Set in 175 acres of parkland and boasting 21 buildings of major historical importance the Royal Gunpowder Mills, at Waltham Abbey, mixes fascinating history, exciting science, and beautiful surroundings.

In operation for over 300 years, there was never a challenge the Royal Gunpowder Mills could not rise to in the development of gunpowder and explosives. Its superior production methods and high quality results earned it a reputation on an international level and played a significant part in the rise of Great Britain as an international power.

Pre-Gunpowder use of the site

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The story of gunpowder produced at Waltham Abbey starts with a fulling mill for cloth production originally set up by the monks of the Abbey on the Millhead Stream, an engineered water course tapping the waters of the River Lea. Mills were adaptable and in the early 17th century it was converted to an 'Oyle Mill', i.e. for producing vegetable oils. In the second Dutch War gunpowder supply shortages were encountered and the oil mill was converted to gunpowder production, possibly in response to this. In 1665 it was acquired by Ralph Hudson using saltpetre made in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

The Hudson family sold out to William Walton at the end of the 17th century, starting a family connection lasting almost a hundred years. The enterprise was successful under the Walton's tenure and the Mills expanded up the Millhead Stream as fresh production facilities were added, the material progressing from one building to another as it passed through the various processes. The Waltham Abbey Mills were one of the first examples in the 18th century of an industrialised factory system, not often recognised. In 1735 they were described by Thomas Fuller, a local historian, as 'the largest and compleatest works in Great Britain.'

Purchase of the site by the Crown

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In the 1780s there was fresh concern over security, quality and economy of supply and the then Deputy Comptroller of the Royal Laboratory at Woolwich, Major, later Lt. General, Sir William Congreve advocated that the Waltham Abbey Mills should be purchased by the Crown to ensure secure supplies and to establish what would now be called a centre of excellence for development of manufacturing processes and to establish quality and cost standards by which private contractors could be judged. In October 1787 the Crown purchased the Mills from John Walton for £10,000, starting a 204 year ownership. Congreve was a man of immense drive and vision, a pioneer of careful management, quality control and scientific method and under his regime manufacture moved from what had been a black art to, in the context of its day, an advanced technology.

Reflecting this, the Mills were able to respond successfully in volume and quality to the massive increases in demand which arose over the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from 1789, culminating in the victory at Waterloo in 1815. In the years following Waterloo the Mills entered a period of quiet with a steep decline in staff numbers and production levels. However there was a steady advance in machinery and process development.

The quiet was not to last. Conflict broke out in 1854 with the Crimean War with Russia, followed by the Indian Mutiny and a succession of colonial conflicts followed, culminating in the Boer War of 1899 - 1902.

All of this provided the impulse for further development. Whilst the Mills function was to provide gunpowder for military use, either as a propellant for use in guns, or as a military explosive for demolition, etc, improvements effected there were a strong influence on private industry producing for civil activity - construction, mining, quarrying, tunneling, railway building etc. which created a massive demand for gunpowder in the 19th century.

Research into other explosives

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Under the leadership of Sir Frederick Abel, first, Guncotton was developed at Waltham Abbey, patented in 1865, then, the propellant Cordite, patented in 1889.

Again there was a close link with production for civil use, with chemical engineering improvements at Waltham Abbey being disseminated to private industry. All this meant that Waltham Abbey had become a leading centre of Victorian and later science and technology, but for reasons of security largely unknown to the outside world.

World War I

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WWI 1914 - 1918 brought a huge upsurge in demand. The Mills increased staff numbers by around 3000 to a total of 6230. The 3000 additional workers were largely female, recruited from the surrounding area and this was a significant social phenomenon.

After WWI there was again a period of quiet before anxieties about the future again surfaced. It was decided that production at Waltham Abbey would be gradually transferred to the west of the country, safer from air attack from Europe. However in the meantime production continued and crucial development work was carried out on TNT production and on the new explosive RDX.

World War II

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During WWII Waltham Abbey remained an important Cordite production unit and for the first two years of the war was the sole producer of RDX.

Total transfer of RDX production to the west of England, to ROF Bridgwater; and dispersal of Cordite production to new propellant factories located: in the west of Scotland, three co-located factories at ROF Bishopton, to Wales, ROF Wrexham, and to the North East, ROF Ranskill, was achieved by 1943. Many Waltham Abbey staff played a vital role in developing the new Explosive Royal Ordnance Factories, training staff and superintending production.

The Royal Gunpowder Mills finally closed in 1943.

Post World War use of the site

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In 1945 the establishment re-opened as a research centre for military propellant and high explosives and expanding into the increasingly significant field of rocket propellants, solid and liquid and a range of specialised applications, e.g. 'snifters' for altering space vehicles direction when in flight, cartridges for firing aircraft ejector seats, engine and generator starter cartridges - these applications have been called 'a measured strong shove'. The rocket activity later extended to the production of rocket motors.

After various reorganisations of Governmental research, the research centre finally closed in 1991, bringing to an end 300 years of explosives production and research.

Sale of the site by the Ministry of Defence

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That is not the end of the story. Thanks to funding from the Government and the Heritage Lottery Fund, the majority of the site has been saved. It has been sympathetically decontaminated and a heritage visitor centre has been created allowing the public to learn about the science, nature and history of the site. A large area is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and as a scheduled ancient monument.

External links

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Royal Gunpowder Mills

Cordite | Government Munitions Production in the United Kingdom | Royal Ordnance Factory