Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills

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

Gunpowder production

Gunpowder manufacture is believed to have commenced on the site in the mid seventeen century, making use of the site and the water supplies of a medieval water-powered fulling mill that had later been used as an Oil mill. Water is obtained from the River Lea and the water flowed though the Gunpowder Mills site, controlled by sluices and locks, though various canalised watercourses, some of which are man-made and date back to the seventeen century, or earlier: Cornmill Stream, Millhead Stream; and out, again though the River Lea and /or the Lee Flood Relief Channel, constructed from 1947 on wards. The river provided water for both powering some of the gunpowder mills as well as allowing the passage of specialised barges, either within the site, or into and out of the site.

This gunpowder works was to become one of the main suppliers of gunpowder to the Ordnance Board. 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. The purchase took place on 18 October 1787, with the Crown purchasing the mills for £10,000 from a Mr Walton. A further, immediate, expenditure of almost £7,989.00 was needed to get the buildings into servicable order. This took 18 months: the re-building work and the presence of these workmen on site prevented any gunpowder from being produced on the site until February 1789.

Nitrocellulose production

In the 1830s and 1840s various chemists had discovered that cellulose, in the form of cotton, paper, starch, or wood fibres, could be nitrated; and that the product of these reactions, if left to dry for a few hours, or a few days, would burn readily. Christian Friedrich Schönbein, at Basel and Rudolf Christian Böttger, of Frankfurt_am_Main appear to have independently produced a nitrated cotton in 1846; and then worked together to promote it as a possible replacement for gunpowder. They visited the Royal Arsenal, that year, to promote their findings. The explosive manufacturer John Hall & Sons, of Faversham, bought the patent and gained the sole right to manufacture it in England. He opened the world's first guncotton factory, at their Marsh Works, Faversham. The explosives works was totally destroyed when it exploded on 14 July 1847, killing 18 to 20 of the workers. The works never reopened. Similar explosions took place at two factories in France, so no guncotton was produced after this in England nor France for about sixteen years.

From 1849, Captain Wilhelm Lenk von Wolfsberg, in Austria, began to work with nitrocellose; he produced nitrocellulose that was acceptable for military use. He patented its method of production on 4 June 1864 and was asked to give lectures in France and in England where Frederick Abel, Ordnance Chemist at the Royal Arsenal became interested.

Cordite production

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. RDX production was transferred to ROF Bridgwater and cordite production was dispersed to new propellant factories at ROF Bishopton, ROF Wrexham and ROF Ranskill. The Royal Gunpowder Mills finally closed on 28 July 1945.

The establishment re-opened as a research centre known as the Explosives Research and Development Establishment, or ERDE, in 1945. 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. The South site and the Lower Island works were handed over to Royal Ordnance plc immediately before it was privatised in 1984.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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.

List of locomotives
Name	Builder	Works number	Type	Built	Notes
John H. Bowles	Baguley-Drewry	3755	4wDH	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	4wDM	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, 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.