HM Factory, Gretna
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H.M. Factory, Gretna was the United Kingdom's largest
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 in
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 government-owned facility was adjacent to the
Solway Firth The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in ...
, near
Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway Gretna ( gd, Greatna) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, originally part of the historic county of Dumfriesshire. It is located close to the A74(M) on the border of Scotland and England and near the mouth of the River Esk.1:50,000 ...
. It was built by 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 ...
in response to the
Shell Crisis of 1915 The Shell Crisis of 1915 was a shortage of artillery shells on the front lines in the First World War that led to a political crisis in the United Kingdom. Previous military experience led to an over-reliance on shrapnel to attack infantry in th ...
. The capital cost was £9,184,000 (£ in ) and it covered 9000 acres. The cost of working it from September 1916 to September 1918 was £12,769,000, during which time it produced cordite valued at £15,000,000, though it was claimed that without it the cordite would have had to be imported from the USA at a cost of £23,600,000. The Devil's Porridge Museum, Eastriggs, Dumfriesshire, commemorates the efforts of these workers during the
First World War 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 ...
.


Layout

H.M. Factory, Gretna stretched from Mossband near Longtown in the east, to
Dornock Dornock is a small Scottish village in Dumfries and Galloway, situated about west of Eastriggs and east of Annan. Dornock is built on land which is above sea level. Dornock Burn runs east of the village and the railway between Annan and ...
/
Eastriggs Eastriggs is a small village located in Dumfries and Galloway in the south of Scotland, the village is located around north of the mud and sandbanks of the channel of the River Eden, which extends west into the Solway Firth. Travelling by roa ...
in the west straddling the Scottish-English border. The facility consisted of four large production sites and two purpose-built townships. The facility had its own independent transport network, power source, and water supply system. :Site 1, Smalmstown was to the north of Longtown (at ). :Site 2, Mossband was bounded on the west by the
Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...
(now the
West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
), and the River Esk on the south and the east (at ). :Site 3, Eastriggs was bounded to the north by the B721 and the
Glasgow and South Western Railway The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was a railway company in Scotland. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle. It was formed on 28 October 1850 by the merger of two earlier railway ...
, and south by the Solway Firth and the
River Sark The River Sark or Sark Water is a river best known for forming part of the western border between Scotland and England. Most of its short length, however, is entirely in Scotland. It flows into the estuary of the River Esk just to the south of G ...
(at ). :Site 4, Gretna was contained like Site 3 but it was adjacent to the Gretna township to the east (at ). A
military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
,
narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
railway was used to move materials and supplies around the sites. The network, which had of track, employed 34 engines. Electricity for the munitions manufacture and the townships was provided by a purpose-built coal-fired power station. The telephone exchange was handling up to 2.5 million calls in 1918. The townships had their own bakeries, laundry and a police force. The laundry could clean 6,000 items daily and the bakeries made 14,000 meals a day. Water was taken from the River Esk, north of Longtown, through a diameter pipe to a pump house. From there it was pumped through a
main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...
to a
reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
. A filtration/treatment works could handle up to ten million gallons (45000m) a day.


History

Construction work on HM Factory, Gretna started in November 1915 under the general supervision of S P Pearson & Sons. Up to 10,000 Irish
navvies Navvy, a clipping of navigator ( UK) or navigational engineer ( US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and eart ...
worked on the site as well as concurrently building the two wooden
township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...
s to house the workers at Gretna and
Eastriggs Eastriggs is a small village located in Dumfries and Galloway in the south of Scotland, the village is located around north of the mud and sandbanks of the channel of the River Eden, which extends west into the Solway Firth. Travelling by roa ...
. To prevent problems with the influx of construction and munition workers, authorities implemented the State Management Scheme which curtailed alcohol sales through the nationalisation of pubs and breweries in the vicinity. Medical issues at the facility were overseen by Dr
Thomas Goodall Nasmyth Dr Thomas Goodall Nasmyth FRSE DL JP DPH (28 February 1855 – 16 January 1937) was a Scottish physician, medical author and historian. He served as Medical Officer of Health for Fife, Kinross and Clackmannanshire. He was one of the first (1899) t ...
FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
. Munitions production started in April 1916. Engineers and chemists from nations throughout the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
were employed to establish the production of RDB Cordite. By 1917 the largest proportion of the workforce were women: 11,576 women to 5,066 men. The women munitions workers were known collectively as
The Gretna Girls The Gretna Girls was a collective nickname given to women munition workers at HM Factory Gretna in World War One. Women came from all over the United Kingdom to work at the factory, but many were drawn from the surrounding areas of Scotland and ...
. At its peak, the factories produced 800
ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...
s (812
tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000  kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
) of Cordite RDB per week, more than all the other munitions plants in Britain combined. Cordite was colloquially known as the "Devil's Porridge"; the name comes from the writings of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
, who visited H.M. Factory as a war correspondent in 1916. He later wrote "The
nitroglycerin Nitroglycerin (NG), (alternative spelling of nitroglycerine) also known as trinitroglycerin (TNG), nitro, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), or 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane, is a dense, colorless, oily, explosive liquid most commonly produced by nitrating g ...
on the one side and the
gun-cotton Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...
on the other are kneaded into a sort of a devil's porridge; which is the next stage of manufacture...those smiling khaki-clad girls who are swirling the stuff round in their hands would be blown to atoms in an instant if certain small changes occurred". In 1917, when production reached 800
ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...
s per week,
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 ...
and Queen Mary visited the factory. Cordite production ceased shortly after the end of World War I in November 1918. The first 25% redundancies were announced in December 1918, and the final closure notice was issued in August 1919, by which time the workforce had been reduced to 3000 to 4000. In September 1919 the special Andrew Barclay ' fireless' locos used to shunt the explosives were sold off (both 2 foot gauge and standard-gauge) along with 40 standard gauge, covered, bogie 'paste' wagons (made by Magor Car Co. of New York, and Pickering Bros of
Wishaw Wishaw ( sco, Wishae or Wisha ; gd, Camas Neachdain) is a large town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the edge of the Clyde Valley, south-east of Glasgow city centre. The Burgh of Wishaw was formed in 1855 within Lanarkshire. it formed ...
), and a further 86 open 4-wheel contractors wagons. In 1919-20 the manufacturing plants were demolished. Although the entire factory site was retained until the early 1920s, eventually all of Site 4 and other parts of the former munition plant were auctioned off for private and agricultural land. The combined sale consisted of more than 700 lots. The two townships of Eastriggs and Gretna and their bakeries were also sold off. On its closure,
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 survive ...
near
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
became the sole government-owned cordite factory until an expansion programme started at the outbreak of
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 ...
.


Notable people connected with HM Gretna

*
Agnes Barr Auchencloss Agnes Barr Auchencloss (30 May 1886 – 4 July 1972) was a Scottish medical officer. She is best known for her work at the World War I munitions factory H.M. Factory Gretna. She is included in the University of Glasgow Roll of Honour. Family ...
, medical officer at Gretna, graduate of the
University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...
, and her husband Gosta Lundholm, a Swedish chemist from a family of explosives experts who worked with
Alfred Nobel Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( , ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedes, Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He is best known for having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel ...
and in South Africa and Scotland. * Maud Ellen Bruce OBE was forewoman of a 30 woman fire brigade and won an OBE for her bravery in preventing loss of life in two particular serious incidents at the explosives factory. *
Cyril Callister Cyril Percy Callister (16 February 1893 – 5 October 1949) was an Australian chemist and food technologist who developed the Vegemite yeast spread. As well as Vegemite, he is known for his contributions towards processed cheese. Early lif ...
, the inventor of
Vegemite Vegemite ( ) is a thick, dark brown Australian food spread made from leftover brewers' yeast extract with various vegetable and spice additives. It was developed by Cyril Callister in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1922. A spread for sandwiches, t ...
, worked as a chemist at Gretna during World War I and met his wife, Katherine Hope Mundell in the area before returning to Australia. * Former missionary Agnes Marshall Cowan was physician to the accident-prone site in 1917/18. *
Euphemia Cunningham Euphemia Culbert Cunningham OBE BEM (later Baxter; 1892 – 2 August 1989) was a World War One munitions worker at HM Factory, Gretna, who was the first person from Edinburgh to be awarded a Medal of the Order of the British Empire for her br ...
, was a worker awarded the
Medal of the Order of the British Empire for Meritorious Service 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 ...
in 1918 for her bravery during an explosion in the factory. *
Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
wrote about HM Factory Gretna (calling it 'Moorside', and coined the phase 'the devil's porridge' after seeing the Gretna Girls processing the dangerous mixture on the production line); he was a war correspondent, describing the conditions women lived and worked in. *
William Gidley Emmett William Gidley Emmett FRSE (21 August 1887 – 5 January 1985) was a British industrial chemist, educationalist and academic author. In education he spoke out against traditional examination methods and developed a series of non-standard tests t ...
FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
was a British industrial chemist, educationalist, academic author who was manager at the factory. * Albert Marsden was one of a cohort of Australians who worked at the factory, later becoming a first class cricketer in
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...
. *
Thomas Goodall Nasmyth Dr Thomas Goodall Nasmyth FRSE DL JP DPH (28 February 1855 – 16 January 1937) was a Scottish physician, medical author and historian. He served as Medical Officer of Health for Fife, Kinross and Clackmannanshire. He was one of the first (1899) t ...
FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
was medical officer at the factory; later influenced the pasteurisation of milk, and the bonding of whisky, and held senior medical roles. * Kenneth Bingham Quinan was an American explosives expert who led the construction of H.M. Gretna factory, recruited technical teams and produced training materials, and founded the Institute of Technical Engineers. * Alfred Thomas Stanley Sissons was an Australian pharmaceutical scientist who worked at the Ministry of Munitions in Scotland during the war; he had an accident with nitrogen peroxide gas which affected his health, but he became dean of the pharmacy college at Monash University. * William Templeman (chemist) was an English chemist and munitions expert, a schoolmaster, a captain in the
Royal Army Ordnance Corps The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equip ...
, who had also been a solicitor in England and a lawyer and patent agent in Australia. *
Rebecca West Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...
was a feminist and author wrote about the Gretna Girls producing cordite, in a morale boosting piece, and she described the material produced being as 'honey cake'. *
Gretna Margaret Weste Gretna Margaret Weste (5 September 1917 – 30 August 2006) was a leading scientist noted for her work in plant pathology and mycology, specifically with ''Phytophthora cinnamomi.''
(née Parkin) was born nearby in 1917 and named after her father's work place. Arthur Parkin was a volunteer chemist in the munitions factory before the family returned to Australia where Gretna built her career in
mycology Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogens, as ...
. *
Herbert Womersley Herbert Womersley (1889–1962) was an entomologist whose works were especially concerned with mites and ticks, silverfish and flies. His research into the diversity of Australian resulted in descriptions of new insect taxa. Biography Womersle ...
was a chemist involved in gas warfare at the front, and was an international research entomologist; he worked as a chemist in the factory before emigrating to Australia, researching and publishing 200 books on mites, ticks, silverfish and flies, and having seven genera named after himself. *
The Gretna Girls The Gretna Girls was a collective nickname given to women munition workers at HM Factory Gretna in World War One. Women came from all over the United Kingdom to work at the factory, but many were drawn from the surrounding areas of Scotland and ...
was a collective nickname given to women war workers at HM Factory Gretna.


Later use

Although Site 4 was sold and returned to agricultural use, large parts of the other three sites were retained for ammunition storage by the
War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War (1789–1947) See also * War Office, a former department of the British Government * Ministry of defence * Ministry of War * Ministry of Defence * Dep ...
and later the
Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
. Beginning in the 1930s, up to of Site 2, at Mossband, became the Central Ammunition Depot, CAD Longtown. After World War II it became known as Base Ammunition Depot, BAD Longtown. The remaining parts of Site 1, at Smalmstown, were also designated a sub-depot of CAD Longtown. The
Ministry of Supply The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for aircr ...
began using Site 3, to the southeast of Eastriggs, in the 1930s for ammunition storage. The site was known as CAD Eastriggs. Ammunition was transported from the storage bunkers within CAD Eastriggs using a
narrow gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...
system. Two of the petrol locomotives were used on the Duchal Moor grouse railway near
Kilmacolm Kilmacolm () is a village and civil parish in the Inverclyde council area, and the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on the northern slope of the Gryffe Valley, southeast of Greenock and aroun ...
in Renfrewshire. The site was connected to the
Glasgow and South Western Railway The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was a railway company in Scotland. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle. It was formed on 28 October 1850 by the merger of two earlier railway ...
at a junction at Eastriggs. In the 1960s, CAD Eastriggs became a sub-depot of CAD Longtown. The Smalmstown portion of the site closed in 2005, with Eastriggs and Longtown remaining open. Eastriggs Depot was closed in around 2010, with proposals as of 2021 to repurpose the site as a stabling and maintenance facility for
HS2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...
(High Speed 2) to store up to 28 high speed trains and would be used for cleaning, light maintenance and storage of equipment.


See also

*
Female roles in the World Wars During both world wars, women were required to undertake new roles by their respective national war efforts. Adams, R.J.Q. (1978). ''Arms and the Wizard. Lloyd George and the Ministry of Munitions 1915 - 1916'', London: Cassell & Co Ltd. . Par ...
*
British industrial narrow gauge railways British industrial narrow-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man that were primarily built to serve one or more industries. Some offered passenger services for employees or workmen, but they did not run p ...
*
British military narrow-gauge railways These are narrow-gauge railways at military establishments and former UK Government-owned explosives sites. These locations were often subject to the Official Secrets Act and other government restrictions, so many of them are less well documente ...


Citations


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * 1:25,000 scale (2.5 inches to 1 mile). *


External links

* * * *{{cite web , url=https://www.facebook.com/HMFactoryGretna , title=HM Factory Gretna Facebook research project , website=Facebook Gretna Cordite 1915 establishments in the United Kingdom Ammunition dumps in Scotland Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway Royal Ordnance Factories in Scotland