Royal Ordnance Factory

(Disclaimer: Joking aside, I fully understand the risks/dangers involved in these adventures and do so in the full knowledge of what could happen. I don't encourage or condone and I accept no responsibility for anyone else following in my footsteps. Under UK law, trespass without force is a civil offence. I never break into a place, I never photograph a place that is currently occupied, as this would be morally wrong and intrusive, I never take any items and I never cause any damage, as such no criminal offences have been committed in the making of this blog. I will not disclose location or means of entry.  I leave the building as I find it and only enter to take photographs for my own pleasure and to document the building.

Following our last adventure, I went with Joe and Casi to check out some lovely World War 2 relics. Unlike last blog, they haven't done a video, but you should subscribe to their channel anyway, here.

If you've followed this blog for a while, you'll have seen quite a few war related things by now, enough to know that they can get pretty samey and there's never usually much left inside. However, they are quite eerie, littering the countryside like monuments to a scarier time.

In this case it's an old ordnance factory, owing its existence to the fact that the Germans had started bombing our cities. At the time, the UK had just two ordnance factories left over from the first world war, and they were pretty close to London. Some said it they were a little too close. London, it turns out, was a German bomb magnet, and so it was decided that they probably shouldn't be building weapons in the same place that the enemy is bombing every night. More factories were needed, in safer locations.

This place was built on in 1939, on land chosen due to it being reasonably rural but connected to a rail network, close enough to a town to get sufficient staffing, and less than mile away from an RAF base, so that it could be defended. That's not to say it was completely safe. In 1941 the Germans apparently did come close to bombing it, hitting instead a decoy site on a nearby mountain.

I can't really say for sure what each buildings were used for, but we can speculate based on what was produced here. This factory was specifically for the production of cordite, an explosive propellant that replaced gunpowder in military weapons as of 1889. This is one of a few identical buildings with a huge rectangular vat at the end, and that makes me wonder if this building had something to do with various acidic chemicals.

I also assume these platforms would have had machinery or tanks for chemicals on top. But, I am no expert and I would love it if someone who knows for sure corrected me.

For those who may not know, when it was first invented Cordite consisted of 37.5% nitrocellulos, a flammable substance made by introducing cellulose to nitric acid, 57.5% nitroglycerine, an explosive substance created by introducing white fuming nitric acid to glycerol, and often sulphuric acid too, and the remaining 5% was petroleum jelly.

However my understanding is that the chemical makeup of cordite has been revised and refined over the years.

But either way, it involves lots and lots of acid, enough to turn John Haigh into a tripod.

The factory, while used for airsoft today, consists of numerous ruins protruding from nature, a lot of it easy to miss. Various parts of it are connected via tunnels and passageways.

In the 1940s roughly 13,000 people worked here, and most of them were women, because the men were off fighting the war. The facility was a lot larger back then. Its estimated that a mere 5% remains of what was once sprawled out over 1,400 acres. Even that 5% is easy to get lost in, the surrounding woodland wreaking havoc on ones sense of direction, and many buildings being difficult to see. It would have been quite the sight in the 1940s.

Its gigantic sprawling size was a safety precaution, of course. If the Nazis did drop a bomb on it, there was no way they'd destroy it all, and cordite production could continue. The main buildings were camouflaged too, and the surrounding farms were retained so that at a glance the enemy might disregard it all as farm land.

A large water abstraction and treatment plant was also constructed just to supply the plant, and this was absorbed into the regular water company in 1959. Water, unlike Cordite, was always going to be needed.

This tower was presumably a water tower or something, but I don't know for sure. I was eager to see if there was an amazing view to be had though.

The interior of the tower was hollow but much to my delight there was still a ladder on the exterior that went almost to the very top.

 Climbing it was about as safe as marrying Carole Baskin. Nevertheless, totally worth it for the view.

Sadly all one can really see is the woodland below but these woods are littered with military buildings, and I don't think the ground-level images really convey just how large of an area this is.

Security around these facilities was pretty tight. Anything that could potentially cause a spark was banned, and this didn't just stop at matches, but anything metal, like hair clips. I imagine starting a fire with a metal hair clip would be pretty damn difficult although I can't say I've really tried. But during this war, security was taken very seriously. Citizens weren't even allowed to light cigarettes if they were outdoors during a blackout, just in case the Germans saw the light and dropped a bomb. Likewise, in an environment manufacturing explosives, even the tiniest risk was considered.

But even with such strict precautions, the factory was a health and safety nightmare. Those who worked too closely with sulphur would find that their hair and skin would turn yellow. These were nicknamed the Canary Girls, a reference to their colour but ominously calling back to the canaries that would accompany miners back in the day, because they'd die of toxic gas poisoning before it could affect the humans, allowing them an early warning that the gas was present, giving them time to vacate.

In one building we came across a startling discovery. It's a tent! Someone is living here! We were naturally cautious, not wanting to disturb someone in their home, but once we felt sure that the tent was actually empty, we carried on. So far I've never actually encountered any squatters on my adventures, but I guess it's a matter of time.

This is basically what the paths between buildings looks like now. We're really just retracing the steps of people who have been here before, and there's probably a lot more lost in the overgrowth too.

I have no idea what this could be, but it sits outside this large  building.

What makes this building interesting is that while it isn't a pillbox, it has got a pillbox-style opening in the wall, which indicates that it was a defense facility for the factory.

These are likely the foundations of some kind of tank, or maybe even a pipeline.

Here's some stairs that lead nowhere.

This tunnel leads to a large open square area.

Down below, Joe is helping to demonstrate just how huge this thing is. What was its purpose? I don't know, but from what I understand, the tunnels that dot the landscape had an internal rail system that connected all the different portions of the factory, what with it being so large.

Once the cordite was finished, it was taken via rail to Crewe. In keeping with the strict security measures, the facility only used diesel engines instead of steam, to prevent accidentally igniting the cordite. They did have a steam locomotive called Victory on the premises though, but I'm not sure why.

Some of the buildings used for airsoft are actually labeled. Earlier on we passed one labeled "Bogs," and here's one labeled "Village."

The village is identical to the earlier room, with the raised platforms and the vat at the back. In this case, the vat is actually full of water, and taped off to prevent anyone falling in...

Well, in theory anyway. I'm pretty sure if I tripped and fell forwards, that flimsy tape will offer absolutely no protection. 

This pillbox is labeled "Victory Pillbox," but it seems a little close to the main buildings. It seems to me that if the facility was strict on things that might cause the ignition of the cordite, to the point that the female staff weren't allowed metal hair clips, then having a defensive outpost where guns would be fired in the event of an invasion situated so close to the main buildings seems like a bad idea. In my experience the defence buildings like pillboxes and seagull trenches are spread out a little more.

This is the interior of the Pillbox. For those who don't know, it's basically a defensive outpost. If the facility came under attack by enemy troops on ground level, those stationed here would be able to fire on them from relative safety. The holes in each wall mean that it would be very difficult to approach this pillbox on foot without getting shot.

Of course, during world war 2, the German troops never actually got that far. Many of these were  built for precaution but never actually put to the test. My best theory for why this is so close to the factory buildings is that as the war chugged on and people realised that the chances of a ground invasion from the Germans were minimal, the pillboxes here became obsolete and the factory expanded into it as it grew.

But that's just speculation.

This pillbox is a little more isolated.

This building is labeled "Mess," and it's pretty identical to most of the other large buildings with the vats at the back. In this case, the areas around the back are taped off and labeled "Danger," and "No," to tell the airsoft folks that it's off limits.

The factory itself closed in 1945, when the war ended. At the time this good news was met with a tidal wave of unemployment in the local area. But we weren't taken over by Nazis, so the pros definitely outweigh the cons there. Cordite itself has since become obsolete too, making way for newer technology. One thing humans will never stop doing is finding new and more exciting ways to kill each other.

The majority of the factory did find new use. A yarn factory opened there in the 1950s, and other companies set up shop in the crumbling buildings, including Kellogs and JCB. It eventually evolved into an industrial estate, and a prison was also established on the site in 2017. Quite how this remaining 5% of a once thriving factory got left behind while the rest found purpose in a progressing society baffles me, although putting it to use for airsoft is a choice of pure genius. 

There's a map for the airsoft facility stuck to a wall, although it's seen better days. It lists some of the buildings I've seen, but not all, which indicates that not all of them are for airsoft. That totally makes sense, especially regarding that tower. But given how overgrown this place is, I do wonder when it was last used, even for airsoft.

That's all I've got today. My next blog post will be on my old local blog, which will be nice. I haven't blogged about my hometown in a while, but now that everyone is stuck indoors, it's finally time to use the internet for its intended purpose, and start a cult.
I'm not saying I will start a cult, but if I did, you should join.
Anyway, after the Shrewsbury blog, I'm looking at something big and underground. In the meantime, follow my Instagram, like my Facebook and follow my Twitter.

Thanks for reading!