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

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, England. The area includes a

trading estate An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or 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 i ...

, (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 Holton Heath railway station serves the area of Holton Heath in Wareham St Martin, Dorset, England. It is down the line from . It was built to serve the Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath during the First World War. It did not open to t ...

History

In 1890 Baronet and MP Sir Elliott Lees bought land in Dorset and moved into South Lytchett Manor, in Lytchett Minster, 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 Britain since 1889 to replace black powder as a military firearm propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burni ...

factory (RNCF) in the First World War 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, Exete ...

, and the A351 Wareham to

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

road.

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 district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hampshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 70,131 and the district had a pop ...

.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 Starfish or sea stars are Star polygon, star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class (biology), class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to brittle star, ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to ...

" decoy sites in the village of Arne, 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 the Second World War 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