UK World War I National Filling Factories
At the start of the War munition filling was carried out at Woolwich Arsenal, however it was soon realised that a massive increase in production of munitions was required created in England by the Ministry of Munitions in the early part of WW1 (covering 174 locations), among these were the National Filling Factories, including a National Fuse Factory, 5 Trench Warfare Filling Factories, and 3 National Factories for Filling and Assembling Chemical Shells.Filling of small bore ammunition was increased by the creation of 4 government cartridge factories. Most of the national filling factories followed similar designs with large sites with small lightweight buildings well separated and connected by raised walkways which had lightweight rail lines so materials could be wheeled between buildings on trolleys. Shells, fuses, packing cases, and explosives were brought in by rail to the edge of the factory, and completed munitions left by rail. All the filling work was carried out within the large 'clean area' by a large, mainly female, workforce. People entering the clean area had to change clothes and leave behind anything that could strike a spark, not just matches and lighters but all metal, even hairclips - one male worker being fined £5 for being in possession of 2 nails that he had used to replace a lost button on his trousers.
While some of the factories were entirely built and managed by the Ministry of Munitions, others had local management. For instance NFF 10 was built on 109 acres of land owned by White and Poppe Ltd who had changed from engine production to manufacturing fuse bodies and 18pdr shell sockets. White and Poppe was given the contract for building the fuse filling plant in September 1915, and when completed in September 1916 it ran under their management. Unfortunately a problem with fuse failures caused a cessation of production in December 1916. The fault identified and the factory reorganised it restarted production in February 1917 as NFF 21, but still under White and Poppe management.
When the Armistice came in November 1918, production was rapidly terminated and the female workforce laid off. A few sites, with much reduced male staff levels, were used for decommissioning unwanted ammunition. After clean up, most of the buildings, equipment, and stores were sold off by public auctions in the early 1920s.
.
Name |
Location |
From |
Peak
Workforce |
Products |
Notes |
|
National Filling
Factory No. 1 |
Barnbow, Leeds |
Apr-16 |
16000 |
Quick Fire
Ammunition (18pdr to 6 inch) |
296 acres. Of the
13315 employees in Mar 1917, 12150 were women. Produced 50,000 shells per
week by August 1918. An explosion in December 1916 killed 34 women. Since
2016 it is a scheduled monument (No 1415057) as the most complete surviving
filling factory. |
|
National Filling
Factory No. 2 |
Aintree, Liverpool |
Jan-16 |
8599 |
Quick Fire
Ammunition (18pdr to 6 inch) |
175 acres. Partly
built to complete 18pdr shells shipped in from USA via Liverpool |
|
National Filling
Factory No. 3 |
Dec-15 |
|
120 acres. In
August 1917 a central experimental unit was setup to study methods for
filling and assembling for all the NFFs.[WW1 4] An explosion
in Sept 1919 (when being used for decommissioning munitions) caused damage
but didn't escalate, but raised questions about the safety of munitions in
London suburbs.[WW1 5] |
|
||
Jan-16 |
11088 |
Quick Fire
Ammunition (13pdr, 18pdr, 3.4 inch, 12 inch shells) |
Area 250 acres,
then second factory increased it to 540 acres. |
|
||
National Filling
Factory No. 5 |
Quedgeley, Gloucester |
Mar-16 |
6364 |
18pdr, 4.5 inch,
60pdr shells, cartridges and primers |
308 acres. Site cleared in mis 1920s, but was reused in
1939 as RAF Quedgeley |
|
Feb-16 |
7500 |
High explosive
shells (4.5 inch to 15 inch shells) |
208 acres.
Suffered serious explosion 1 July 1918, 134 killed, 250 injured. Work
restarted the next day. Chilwell produced over 19 million artillery shells by
the end of the war. |
|
||
National Filling
Factory No. 7 |
Oct-15 |
12500 |
Components (fuses,
Gaines) plus 18pdr shells also 4.5 and 6 in howitzer |
|
||
National Filling
Factory No. 8 |
Sep-15 |
|
Components
(101-103 fuses, Gaines) |
60,000 sq feet
factory also known as Emergency Factory No. 1 |
|
|
Apr-16 |
1463 |
Mainly high
explosive shells (over 4.5 inch), some naval mines and chemical filling (HS) |
142 acres. Used
until 1924 for breaking down unwanted ammunition. |
|
||
National Filling
Factory No. 10 |
Mar-16 |
3864 |
Components (fuses,
Gaines) for 18 pdr shells |
109 acres. Managed
by White and Poppe Ltd. Due to a number of fuse failures in late 1916, once
remedied this was renamed as NFF 21 |
|
|
National Filling
Factory No. 11 |
Jan-16 |
|
Components (fuses,
Gaines) |
Managed by Kings Norton Metal Co, works built adjacent to
their factory. Closed cApril 1918.[WW1 4] |
|
|
National Filling
Factory No. 12 |
Cardonald, Glasgow |
Jan-16 |
|
Components
(detonators, gaines and primers) |
Near Cardonald
railway station. Managed by Nobel's Explosives Ltd. |
|
National Filling
Factory No. 13 |
Jul-16 |
|
High explosive
shells (over 4.5 inch) |
|
||
National Filling
Factory No. 14 |
Nov-16 |
~8000 |
High explosive
shells (over 4.5 inch) |
519 acres. Built
to provide backup capacity should Chilwell or Morecambe be out of commission.
Changed to breaking down unwanted ammo after the war at least until 1921. |
|
|
National Filling
Factory No. 18 |
Burry Port, Pembrey |
Jun-15 |
1050 |
Filling 4.5in, 6in
and 8in shells |
|
|
National Filling
Factory No. 21 |
Feb-17 |
|
Components (fuses,
Gaines) for 18 pdr shells |
National Filling
Factory no 10 was renumbered 21 after a fault in the production system had been
fixed, as front line troops had learned to avoid munitions from NFF 10 |
|
|
National Filling
Factory No. 22 |
Feb-18 |
|
Naval mines |
143 acres. |
|
|
National Filling
Factory No. 23 |
Chittening, South
Gloucestershire |
Jun-18 |
1100 |
Filling shells
with chloropicrin, later with dichloroethyl sulphide from
the National Smelting Company at Avonmouth Docks[WW1 6] |
Operated by Nobel
Explosives. By November 1918, Chittening had produced 85,424 mustard gas
shells; but at a human cost of 1213 cases of associated illness, including
two deaths which were later attributed to influenza.[WW1 7] |
|
National Filling
Factory No. 24 |
|
|
2in and 3in mortar
rounds and rifle grenades |
|
||
Bushey Mill
Lane, Callowland, Watford |
May-16 |
|
Heavy trench
mortar and aerial bombs. Some chemical filling. |
Watford No 2
Trench Warfare Filling Factory. 40 acres, 26 sheds, 300 ton magazine.
Chemical filling moved to Greenford Chemical Shell Assembly Station in Jan
1917. |
|
|
National Filling
Factory No. 28 |
Jan-17 |
|
Chemical shell
filling |
Also known as
Chemical Shell Assembling Station. Formerly Greenford dye works. |
|
|
National Fuse
Factory |
Mid 1917 |
3000 |
Fuses |
28 acre site
built, staffed, and managed by George Kent Ltd who were already making
munitions at Biscot Road, Luton |
|
|
17th Century |
80000 |
Varied |
The only filling
factory in UK in 1914, eventually closing in 1967. Covering 1285 acres. |
|
||
Trench Warfare
Filling Factory |
Slade Green, Erith |
Oct-15 |
|
2 inch mortars,
used after the war for dismantling munitions |
Probably had an
NFF designation. 14 acre site near to the Thames Munition Works |
|
Trench Warfare
Filling Factory |
Jan-16 |
|
3 inch Stokes
mortar bombs |
Probably had an
NFF designation. Built near to (and managed by) British Westfalite's factory |
|
|
Trench Warfare
Filling Factory |
Aug-15 |
|
3 inch Stokes
mortar bombs, ball grenades |
|
||
Trench Warfare
Filling Factory |
1916 |
234 |
3 inch 'Russian'
shell |
Ardol Ltd (who had
a carbon monoxide by-product of food manufacture), built and operated a
factory to make phosgene and load into shells. Nationalised in June
1916. Shell filling moved elsewhere c1917 |
|
Raw materials
High-explosives, such as TNT, had to be heated to melt them and the liquid was poured hot into heated shell cases. Care had to be taken to ensure that there were no voids in the poured explosive charge as this could lead to the shell detonating in the gun barrel during firing.
Shells and gun cartridges were manufactured in the UK, in World War II, by both the Engineering ROFs and private steel works / forging companies. It is believed that the empty brass cartridge cases for small arms were made at the Small Arms Ammunition Factories.
The filling factories produced their own pyrotechnics, such as fuses and screening smokes, as many of these were sensitive materials. They were then filled or assembled directly into the munitions.
They also would have sewn cotton bags for filling with primer composition or cordite charges.
Filling groups
Filling factories had a large number of buildings. Buildings were needed on the various groups for filling of munitions. Explosives magazines were required by each group to store the incoming explosive materials and to store the outgoing filled shells or gun cartridges, usually packed in ammunition boxes. Storage buildings were also needed on each group to store the incoming empty shells and the empty ammunition boxes.
For safety purposes, munitions were segregated into different compatibility groups. A World War II filling factory would generally fill several different groups of munitions; and these groups would be located in different geographical areas within the danger area of the filling factory.
The World War II groups were:
Group 1: Initiators, such as caps and detonators for primers and fuzes.
Group 2: Fuze pellets, exploder pellets, exploder bags.
Group 3: Filling of fuzes.
Group 4: Blending of gunpowders for time fuzes.
Group 5: Filling of cartridges, such as filling cordite into cloth bags or into brass cartridge cases.
Group 6: Manufacture of smoke producing compositions.
Group 7: Small arms filling.
Group 8: Filling of shells or bombs.
Group 9: Large magazines, filled ammunition awaiting dispatch.
In addition, a filling factory would have provision for limited proofing and testing of its munitions; and burning grounds for disposal of waste explosive material.
Outside of this danger area, but still within the factory site, would be located:
administration offices;
pay offices;
workshops;
a medical centre;
changing rooms;
contraband storage (for items prohibited in the danger areas, e.g. matches, tobacco, etc.);
search rooms;
canteens (as many as 40 in some of the large factories).
UK World War II Royal Ordnance Factory, filling factories
ROF Chorley (Filling Factory No. 1)
ROF Bridgend (Filling Factory No. 2)
The other filling factories were:
ROF Glascoed (Filling Factory No. 3)
ROF Rotherwas (Filling Factory No. 4)[a]
ROF Swynnerton (Filling Factory No. 5)
ROF Risley (Filling Factory No. 6)
ROF Kirkby (Filling Factory No. 7)
ROF Aycliffe (Filling Factory No. 8)
ROF Thorp Arch (Filling Factory No. 9)
ROF Queniborough (Filling Factory No. 10)
ROF Brackla (Filling Factory No. 11)
ROF Swindon (Wootton Bassett) (Factory No. 12)[b]
ROF Macclesfield (Factory No. 13)[b]
ROF Ruddington (Filling Factory No. 14)
ROF Walsall (Filling Factory No. 15)
ROF Elstow (Filling Factory No. 16)
ROF Featherstone (Filling Factory No. 17)
ROF Burghfield (Filling Factory No. 18)[c]
ROF Tutbury (Factory No. 19)[b]
ROF Northampton (Factory No. 20)[b]
Explanatory notes
abcd Factory planned and number assigned, but not built
Some of these filling factories were temporary "war duration" only factories and they closed after the end of World War II. Other filling factories were designed to be permanent and to remain open after the War. However, only ROF Glascoed is still open and is now part of BAE Systems.