Royal Ordanance Factory - Pembrey Country Park, Carmarthenshire, Wales. - World War II Sites on Waymarking.com

Pembrey Country Park, was once synonymous with munitions. Sand dunes & forest were turned into a massive ordinance factory, employing thousands of people.

Pembrey Country Park was opened in 1980. The park wasn't always the magnificent parkland you visit today, previously it was the site of a sucession of explosive factory's. The isolated sand dunes of Pembrey Burrows provided the ideal conditions for the dangerous occupation of the manufacture of explosives.

World War II: ROF Pembrey:
"Work started in July 1938 to build a new factory on the site, with the Ministry of Works acting as Agents. It opened in December 1939 under the control of the Ministry of Supply as one of several explosive Royal Ordnance Factories making TNT. Unlike the other TNT ROF's, however, ROF Pembrey also made tetryl and ammonium nitrate. Some 3,000 people were employed there in World War II.

After the end of World War II, it continued to manufacture TNT and tetryl for military use; and ammonium nitrate for agricultural use as a fertiliser.

From 1944 onwards, ROF Pembrey undertook breakdown of surplus ammunition, such as 4.5 inch anti-aircraft shells and 500 lb (230 kg) bombs. The TNT being steamed out and then burnt.

The chemical properties of explosive products manufactured or otherwise handled here, including TNT and ammonium nitrate, were continually sampled and tested in the chemical laboratory by technicians known as Junior Analysts. They included young women who were exposed to these hazardous materials on a daily basis. The title of Junior Analyst is still (2009) cited as a qualification for employment advertised in the region.

ROF Pembrey closed towards the end of 1964:
In July 1965 the majority of the site, 516 acres (209 ha) of leasehold land, was returned to the Forestry Commission and now forms Pembrey Country Park; and 96 acres (39 ha)of freehold land was sold to a construction company.

History of the Explosive Factorys at Pembrey:
The sand dunes not only provided an effective screen but also minimised any possible damage in the event of an explosion.
It is hardly surprising therefore, that the area attracted the producers of gun powder as early as 1882. Dynamite & TNT were produced later when the factory was known as the National Explosive Factory, later The Nobel Explosive Company, & during WWII as the Royal Ordinance Factory, at its peak there were 6,000 people employed, mostly Women.

It was however, 1914 before the Royal Ordnance Factory became developed on a large scale. By 1914 the Nobel Explosive Company Ltd of Glasgow, who originally intended to produce industrial explosives, agreed with the Secretary of State for War to erect and manage a Trinitrotoluene (TNT) factory at Pembrey. It was agreed that the state should bear the entire cost of the plant, which would then remain Government property after the war, with Messrs Nobel being retained as agents for administration.

Pembrey was in fact one of over 200 factories producing munitions that sprang up during the First World War. In common with most, it was run down rapidly as soon as the war ended, eventually closing in the 1920s. During the 1930s the Central Administration building was used as a convalescent home and rehabilitation centre for the children of unemployed miners. As the Second World War approached the factory was re-opened and largely rebuilt under the name of the 'Royal Ordnance Factory'."

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Related Website: [Web Link] Supplementary Related Website: [Web Link] Admission Fee: 5.00 GB Pounds Opening Days/Times: Dawn to Dusk

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Date Logged Log User Rating   01/24/2018 veritas vita visited it