Manufacturing Munitions at Pembrey During the Two World Wars
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Manufacturing Munitions at Pembrey during the Two World Wars Alice Pyper ‘The factory is built on the Burrows (ie sandhills), the most INTRODUCTION desolate spot in the worl d… factory sheds are built with a large mound of sand all round them, and are entered by a small The majority of the site is now located within Pembrey tunnel though the mound. In this way the sheds are quite Country Park, which is owned and managed by invisible from outside, and the place looks more like a gigantic Carmarthenshire County Council. A substantial part of rabbit warren than anything else.’ the factory dating from the First World War also lies within Gabrielle West, 1917. 1 Pembrey Forest, which is managed by Natural Resources Wales. The primary aim of the project was to understand the The Pembrey Burrows must have seemed like an ideal impact of the First World War munitions industry and location for a dangerous industry; the land was sparsely identify surviving archaeology from this period; however in populated, though well connected by the mainline railway, doing so it was particularly important to grasp the effects and the treeless, open sand dunes could be easily of its subsequent reuse in the Second World War and later . landscaped to provide blast protection. In addition a Documentary research was undertaken at Carmarthen supply of labour was close at hand; as well as the local Archives, the West Glamorgan Archives, Llanelli Library villages of Pembrey and Burry Port, the major towns of and Local Studies department, the National Archives at Llanelli and Carmarthen lay within easy reach and Kew and the Imperial War Museum. Swansea was only a short distance by train. Key plans of the site were located at the National The factory referred to by Gabrielle West was that built Archives, principally the c.1917 Block Plan of Plant and by Nobel’s Explosives Company Ltd in 1914, which the R.O.F. Pembrey , Layout of Factory .4 These plans were covered around 771 acres of Pembrey Burrows to supply compared to the modern Ordnance Survey 5 to highlight munitions for the First World War .2 Recent research into how the site was laid out during different phases of use. the munitions industry of Pembrey has explored the site to LiDAR 6 data provided an image of the ground surface ga in a better understanding of what survives from this stripped of vegetation and also highlighted areas of period. The project was carried out as part of a Cadw- surviving earthworks. Aerial photographs were assessed funded programme to investigate , record and assess the from those taken in the 1940 s to modern satellite imagery .7 archaeological legacy of the First World War in southwest Areas of high archaeological potential were identified Wales. The Heritage Lottery Fund also funded an and prioritised for fieldwork which was carried out with interpretative leaflet of the site, a series of pop-up exhibition local volunteers in September and November of 2015 . panels, educational resources, and enabled students from Recording included taking digital photographs of Glan y mor Secondary School in Burry Port to carry out features with a scale, and a customised recording sheet course work as part of their GCSEs on the archaeolo gy of was developed for volunteers to record archaeological the site .3 features. The Carmarthenshire Antiquary Vol. 53 2017 116 The Carmarthenshire Antiquary Vol. 53 2017 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND in order to offer little resistance to an explosion but they were placed 70 yards apart with a high mound of sand in THE DYNAMITE WORKS between .9 The company was licensed to store 144 pounds of dynamite – however, it was alleged in Parliamentary The earliest factory on the site was built in the late 19th questions , just two days before the explosion, that there century, and was a short -lived venture. In 1881 newspapers were over 300 tons stored .10 The explosives were kept in reported that the Stowmarket Explosive Company applied twelve magazines far removed from each other and almost for a licence to manufacture explosives in a new factory at buried underground. Pembrey on land leased from the Earl of Ashburnham. This disaster appears to have been a catastrophic blow This consisted of an area of land of 150 acres along with to the Explosive Company , as on the 22nd May 1885 it the lease of the old harbour and docks .8 As soon as the went into receivership and ceased production, and was factory opened the Stowmarket Explosives company was succeeded by the South Wales Explosives Company .11 superseded by the Explosives Company. Explosives were However , further misfortune beset the enterprise in 1893 : manufactured, along with detonators and fuses, for industrial use in collieries and quarries rather than A fire took place at the dynamite works on Saturday manufacturing munitions. evening, when three large sheds were burnt to the The factory was in operation for only a few months ground. Serious damage was done, and the loss is when on the 18th November 1882 a terrible explosion heavy. The works have been idle ever since the great killed seven young workers, aged between 13 and 24 years explosion some years back, and the cause of the fire old. The newspaper accounts of this horrific event, which is as yet unknown. 12 left the village in mourning, give some insight into the factory itself. Although no longer in production the site was still in use The subsequent inquest reported that the factory for storage as it was reported that ‘fortunately the magazine consisted of 80 small sheds, scattered over a large area with was saved from contact with the flames.’ 13 a small locomotive used to reach the manufacturing areas. The second edition Ordnance Survey map published in The sides of the sheds were composed of thin boards with 1908 is the only cartographic record to show the layout of roofs made of felt and floors of sand. The sheds were flimsy the ‘Old Dynamite Works’ ( Fig. 1 ). It depicts the site more Figure 1. The Old Dynamite Works, Ordnance Survey second edition, Carmarthenshire sheet LVII.NE, surveyed 1878-86, revised in 1905, published 1908. 117 Manufacturing Munitions at Pembrey during the Two World Wars than 20 years after it ceased production, however it does In all , the factory covered an area of 771 acres with 400 give some detail to its layout and shows the course of the buildings, and its construction was managed by Sir tramway connecting the factory across the Burrows to Frederic Nathan who had previously managed Nobel’s Pembrey Harbour. The site is shown to consist of a first factory at Ardeer in Scotland, a site located on a number of buildings and structures enclosed within an peninsular of sand dunes, not dissimilar to Pembrey .21 irregular boundary and a horseshoe shaped bank around From the 1st January 1917 the plant was nationalised and the factory. It is unclear if this ridge was an artificial became government property under the newly established construction, perhaps a blast bank, or a natural Ministry of Munitions, but in practice continued to be topographic feature, whatever its origin it appears that the managed by Nobel’s . Two hundred tons of crude TNT factory layout respects the feature . were produced weekly and with further capacity this increased to 300 tons, amounting to 15,000 tons over the duration of the war. Cordite was produced at a rate of 225 FIRST WORLD WAR tons a week at its peak 22 and 20,000 tons over the duration of the war .23 The official account of the industry at Pembrey is recorded In October 1918 there were 4765 workers employed in the History of the Ministry of Munitions written in the and of these 58.6% were women. 24 Workers were years following the war .14 There were two factories on the transported to the factory on special trains, from Llanelli, site, located side by side, one manufacturing TNT, a high Carmarthen and Swansea, and brought to Lando, a special explosive, and the propellant cordite, and the second, stop created on the GWR mainline for the factory at occupying a smaller area of land, was the shell filling Pembrey. In addition trains with specially equipped dust- factory. proof and steam fitted carriages exported the propellant cordite at a stable temperature to the munitions factories at Faversham and Chilworth in Surrey, via Reading and NOBEL’S EXPLOSIVES COMPANY the Southeastern Railway .25 AND THE MINISTRY OF MUNITIONS In 1914 Nobel’s Explosives Company Ltd of Glasgow NATIONAL FILLING FACTORY, intended to develop the site for the production of NO. 18 PEMBREY industrial explosives, however with the outbreak of war they entered into an agreement with the Secretary of State As part of the contract of 1915 between the War Office for War, ‘to erect and manage a TNT factory at Pembrey’ .15 and Nobel’s Explosives Company a loading plant for the Local newspapers record that work commenced in the filling of shells, torpedoes and mines was built on a site winter of 1914-1915 when between 800-1000 men were adjacent to the TNT factory. The factory was built and ‘employed preparing the ground and erecting sheds’, 16 and equipped by the Explosives Loading Company. Along with by May there were nearly 1,800 employed .17 The works the adjacent explosives factory, this plant was also clearly drew large numbers of labourers from far and wide, nationalised on 1st January 1917 and became the National who worked 50-60 hours a week at sixpence an hour, and Filling Factory No .