Grace's Guide

Royal Ordnance, including the Royal Ordnance Factories, makers of guns, ammunition and explosives.

1560 The Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey were opened..

Powder was stored at Greenwich from an early date

1695 Gunpowder was also stored at Upnor Castle (later the Upnor Armaments Supply Depot) from at least as early as 1695.

1716 Subsequently the Royal Brass Foundry was established for the manufacture of brass ordnance.

1759 Government purchase of the privately-owned gunpowder mill at Faversham and the establishment there of the Royal Powder Mill.

1763 The Greenwich magazine was moved to Purfleet.

1787 Purchase of the powdermill at Waltham Abbey which was named the Royal Gunpowder Factory.

1803 the Royal Carriage Department was set up

1804 Manufacture of small arms began at the Tower of London

1807 Small arms manufacture moved to the Royal Manufactory of Small Arms at Lewisham.

1811 The Royal Small Arms Factory site at Enfield was purchased

1816 Operations began at Enfield

1818 The work of the Lewisham establishment was transferred to Enfield.

1825 Closure of Faversham Mill

1855 The Ordnance Office was dissolved in 1855. The manufacturing departments, namely the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey and the Royal Small Arms Factory (Enfield), were transferred to the War Office.

1886 The Sparkbrook factory of the National Arms and Ammunition Co was sold to the government in order to secure the production of small arms. This became the Royal Small Arms Factory (Birmingham). Over the next 2 years about £40000 was invested in re-equipping the factory.

1887 Report by Lord Morley's committee into the Manufacturing Departments of the Army, which consisted of 4 establishments: Woolwich, Waltham Abbey, Enfield and Birmingham; the committee made a number of recommendations for reorganisation, having taken account of modern industrial practices.

1887 Renamed the Royal Ordnance Factories, control passed to the financial secretary's Civil Department.

1889 William Anderson was appointed Director General of Ordnance Factories, responsible for the ordnance factories, laboratory, carriage department and gun factory at Woolwich Arsenal, the small-arms factories at Enfield and Birmingham, and the gunpowder factory at Waltham Abbey. Amongst the many hundreds of guns produced during his administration, which were at least 50% more powerful than the guns they superseded, not a single failure or accident of any kind occurred.

1899 Control of the factories was returned to the Ordnance Department.

1906 Birmingham Small Arms Co took over the Royal Small Arms Factory at Sparkbrook.

WWI Massive increase in production. Two explosives factories were built at Gretna (cordite) and Pembrey (TNT), the latter being initially established by Nobel's Explosives before being taken over by the government. Both were closed after the war.

1915 Four filling factories were established, including one at Hereford; the Scottish one was located near Bishopton, it was named Georgetown in honour of Lloyd George; by 1917 Georgetown employed 10,000; closed after the War. By the end of the war there were 12 national filling factories.

Post-WWI Returned to lower production levels

1934 to 1939 Many new Royal Ordnance Factories were built to enhance the capacity of the Royal Arsenal, Royal Gunpowder Factory and the Royal Small Arms Factory which, being close to London, were susceptible to being bombed.

1942 There were 42 Royal Ordnance factories at this time, of which 24 were engineering, 8 made explosives, and 10 were engaged in filling ordnance (these numbers seem to have been confused by the MP reporting these statistics). They factories employed 300,000 people and were responsible for producing two-thirds of guns made in the UK and a similar proportion of the ammunition.

Post-War: many of the factories were closed, although some were reopened for the Korean war.

1984 Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment's Waltham Abbey south site became part of Royal Ordnance

1984 Royal Ordnance had 19 factories and 19000 employees when vested for privatization. Its largest division was ammunition followed by tanks and fighting vehicles, which had factories at Leeds and Nottingham.

1985 There were 12 Royal Ordnance Factories still in operation. On 2 January the majority were vested in the UK Government-owned company Royal Ordnance Plc together with 3 Agency-operated Factories, the Waltham Abbey south site and the Royal Small Arms Factory. The small number of factories involved in nuclear weapons production, ROF Burghfield and ROF Cardiff, did not pass over to Royal Ordnance upon privatisation but were transferred to the control of AWRE.

1985 Largest European manufacturer of ammunition

1986 Royal Ordnance was bought by British Aerospace (BAe)

2005 BAe Land Systems Munitions and Ordnance employs about 1650 people at sites including the former RO sites at Birtley, Bishopton, Bridgwater, Chorley, Glascoed, Radway Green and Shrivenham. Its head office is at Glascoed. Subsequently became part of BAE Systems Land and Armaments business.

List of sites of Royal Ordnance Factories

Royal Ordnance Factories were for explosives manufacture, filling of munitions and engineering.

The original factories were:

• Royal Arsenal Factory No 1.
• Royal Small Arms Factory, London Factory No 2.
• Waltham Abbey, Royal Gunpowder Factory Factory No 31.

In WWI the Ministry of Munitions took over responsibility for manufacture of explosives (see H. M. Explosive Factories) and for filling of munitions (see National Filling Factories and National Projectile Factories, etc).

In WWII Explosives factories were established at:

• ROF Bishopton; 3 explosives factories.
• ROF Bridgwater; Explosive ROF. No. 37
• ROF Drigg; Explosive ROF.
• ROF Irvine; Explosive ROF
• ROF Pembrey; Explosive ROF.
• ROF Ranskill; Explosive ROF.
• ROF Sellafield
• ROF Wrexham; Explosive ROF.

WWII Engineering factories were at:

• ROF Cardiff; Engineering ROF
• ROF Dalmuir; Engineering ROF.
• ROF Leeds; Engineering ROF.
• ROF Newport; Engineering ROF.
• ROF Nottingham; Engineering ROF.
• ROF Patricroft; M/C Shop Engineering ROF.
• ROF Poole; Engineering ROF.
• ROF Theale; Engineering ROF.

WWII: 20 Filling factories were planned but only 16 were built including :

• ROF Aycliffe; ROF 59 (Filling Factory No. 8)
• ROF Brackla; Filling Factory No. 11;
• ROF Burghfield; Filling Factory No. 18.
• ROF Bridgend; Filling Factory No. 2.
• ROF Chorley; Filling Factory No. 1.
• ROF Elstow; Filling Factory No. 16. - managed by J. Lyons and Co
• ROF Featherstone; Filling Factory No. 17.
• ROF Glascoed; Filling Factory No. 3.
• ROF Hereford; Filling Factory No. 4.
• ROF Kirkby; Filling Factory No. 7.
• ROF Queniborough; Filling Factory No. 10.
• ROF Risley; Filling Factory No. 6.
• ROF Ruddington; Filling Factory No 14.
• ROF Swynnerton; Filling Factory No. 5.
• ROF Thorpe Arch; Filling Factory No. 9
• ROF Walsall; Filling Factory No. 15

WWII: Other Filling factories were devoted to Small Arms Ammunition:

• ROF Blackpool; SAA Factory.
• ROF Radway Green; SAA Factory No. 13.
• ROF Southall; SAA Filling Factory.
• ROF Spennymoor; SAA Factory.
• ROF Steeton; SAA Factory.
• ROF Summerfield; SAA Filling Factory.

Other WWII factories were at:

• ROF Birtley.
• ROF Blackburn.
• ROF Brackla; ROF 41 at Brackla and ROF 53 at Waterton.
• ROF Dunham on the Hill; Explosives storage depot
• ROF Fazakerley; Rifles Factory.
• ROF Hirwaun.
• ROF Maltby; Rifles Factory.

Vehicle models

• Royal Ordnance: Vixen

See Also

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Sources of Information

• National Archives [11]