a research centre known as the Explosives Research and Development Establishment, or ERDE, in 1945. ^[5] It became the Propellants, Explosives and Rocket Motor Establishment, Waltham Abbey, or PERME Waltham Abbey in 1977. The rocket activity later extended to the production of rocket motors, including work on the Skylark project. ^[6] The South site and the Lower Island works were handed over to Royal Ordnance plc immediately before it was privatised in 1984. ^[7]

The North side however remained in Ministry of Defence control as a research centre; becoming part of the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment. After various reorganisations, the research centre finally closed in 1991. ^[5] Since 1999, the Mills are an Anchor Point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage, set in 175 acres (0.71 km²) of parkland and containing 21 buildings of major historical importance. ^[8]

Sale of the North site by the Ministry of Defence

Heritage site

A large area of the north site is listed as the Waltham Abbey SSSI and another separate area is a scheduled ancient monument. Visitors can see exhibits related to gunpowder making, tour the site on a land train ^[9] An attempt to demolish the cordite mills and replace them with dormitories for young people staying at a children's activity centre was rejected by Epping Forest District Council in 2016 after exposure in the national press. ^[10]

Narrow-gauge railway

The 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge narrow-gauge railway is 1,100 yards (1,000 m) long and has two stations. It is known as the Gunpowder Railway. ^[11]

List of locomotives

Name	Builder	Works number	Type	Built	Notes
John H. Bowles	Baguley-Drewry	3755	4w DH	1981
	Ruhrthaler	3920	0-4-0 DH	1969
	Hunslet	8828	0-4-0 BE	19679
	Greenwood and Batley	6099	2w-2DE	1964	3 ft (914 mm) gauge
Budleigh	Ruston & Hornsby	235624	4w DM	1945	18 in (457 mm) ex-Bicton Woodland Railway
Carneige	Hunslet	4524	0-4-4-0 DM	1954	18 in (457 mm) ex-Bicton Woodland Railway

Sale of the South site by Royal Ordnance

After the South site, also known as Quinton Hill, ^[12] was vacated and also decontaminated and redeveloped, much of the remaining land was converted into the 255 acres (103 ha) Gunpowder Park, which is part of the Lee Valley Park and was opened in 2004. The regenerated parkland is dedicated to the arts, science and wildlife. ^[13]

Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills in popular culture

• The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells Book 1 Chapter 17 'The Thunder Child' Here there were rumours of Martians at Epping, and news of the destruction of Waltham Abbey Powdermills in a vain attempt to blow up one of the invaders. ^[14]
• The mill also appears in Michael Ondaatje's 2018 novel Warlight : Shortly after the end of World War II the protagonist Nathaniel Williams helps his mentor, 'The Darter', transporting illegal greyhounds and, later, boxed cargo inland through the canal network from the River Thames, including the Gunpowder Mills canal system. ^[15]
• On 3 May 2020 the mills were featured in an episode of the BBCs Countryfile programme. ^[16]
• Author and naturalist Helen Macdonald visited the site in the BBC4 programme The Hidden Wilds of the Motorway broadcast on 30 June 2020. ^[17]

Digital archive

After the closure of ERDE, the inherited archive material passed through a number of hands and storage locations, particularly in the latter period before opening to the public, when outside staff from the firm designing the exhibition had to have free access. Consequently, by 2001 the archive had become rather disorganised. The opportunity has therefore been taken to start a ground-up exercise involving a complete check of the holding and the design of computer databases of the material in order to produce the digital catalogue. ^[18]

• Our archive has been digitised and is available to view online at www.wargm.org. ^[18]
• Funding for the online archive was donated by the Royal Gunpowder Mills Friends Association. ^[19]
• The archive is also listed on The National Archives website. ^[20]

See also

• Ballincollig Royal Gunpowder Mills
• Cordite
• Faversham explosives industry
• Gunpowder
• Gunpowder magazines in England
• TNT
• RDX
• J. E. Gordon

References

Notes

1. Crocker, Glenys (1999). The Gunpowder Industry. Buckinghamshire, UK: Osprey Publishing.
2. Sweetman, John (2002) The Dambusters Raid. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks. p. 144.
3. "Fracking firm to drill on former explosives site". The Guardian. 4 April 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
4. Lewis 2009 , p. 73
5. "300 years of history". Royal Gunpowder Mills. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
6. Lewis 2009 , p. 76
7. "Ministry of Defence: Further Examination of the Sale of Royal Ordnance plc" (PDF). National Audit Office. p. 1. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
8. "Anchor Points. The milestones of European industrial heritage". Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
9. "Land Train Tours". Royal Gunpowder Mills. 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2014.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
10. "Short fuses over holiday camp at gunpowder site". The Times. 31 May 2016. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
11. James, Jonathan (May 2021). Narrow Gauge Railways London and South East England. Narrow Gauge Railway Society.
12. National archives Retrieved 23 October 2009
13. Gunpowder Park Retrieved 15 September 2009
14. Wells, H. G. (1898). The War of the Worlds. William Heinemann.
15. Ondaatje, Michael (2018). Warlight. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN   978-0-525-52119-8.
16. "Joe's patch". BBC Countryfile. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
17. "The Hidden Wilds of the Motorway". BBC. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
18. "Archive Index". wargm.org.
19. "Friends Association". Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills. 4 July 2018.
20. "The Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills Archive". National Archives. Retrieved 20 February 2022.

Sources

• Cocroft, Wayne D. (2000). Dangerous Energy: The archaeology of Gunpowder and military explosives manufacture. Swindon: English Heritage. ISBN   1-85074-718-0.
• Elliott, Bryn (1996). "The Royal Gunpowder Factory Explosions 1940". In: After the Battle , 93, pp 34 – 49. ISSN   0306-154X.
• Elliott, Bryn (1998). "Royal Gunpowder Factory Sequel". In: After the Battle , 101, pp 49 – 51. ISSN   0306-154X.
• Lewis, Jim (2009). From Gunpowder to Guns: The Story of Two Lea Valley Armouries. Middlesex University Press. ISBN   978-1-904750-85-7.
• (N/A), (1993). The Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey, Essex: An RCHME Survey, 1993. London: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. ISBN   1-87359-225-6
• Sinclair, Iain (2002). London Orbital, pp105–107 ISBN   1-86207-547-6

External links

• Royal Gunpowder Mills
• Royal Gunpowder Mills Archive
• Royal Gunpowder Mills Books
• Royal Gunpowder Mills The Armoury
• A history of the Gunpowder Mills watercourses
• Geograph images

51°41′35″N0°00′32″W / 51.693°N 0.009°W / 51.693; -0.009