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Birchwood Index

Encounter
Pestfurlong
Sunrise
Risley Moss
Risley ROF
Walled Garden
Bunkers
Business Parks
Hotel
Warrington Rd
Autumn Images
Winter
Christmas
Carnival
Wildflowers

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Risley Royal Ordnance Factory
Filling Factories Nationally, Page 4

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Introduction

This is one of a series of pages aiming to place ROF Risley into a national context by describing the locations and current situations of the 16 Royal Ordnance Filling Factories that were active during World War II.  Most of my information has come from online searches and looking at Google's aerial imagery.  If you believe that you can add to any of this information or improve its accuracy, please get in touch through my Contact page (linked from the Contents page).

On this page:  Filling Factories 9-12.

Filling Factories 9-12

Filling Factory 9: Thorp Arch

Pre-1974 County:  Yorkshire, West Riding
Post-1974 County:  West Yorkshire

Location:
South east of Wetherby, between the villages of Thorp Arch and Walton.

Current Situation:
Redeveloped into an industrial estate and one of the first out-of-town retail parks in the UK, but using much of the original layout, buildings and road names.  Several earth mounds around the smaller buildings survive.  At least some of the bunkers survive and appear to have been uncovered.  Some are in use as retail units, although I have no idea how much of the original structure within the buildings exists today.  With the way that the old buildings have been retained and brought into modern use, this is one of the sites that I'd quite like to visit.  Google's Street View, which has partial coverage of the area, shows that several features still remain.


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Filling Factory 10: Queniborough

Pre-1974 County:  Leicestershire
Post-1974 County:  Leicestershire

Location:
North east of Leicester.  East Goscote, adjacent to Queniborough village, now stands on the site.

Current Situation:
East Goscote was built on the site in the 1960s and there is little evidence of the ROF apart from two of the bunkers which couldn't be demolished.  They are immediately next to housing in a small park and are in the centre of the Google satellite view.  I read somewhere that the bunkers are open to the public, but looking at Google's satellite imagery in Google Earth, I couldn't see any sign of entrances.  With Google's Street View it is apparent that at least one entrance does remain, although I couldn't tell whether it is open or not.


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Filling Factory 11: Brackla

Pre-1974 County:  Glamorganshire
Post-1974 County:  Mid Glamorgan

Location:
In Bridgend, the Brackla Industrial Estate, just north west of Brackla and north east of Bridgend town centre.

Current Situation:
Was situated just to the north of Bridgend ROF and the two sites may have worked as if one.  At the south end of the industrial estate, there are still entrances into the bunkers that were built into the wooded hillside rather than the usual design found at most ROFs.


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Filling Factory 12: Ruddington

Pre-1974 County:  Nottinghamshire
Post-1974 County:  Nottinghamshire

Location:
At the south end of Ruddington village, south of Nottingham.

Current Situation:
There is little trace of the former ROF.  The site was redeveloped in the 1980s into Rushcliffe Country Park and the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre.  I'm not certain whether the buildings and railway tracks might be from the factory.  This is probably the most scenic of all the former ROF sites, although part of my local site Risley is also a Local Nature Reserve and SSSI.


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Updated 26/05/11