"A collection of 102 photographs, copied from material held by Les Hayward. They show the Royal Naval Cordite Factory, Holton Heath, Dorset. The site was established during the First World War to manufacture Cordite, a military propellant first developed in the UK during the late 19th century as an alternative to gunpowder. After the Second World War part of the site became an Admiralty Research Establishment before closing in 1997. It is now scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
The collection includes coverage of the factory buildings (exteriors and interiors), as well as the machinery and manufacturing processes involved. Various ancillary buildings and structures such as wash rooms, hospital, mess room, reservoirs and tramways are represented. Other prints show fire practise sessions, damage caused by explosives and the demolition of the First World War acetone fermentation vessels. Some of the images appear in ‘A Pictorial Record of the Royal Naval Cordite Factory, Holton Heath’ by M R Bowditch and L Hayward (1996). The acknowledgments page of the book refers to the Crown retaining copyright of certain photographs used within. Three images in the collection were taken in 1987. Les Hayward retains copyright for these.
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Received Via : Purchased from Les Hayward, 1994 Provenance : Copied from prints held by Les Hayward, a local historian. Acquired through Wayne Cocroft and Paul Everson, RCHME Survey. The whereabouts of the original negatives is unknown.
Source: Historic England Archive
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