- ROF Bishopton
The
Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) Bishopton was a UK Ministry of Supply,World War II ,Explosive ROF . It is sited adjacent to the town ofBishopton, Renfrewshire , inScotland .It was built, with the
Ministry of Works acting as s, as three separate, almost self-contained, explosive factories within the sameperimeter fence . They shared a common Administration Group and Workshop Support Services Group. The factory was built to manufacture propellant,Cordite in the main, for theBritish Army and theRoyal Air Force . It did not produce propellant for theRoyal Navy in World War II as theAdmiralty demanded, and got, its own propellant factories.The three explosive factories opened between December 1940 and April 1941. Explosives manufacturing survived on parts of the site until about 2000; although ROF Bishopton was privatised in the early 1980s.
The privatised ROFs become known in 1984 as
Royal Ordnance PLC, then in 1987 as RO Defence; and now renamedBAE Systems Land Systems .The site is still owned by
BAE Systems , who in conjunction with Redrow Homes, have submitted locally controversial proposals to use a large part of this site for building new housing. If accepted this could, at least, double the size of Bishopton.Construction of the three explosives factories
Choice of Location
Much of the site lies around the 10 metres
elevation and this was one of the deciding factors for its location; as UK explosives factories were built near tosea level to take account of their favorablemicro climate s. Some of the site's local high-grounds were used for the manynitroglycerin e hills.The other reasons being Clydeside's high unemployment rates in the 1920s and 1930s; the need to locate explosives factories in the United Kingdom safe zone (see
Royal Ordnance Factory ); a remote location with good railway links; and a ready supply of female labour.The Site
The site consists of three, almost self-contained explosive-manufacturing factories; with a common Administration Group and Workshops Support Services Group. Building work on the first factory started in April 1937, the second stated in April 1939 and the third in October 1939. The long delay in opening the first factory was due to the critical shortage of a guaranteed water supply. The site has three separate water mains: Fire Fighting, Process Water and
Drinking water ; and needed a guaranteed supply of about tenmillion gallon s per day.The site was built on farm land, acquired by compulsory purchase, on the other side of the railway line from the village of Bishopton. However, the southern end of the site included land occupied by the former, by now closed,
World War I Scottish Filling Factory (National Filling Factory No. 4),NFF Georgetown .Over 2,000
acre s (8 km²) of land from up to sevenfarm s was used to accommodate these three factories. The land included Dargavel House and its grounds, the house still survives within the site boundary; as well as a number of former farm houses and public roads that were absorbed into the ROF site.Factory 0
Every building on the site was numbered; one part of the number code indicated whether the building was assigned to Factory 0, 1, 2 or 3. Factory 0 comprised of the non-explosive sectors of the site (mostly nearest to Bishopton itself).
Factory 0 contained most of the supporting services for the nearly self-contained manufacturing site. A permanently-manned fire station with its own fire brigade; clothing and general stores, laboratories, machine shops, general workshops,
laundry ,leather workshop, chemical plumber's workshop,carpenter 's workshops, and (empty) ammunition box stores.It also housed the administration block, a few of the site's many canteens, the
ambulance station, the medical centre, the mortuary and the motor transport (M/T) section.Factories I, II and III
Factories I, II and III each had their own
coal -fired power stations for producing high-pressuresteam for generatingelectricity using steam-turbine -alternator s; with the resulting low pressure steam used for site heating andCordite drying. The three power-stations were also interlinked by high-pressure steam mains.Each factory had three nitroglycerine hills, operating on a batch process, to produce nitroglycerine. Factories I and II (and possibly III) had their own
nitration plants for makingnitrocellulose . Nitroglycerine and nitrocellulose were then processed to produce Cordite.Factory II lay south of the former public road between Bishopton station and Reilly farm, it included parts of the former NFF Georgetown.
Nearly all the buildings, with the exception of the buildings on the nitroglycerine hills which were light-weight, were
steel frame d buildings with triple-brick walls and bomb-proofreinforced concrete roofs. However, some of the buildings in factory III, which was built last, such as the power station, were clad with corrugated iron to reduce costs.Other facilities
ROF Bishopton had an
RDX plant installed in WW II. The plant was declared redundant to requirements and was dismantled in 1950. It was apparently then shipped to Albion Explosives, presumably at CairnleaAustralia , and re-erected.Included within the site boundary, but separate from it on the old NFF site, was an
Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV) storage compound. This was linked to an AFV repair factory atLinwood , the REME factory.Railways
The southern end of the site near the
River Gryfe was connected to what was then theCaledonian Railway line. The connection, just north of the former Houston (Georgetown) railway station, dated back toWorld War I and the Georgetown Filling Factory. The railway connection was probably severed and therail track lifted when theInverclyde Line was electrified in 1960s. Within ROF Bishopton's perimeter fence this line was still there in the 1990s albeit with 20-30 year-old trees growing between the sleepers and rails.The main
standard gauge link from the railway line, by now the LMS, was just northwest of Bishopton station. ROF Bishopton had a large transfer sidings here, connected to both the up and down lines. The ROF line, which was never electrified, ran through the transfer sidings. It crossed Ingleston Road, via a gatedlevel crossing (grade crossing), and entered the ROF site from the north. The link remained in-situ right up to closure, but was little used after the early 1990s.ROF Bishopton had about 20 miles of standard gauge railway line within its perimeter fence, its own fleet of
nitric acid wagons and its own diesel locomotives for shunting. They were used to move wagons between the transfer sidings and various locations within the ROF site. In addition, ROF Bishopton had some 80 miles of RailGauge|18 gaugeminimum gauge railway lines for transporting explosives within the site.Housing
Housing to accommodate what was later to become the
Ministry of Defence Police was provided locally in Bishopton. Two new streets were built to provide housing for married policeconstable s andsergeant s - Holm Park and Rossland Crescent.Barrack block accommodation for unmarrried police was built adjacent to Holm Park; it was used from the 1970s onwards as a MoD Police social club. Some prefabricated houses were also built in Rossland Crescent, but these have been demolished. Houses for essential staff, such as managers who needed to be on call, were provided on Poplar Avenue. Also Ingleston Drive may possibly have been built for ROF workers. Ahostel for single women workers was built in Paisley, by theMinistry of Labour , on Oakshaw Street.War-time Production
Post World War II
After the closure of the
Royal Navy Propellant Factory, Caerwent , in 1965, ROF Bishopton started making Cordite for the Royal Navy.Privatisation
As a part of the Explosives Division of
Royal Ordnance Plc, the ROF was privatised in 1984 and sold toBritish Aerospace in 1987.The MOD Fire Service moved out after privatisation; and the MOD Police moved out after the sale to British Aerospace. Their former Social Club at Holm Park, with its adjoining sports field, became part of facilities of Bishopton village.
The former MOD Police houses at both Holm Park and Rossland Crescent were retained by the Ministry of Defence and were sold off in the mid 1980s to private buyers. As they were still connected to ROF Bishopton's
sewage system and water supply system they had to be connected to the public systems before they could be sold.The workforce fell from about 3,000 in the late 1970s to 2,000 at the time of privatisation in 1984; and about 150 in 1991.
Closure
BAE Systems is the current owner of the former-ROF Bishopton site and uses part of it as an Environmental Test Facility (ETF).
Footnotes
*
References
* Cocroft, Wayne (2000). "Dangerous Energy: The archaeology of gunpowder and military explosives manufacture". Swindon:
English Heritage . ISBN 1-85074-718-0.
* Forsythe, R.N. (2005). "The railways of Royal Ordnance Bishopton". In: "Backtrack", "19"', No. 4. Pages 248 -250. ISSN 0955-5380.
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