Cliffe explosives works, Medway, a low earthwork mound that surrounded a nitroglycerine manufacturing plant and beyond single storey, reinforced concrete solvent recovery stoves.
Cliffe explosives works, Medway, the works was greatly expanded during the war to increase the supply of cordite © Historic England DP141641
Cliffe explosives works, Medway, the works was greatly expanded during the war to increase the supply of cordite © Historic England DP141641

First World War: Explosives Factories

In 1914 the British government operated a single explosives works at the Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey, Essex, manufacturing cordite, a propellant explosive used to drive a shell or projectile from a gun. In addition the government bought cordite from seven commercial works. Initially, to increase production, extensions were made to the existing factory at Waltham Abbey and private works, such as, those at Cliffe, Medway.

In early 1914, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, gave approval for the construction of a new naval cordite factory at Holton Heath, Dorset, with a novel plant to produce and ferment acetone, essential in the manufacture of cordite. At first maize was used, but later in the war a call went out for children to collect acorns and horse chestnuts.

The children knew it was for essential war work, but not its precise nature, and they collected hundreds of tons. The remains of this plant are scheduled. Other new factories were built on a huge scale. At Gretna, Cumbria, the new cordite factory covered 3,600 hectares and by October 1917 employed nearly 20,000 people.

Explosives Factories

Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.

Curtis's and Harvey Explosive Works, Cliffe, Medway In 1915, the Ministry of Munitions expanded the existing works that were already producing cordite. Cordite was the essential explosive propellant for all types of bullets, artillery and naval rounds. The site grew to half a square mile and employed several hundred. It closed at the end of the war and has remained abandoned for nearly a century. The semi-circle outline in the centre of the image is all that remains of a nitroglycerine plant - nitroglycerine is a key component of cordite. (NMR 26891/025) Curtis's and Harvey Explosive Works, Cliffe, Medway A protective mound around now lost building where nitroglycerine was manufactured. (NMR 26891/027) Curtis’s and Harvey Explosive Works, Cliffe, Medway The remains of a reinforced concrete stove for drying cordite. It is a rare example of the use of such concrete in a First World War factory. (NMR 26890/010) Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey, Essex The factory dates back to the 1660s. From late 1914, its capacity to produce cordite was greatly increased by the construction of new buildings and an expansion of its workforce, and from 1916 the employment of women. The site is now open to the public as an attraction, renamed the Royal Gunpowder Mills. Pictured is a mineral jelly (a kind of Vaseline) and ether store. The jelly and solvent ether were used in the manufacture of cordite. Listed Grade II. (BB92/26081) Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey, Essex This tower that housed a hydraulic accumulator was used to power the cordite presses. (BB92/26075) Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey, Essex Protective trousers and tunics were a novelty for women workers at the time. To the right is ‘Miss Kiddy’ wearing a brass war worker’s badge indicative of her service to the war effort. (BB94/08006)
Traces of the First World War
  • First World War: Land

    One of the features of industrialised, mechanised, 20th-century warfare was its hunger for land.

  • First World War: Sea

    At the outbreak of the First World War Great Britain was the world’s greatest naval power.

  • First World War: Air

    Historic England has identified the most significant airfields and airfield buildings of the First World War.

Next steps

Read more about the Cliffe Explosives Works remains

Also of interest

Did Conkers Help to Win the First World War?