ROF Rotherwas was a
Royal Ordnance Factory
Royal Ordnance Factories (ROFs) was the collective name of the UK government's munitions factories during and after the Second World War. Until privatisation, in 1987, they were the responsibility of the Ministry of Supply, and later the Ministr ...
filling factory
A filling factory was a manufacturing plant that specialised in filling various munitions, such as bombs, shells, cartridges, pyrotechnics, and screening smokes. In the United Kingdom, during both world wars of the 20th century, the majority of ...
, No 4, located in
Rotherwas,
Dinedor Parish,
Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...
, England.
Background
In the early 20th century, the Lubienski-Bodenham family - descended from
Mary Tudor, the daughter of
King Henry VII
Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.
Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufo ...
- owned the Rotherwas estate, which included a mansion house, Rotherwas Court, and of land on the south side of the
River Wye
The River Wye (; cy, Afon Gwy ) is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary. For much of its length the river forms part of Wal ...
. After the death of Count Louis Pomian Lubienski Bodenham in 1912, the family line ended.
The Rotherwas estate was dismantled in 1913. Thirteen of the mansion's wood panelled rooms were sent to America
(the
Rotherwas Room survives at
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
) and the land was put up for sale. At the resultant auction,
Herefordshire County Council
Herefordshire County Council was the county council of Herefordshire from 1 April 1889 to 31 March 1974. It was based at the Shirehall in Hereford.
It was created under the Local Government Act 1888 and took over many of the powers that had pr ...
bought that was overlooked by
Dinedor Hill and was bordered by the Wye meadows.
World War I
At the outbreak of World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the Ministry of Munitions
The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis of ...
were looking to create a number of munitions production facilities quickly and cheaply. A site of was acquired by the Ministry on 15 June 1916, located south of Hereford on the junction of the Welsh Marches Line and the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway
The Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway (also known as the Gloucester and Dean Forest Railway), was a railway which ran for linking Hereford and Gloucester, England, via Ross-on-Wye. It was opened on 1 June 1855 as a broad gauge line, it ...
. Laid out to a standard design, the site encompassed:[
* ]standard gauge railway
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
* of roads
* of guard fence
* of footpaths and sentry paths
*370 buildings varying in floor area. Like a typical munitions facility, the buildings were widely spaced on safety reasons, to avoid complete destruction of the facility in case of an explosion
*A rail connected outpost was established at Credenhill
Credenhill is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. The population of this civil parish taken at the 2011 Census was 2,271.
Near Credenhill is the site of the former Royal Air Force station, RAF Credenhill. It was redeveloped ...
as a munitions store. During WW2 this land was again requisitioned for defence and became RAF Hereford
RAF Credenhill, also known as RAF Hereford, was a non-flying station of the Royal Air Force situated in the village of Credenhill near Hereford, United Kingdom. It was commissioned in 1940 and served as home for a range of training schools from ...
, once the home of the Special Air Service
The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...
.
All components were produced elsewhere, with the facility responsible for final production: inserting explosive into shells, and fitting detonators. Shell filling began on 11 November 1916, with both Lyddite
Picric acid is an organic compound with the formula (O2N)3C6H2OH. Its IUPAC name is 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP). The name "picric" comes from el, πικρός (''pikros''), meaning "bitter", due to its bitter taste. It is one of the most acidic ...
and Amatol
Amatol is a highly explosive material made from a mixture of TNT and ammonium nitrate. The British name originates from the words ammonium and toluene (the precursor of TNT). Similar mixtures (one part dinitronaphthalene and seven parts ammoniu ...
explosives being used in production. From June 1918, alongside the main plant at Banbury
Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census.
Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire ...
and supporting site at Chittenden; all three were supplied with dichloroethyl sulphide by the National Smelting Company
The National Smelting Company was a nationalised zinc smelting company in Avonmouth, England. It was established by Minister of Munitions Winston Churchill to produce mustard gas during World War I.
After World War I, it was bought by private bus ...
at Avonmouth Docks
The Avonmouth Docks are part of the Port of Bristol, in England. They are situated on the northern side of the mouth of the River Avon, opposite the Royal Portbury Dock on the southern side, where the river joins the Severn estuary, within Avon ...
, to produce mustard gas
Mustard gas or sulfur mustard is a chemical compound belonging to a family of cytotoxic and blister agents known as mustard agents. The name ''mustard gas'' is technically incorrect: the substance, when dispersed, is often not actually a gas, b ...
shells. By the end of WW1, the average output of shells from the facility was 70,000 per week.[
At peak of 6,000 employees; by October 1918, there were 5,943 employees, 3,977 of which were women.][ Workers were transported in from billets in Hereford, ]Leominster
Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster is t ...
and Ross on Wye
Ross-on-Wye (Welsh: ''Rhosan ar Wy'') is a market town in England, near the border with Wales. It had a population of 10,582 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 11,309 in 2019. It lies in south-eastern Herefordshire, on the River Wye and ...
. Dedicated trains were run from Hereford Barrs Court railway station to the specially built factory station, with free tickets supplied to all employees.[
]
Between the wars
The only ROF of 25 sites retained between the wars, it was put into care and maintenance from 1920.[ From 1926 onwards it resumed filling gas shells, staffed by about 400 men. By the late 1930s it was used by the ]Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
for filling sea mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ve ...
s.[
]
World War II
During World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the facility was used to produce shells, and bombs for the Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
. The site employed over 8,000 staff, mainly women.[ The site suffered three major incidents:][
*12 September 1941: a ]milling machine
Milling is the process of machining using rotary cutters to remove material by advancing a cutter into a workpiece. This may be done by varying direction on one or several axes, cutter head speed, and pressure. Milling covers a wide variety of d ...
overheated, creating explosions with killed three people
*27 July 1942: a single Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
bomber dropped two 250 kg bombs, killing 22 people
*30 May 1944: a bomb exploded during filling operations exploded (see below)
1944 explosion
On 30 May 1944, a naval bomb being prepared at Rotherwas was seen smoking. Three workers - JW Little, FJ Tyler and A Morris - started dousing the bomb with water. Six members of the factory fire brigade cooled the bomb down and 800 fellow workers were evacuated from the southern section of the factory. The bomb split open and exploded and Morris was killed. Assistant Fire Officer FA Lewis and Leading Fireman WJ Davies were thrown 30 foot out of the building. A second explosion was more powerful and the building collapsed on the firefighters, killing firefighter Vincent Carey. A third worker, trained in first aid, was helping colleagues and was also killed. The Hereford fire brigade and British, Canadian and American servicemen from the Herefordshire bases helped to bring the fire under control. In total, 31 bombs and mines exploded.
The explosions damaged homes and businesses across the city. Nine hundred tons of live ammunition lay under the rubble and it took a month for a specialist team to make the site safe. WL Fitzmaurice defused 1500 pounds of explosives on his own to protect his colleagues whilst being continuously soaked by hosepipe.
King George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...
awarded five George Medal
The George Medal (GM), instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI,''British Gallantry Medals'' (Abbott and Tamplin), p. 138 is a decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, awarded for gallantry, typically by civilians, or in circ ...
s, nine British Empire Medal
The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown. The current honour was created in 1922 to ...
s, an OBE and an MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
and 34 other commendations[ to workers for their bravery.
Miss Mona Cawthorne was in the ]Mechanised Transport Corps
The Mechanised Transport Corps (MTC), sometimes erroneously called the Motor Transport Corps, was a British women's organisation that initially provided its own transport and uniforms and operated during the Second World War. It was a civilian uni ...
at ROF Rotherwas. She was presented with a letter of commendation from the Director General CS Robinson for her bravery in transporting the injured to hospital despite being injured herself.
In 2003, volunteers from the Hereford Waterworks Museum found a Blackstone 5-cylinder diesel engine, multi belt drive system and a Mather & Platt two stage centrifugal pump at Rotherwas. The fire engine has been fully restored and is part of a special exhibition in the Rotherwas Building at the Waterworks Museum.
Ruskin Spear recalled the explosion in a painting called ''A Royal Ordnance Factory Explosion, Hereford'' depicting damage to the site and demolished buildings. The painting is now part of the Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...
collection.
A Royal Ordnance Factory Explosion, Hereford
'. Imperial War Museum Collection. Retrieved: 21 December 2022.
Present
With vastly reduced production after World War II, the city and county council lobbied for various business to relocate to the site. As the ROF was reduced in scale, parts of the site were redeveloped with various commercial industrial facilities.[
The ROF closed in 1967. In 1975 Herefordshire County Council bought for redevelopment as an ]industrial 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, ...
. A number of World War I buildings survive, as does a group of World War II Romney hut
The Romney hut is a prefabricated steel structure used by the British military, developed during World War II to supersede the Iris hut.
History
At the outbreak of World War II, the British military developed a series of prefabricated huts to s ...
s to the north-east, now used as industrial starter units.
In September 2020, the newly refurbished Shell Store building opened at Rotherwas. A £7.3 million project built a new shell around the existing steel frame from 1916. It has room for up to 25 businesses, conference space and a cafe. Part of the original floor showing the imprints made by shells can be seen.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotherwas
Filling factories
Buildings and structures in Hereford
Military history of Herefordshire
Royal Ordnance Factories in England