Holton Heath is an area of the parish of Wareham St. Martin,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, England. The area includes a

trading estate An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...

, on the site of the former

Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath The Royal Naval Cordite Factory, Holton Heath (RNCF) was set up at Holton Heath, Dorset, England, in World War I to manufacture cordite for the Royal Navy. It was reactivated in World War II to manufacture gun propellants for the Admiralty and its ...

, (RNCF). East of the trading estate is the Holton Heath National Nature Reserve, currently closed to the public.Natural England website
/ref> The area is served by the Holton Heath railway station.

History

In 1890 Baronet and MP Sir

Elliott Lees Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Elliott Lees, 1st Baronet, DSO (23 October 1860 – 16 October 1908), was a British Conservative Party politician. Lees was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. Lees was elected to the House of Commons for Old ...

bought land in Dorset and moved into South Lytchett Manor, in

Lytchett Minster Lytchett Minster is a village in Dorset, England. It lies around north-west of Poole town centre. The village forms part of the civil parish of Lytchett Minster and Upton, Upton now being a suburb of Poole. Geography Location Lytchett Mi ...

, north-east of Holton Heath. Much of the Holton land was requisitioned by the Royal Navy for a

cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burni ...

factory (RNCF) in World War 1 but the family retained East Holton Farm, later to become Holton Lee, an environmental and arts centre for disabled people. Holton Heath was chosen in 1914 because of its remote location, away from centres of population, and its good transportation links, on a backwater of

Poole Harbour Poole Harbour is a large natural harbour in Dorset, southern England, with the town of Poole on its shores. The harbour is a drowned valley (ria) formed at the end of the last ice age and is the estuary of several rivers, the largest being th ...

, adjacent to the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

, and the A351 Wareham to

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

road. Holton Heath railway station was opened to serve the RNCF. A jetty, Rockley Jetty, was also constructed in Poole Harbour just outside the main site, to transport Cordite by boat to

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite t ...

.Bowditch The jetty was linked into the factory's railway system. During the Second World War, the site was a target for German bombers and so a plan to protect it was instigated. This consisted of creating several "Starfish" decoy sites in the village of

Arne Arne may refer to: Places * Arne, Dorset, England, a village ** Arne RSPB reserve, a nature reserve adjacent to the village * Arné, Hautes-Pyrénées, Midi-Pyrénées, France * Arne (Boeotia), an ancient city in Boeotia, Greece * Arne (Thessa ...

, three miles to the south east, containing flammable material that would be ignited to give the appearance of a burning building. This was put to the test on the night of 3–4 June 1942 when bombers dropped hundreds of bombs on the decoy site, practically destroying the village of Arne, but leaving the Cordite Factory unscathed. The cordite factory at Holton Heath closed after World War 2 and the site became an Admiralty research establishment. In the late 1990s the military left the site altogether.

References

Industrial parks in the United Kingdom {{dorset-geo-stub