Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) Nottingham opened in 1936 in

The Meadows, Nottingham The Meadows or Meadows is an area of Nottingham, England, south of city centre, close to the River Trent and connected to West Bridgford in the Borough of Rushcliffe by Trent Bridge and the Wilford Suspension Bridge. Victoria Embankment runs ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. It was one of a number of Royal Ordnance Factories created in the build up to

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. During the war the site employed up to four thousand workers. The factory was closed in 2001. It was at the site that had been used for manufacturing, mainly arms, since 1916.

Early site history and production: World War I

Royal Ordnance Factories were the successors to the manufacturing departments of the

Ordnance Office The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence o ...

Site history

1915

* 15 July :

Cammell Laird Cammell Laird is a British shipbuilding company. It was formed from the merger of Laird Brothers of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. The company also built railway rolling stock until 1929, ...

& Co Ltd were asked to build and manage a National Projectile Factory. * 23 July : The above firm produced a scheme and preliminary estimates for a factory to produce 2,000 9.2" and 6,000 6" shells per week. * 19 August : First sod cut.

1916

* 27 May : First 6" shell completed * 31 May : First 9.2" shell completed * 15 July : 9.2" shell production had reached its design output capacity of 2000 units per week * 19 August : End of first year in operation. 23,519 off 6" shell and 17,842 off 9.2" shell produced * 23 September : 6" shell production had reached its design output capacity of 6000 units per week.

1917

* March : 9.2" shell output reaching 5000 per week. * 20 June : Repair plant for

18 pounder The Ordnance QF 18-pounder,British military traditionally denoted smaller ordnance by the weight of its standard projectile, in this case approximately or simply 18-pounder gun, was the standard British Empire field gun of the First World War ...

guns completed, and an announcement that 6" Mk XIX guns to be produced * 18 August : Ten repaired 18 pounder guns completed * 1 October : The factory name changed to the National Ordnance factory * 20 October : Output of 6" shell reached peak at 13,500 per week. * 29 October : Last 9.2" shell delivered. Total output 210,262. * 4 December : First four new build 18 pounder guns completed

1918

* May : First pair of tubes for the 6" gun produceden * 11 July : Last 6" shell produced. Total output 685,801. * 21 September : First 6" gun finished and dispatched. * November : Competed gun output 11 per week

1919

* Cammell Laird & Co Ltd still occupied the site under the name of National Ordnance Factory.

1920

* Works Manager, National Ordnance Factory, Benjamin Hick received an OBE,

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 ...

1923

* The site bought outright by Cammell Laird & Co Ltd. The company built railway wagons through the 1920s. Some of the site used to house Nottingham Corporation buses at the time of changeover to trolley buses.

1930

* The factory was conveyed to the Metropolitan Cammell Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company.

1935

* The above company had gone into liquidation, the new owners becoming the Metro Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd.

World War II

Conversion to an Engineering ROF

In the late 1930s, war was seen as a possibility, if not likely, and a sizeable rearmament programme began, probably also activated by the concern that a large proportion of the arsenal was becoming obsolete. The factory was bought back by the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

in September 1936, the conveyance (dated 7 May) detailing a sum of £94,475 for the purchase. It was Royal Ordnance Factory Number 23. Considerable effort was expended in turning the ROF Nottingham into a modern gun factory. The first machine tools were installed in January 1937 and an article in 'Machinery' magazine of 19 January 1939 describes the last machine tools as installed 'a few weeks ago' Some idea of the scale of the endeavour can be gauged by Nottingham being listed in the ROF accounts for year ending 31 March 1938 as 'under construction'. As of that date, the amount spent on construction and equipment at Nottingham was £1,725,203 (considerably more than the purchase price). A new production facility (the South Shop) was being built at about this time, and roughly 300 people were employed on the reconstruction in 1937. The payroll level had grown to 2,272 people at the end of March 1938, and 3,796 a year later, shortly after the aforementioned 'Machinery' article had described the factory as 'working to capacity'. World War II was if anything much busier than World War I had been, with the peak employment being said to number 14,000 (a large proportion being women) on two shifts of twelve hours each. Until the remodelling of the Meadows area around 1975, ROF Nottingham was much less conspicuous than it became (as least from ground level), being situated at the end of a series of

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Orig ...

type roads full of terraced houses. Apart from Kings Meadow Road, there were parallel streets to the north called Middle Furlong Road, Rupert Street and Newcastle Street, which extended over what became the North Car Park, so that the end houses were very close to the end of main manufacturing unit – North Shop (a gate by the Paint Shop was also in use). It was decided therefore, as a

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

measure, to paint a series of stripes running east–west across the North Shop roof, in tune with the roads, so that the factory resembled a continuation of the houses when viewed from the air. There appear to be no traces now of this measure, and just how effective it was is uncertain, but it represents one example of the extent to which such matters were taken seriously.

World War II production

Nottingham had two main production lines during the war; the 3.7-inch medium

anti-aircraft gun Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

and the

Bofors 40 mm gun Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

. For the latter, Nottingham made the mobile mounts for the British Army from 1938 onwards, and was the main producer of mountings for British ships, including the Stabilised Tachymetric Anti-Aircraft Gun, STAAG. The 2 Pounder anti-tank gun was made at Nottingham from 1937 to 1939. The BL 5.5-inch Medium Gun (1940–42) and the 17 pounder gun, including conversions of the Sherman tank into the 17 pdr armed

Sherman Firefly The Sherman Firefly was a tank used by the United Kingdom and some armoured formations of other Allies in the Second World War. It was based on the US M4 Sherman, but was fitted with the more powerful 3-inch (76.2 mm) calibre British 17- ...

. The hull and suspension units for the first prototype A41 tank, later to be named as the

Centurion tank The Centurion was the primary British Army main battle tank of the post- World War II period. Introduced in 1945, it is widely considered to be one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seei ...

, were built at Nottingham.

Post-War

Immediate Post-war

As would be expected, the period immediately after the war (1946–50) saw little or no armament production and caused the factory to diversify widely, into initially unlikely fields. Products at this time included tunnelling shields, parts for hosiery machines, structural parts for band-saws and other light wood working machinery, generators, gearboxes for Guy motor-buses, printers guillotines and forging dies for Raleigh pedal cycle cranks. Autumn 1950 saw the start of another re-armament drive, which became particularly apparent the following year. The ''

Nottingham Journal The ''Nottingham Journal'' was a newspaper published in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, in the East Midlands in England. During that time, the paper went through several title changes through mergers, take-overs, acquisitions and ownership change ...

'' of Wednesday 6 June 1951 described Nottingham as the 'second largest factory after

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...

Deep hole boring was claimed to be ten times faster than in World War II (the gun in question being the 20 pdr for early Centurions) and the major non-gun activity was the rework of

Comet tank The Comet tank or Tank, Cruiser, Comet I (A34) was a British cruiser tank that first saw use near the end of the Second World War, during the Western Allied invasion of Germany. The Comet was developed from the earlier Cromwell tank and mounted ...

s. The next few years do not seem to have been very busy, but in the late fifties activity picked up on various vehicle and specialist projects; manning levels were quite low: there were 517 people employed in October 1956, falling to 408 two years later, whilst a staff chart for March 1959 listed only 84 staff from the Factory Superintendent down to the Assistant Foreman in the Forges. Projects: * "Yellow Fever" – Fire Control Equipment AA Mk 7 (c1955-61) * Aircraft Freight Loader (1958) * Truck, 1 ton, Armoured 4 x 4 Humber c1959-60 *

Centurion Tank The Centurion was the primary British Army main battle tank of the post- World War II period. Introduced in 1945, it is widely considered to be one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seei ...

Mk 5 Rework (1959–62?) *

Bristol Bloodhound The Bristol Bloodhound is a British ramjet powered surface-to-air missile developed during the 1950s. It served as the UK's main air defence weapon into the 1990s and was in large-scale service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the forces of ...

Surface-to-air missile launchers c1959-63? * Bofors 40 L70 (development of the World War II gun, more powerful) c1958-62? * Hornet

Malkara missile The Malkara (from an Aboriginal word for "shield") was one of the earliest guided anti-tank missiles (ATGMs). It was jointly developed by Australia and the United Kingdom between 1951 and 1954, and was in service from 1958 until gradually repla ...

launcher vehicle c1962 * 10 ton Recovery Vehicle Jib Assembly c1962 * Centurion ARK work c1963

Later years

Later projects included the Heavy Dummy Axle (HDA); the Eager Beaver Air Portable Rough Terrain Fork Lift Truck (APFLT) from roughly 1969–1973. The Bar Mine Layer; the Light Mobile Digger (LMD) trench digging machine, and the manufacture and assembly of the

FV180 Combat Engineer Tractor The FV180 Combat Engineer Tractor or C.E.T. is an amphibious specialist armoured vehicle of the British Army and has been in general service since 1976. A tracked, lightly armoured vehicle, with amphibious capability, the CET is used by Royal En ...

from 1978 to 1983, although ROF Leeds was also heavily involved in production of this vehicle. Large guns produced included the

Royal Ordnance L7 The Royal Ordnance L7, officially designated Gun, 105 mm, Tank, L7, is the basic model of the United Kingdom's most successful tank gun. The L7 is a 105 mm L/52 rifled design by the Royal Ordnance Factories intended for use in armoured fighting ...

105 mm tank ordnance, which was for a long time one of the most important products, and the 165 mm demolition gun that fired a very large HESH projectile and was fitted to the FV4003 Centurion Mk 5 AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers). Other guns included the 76 mm L5 and 76 mm L23 for armoured cars, the 105 mm L13 for the Abbot SP artillery, the

L16 81mm Mortar The L16 81mm mortar is a British standard mortar used by the Canadian Army, British Army, and many other armed forces. It originated as a joint design by the UK and Canada. The version produced and used by Australia is named the F2 81mm Mortar, w ...

for the Infantry, and to provide an even more tangible link with the present, the 105 mm L119 and

L118 Light Gun The L118 light gun is a 105 mm towed howitzer. It was originally designed and produced in England for the British Army in the 1970s. It has since been widely exported. The L119 and the United States Army's M119 are variants that use a different ...

for the Artillery. The first delivery of the L118 to the British Army took place in 1974, a variant of the L119 Light Gun – which was type classified in record time by the United States Army as the

M119 howitzer The M119 howitzer is the American version of the British L119 light gun, a lightweight British 105 mm howitzer also used by the United States Army. The M119 is typically towed by the M1097 or M1152 High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehic ...

. On 2 January 1985, the government owned Royal Ordnance factories, including ROFN, were privatised as a public corporation called Royal Ordnance plc. The sale of ROF Leeds to Vickers plc and closure of the

Royal Small Arms Factory The Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF) was a UK government-owned rifle factory in Enfield (though some parts were in Waltham Abbey), adjoining the Lee Navigation in the Lea Valley. The factory produced British military rifles, muskets and s ...

(RSAF), Enfield, both had their effects on the site: RO Leeds, causing a considerable amount of vehicle and vehicle-related work to come to Nottingham; and RSAF Enfield, causing the Small Arms Facility in South Shop to be created. By mid-1987, the South Shop has become disused and was in a semi-derelict condition. The building was remodelled and converted into the Nottingham Small Arms Facility (NSAF). A small arms proof and test range was built in what was once an air-raid shelter, and a tube test range installed. From 1988, the

SA80 The SA80 (Small Arms for the 1980s) is a British family of 5.56×45mm NATO service weapons used by the British Army. The L85 Rifle variant has been the standard issue service rifle of the British Armed Forces since 1987, replacing the L1A1 Se ...

assault riffle was manufactured at the facility. Circa 1989, ROFN designed the Royal Ordnance L30 gun for the Challenger 2 tank project.

Closure

ROF Nottingham was finally closed in 2001 and the armaments manufacturing capability transferred to the

BAE Systems Land Systems BAE Systems Platforms & Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of BAE Systems Inc. and is a large provider of tracked and wheeled armored combat vehicles, naval guns, naval ship repair and modernization, artillery and missile launching systems, a ...

plant at Barrow-In-Furness, Cumbria. A building especially constructed to house the MOD Small Arms Museum collection was known as the ''Pattern Room''. On closure of the collection was transferred to the

Royal Armouries Museum The Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a national museum which displays the National Collection of Arms and Armour. It is part of the Royal Armouries family of museums, with other sites at the Royal Armouries' traditio ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

Notes

References

* (N/A) (1919). ''Nottingham: National Projectile Factory 1915–1917; National Ordnance Factory 1917–1919''. Produced by: Messrs Cammell, Laird & Co Ltd. Dated January 1919. Printed by: Sir W.C. Leng & Co. Sheffield. * Foss, Christopher F. "Royal Ordnance Factory Nottingham". In: ''Jane's Defence Review'', Vol 3, No 1. * Hay, Ian (1949). ''R.O.F – The story of the ROYAL ORDNANCE FACTORIES 1939–48''.London:

HMSO The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) is the body responsible for the operation of His Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) and of other public information services of the United Kingdom. The OPSI is part of the National Archives of the Un ...

. * (N/A) (1973). "Preservation: Royal Small Arms Pattern Room". In: ''

After the Battle ''After the Battle'' was a military history magazine published quarterly in the United Kingdom by Battle of Britain International Limited between 1973 and 2021. History and profile ''After the Battle'' was first published in 1973, and appear ...

'', 2, (Pages 42 – 43). .

External links

History of the Second World War – British War Production
{{coord missing, Nottinghamshire

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

Buildings and structures in Nottingham