Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) Nottingham opened in 1936 in The Meadows, Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was one of a number of Royal Ordnance Factories created in the build up to World War II. During the war the site employed up to four thousand workers. The factory was closed in 2001.
The site that had been used for manufacturing, mainly of arms, since 1916.
Early site history and production: World War I
Royal Ordnance Factories were the successors to the manufacturing departments of the Ordnance Office.
Site history
1915
15 July : Cammell Laird & Co Ltd were asked to build and manage a National Projectile Factory. 23 July : The above firm produced a scheme and preliminary estimates for a factory to produce 2,000 9.2" and 6,000 6" shells per week. 19 August : First sod cut.
1916
27 May : First 6" shell completed
31 May : First 9.2" shell completed
15 July : 9.2" shell production had reached its design output capacity of 2000 units per week 19 August : End of first year in operation. 23,519 off 6" shell and 17,842 off 9.2" shell produced 23 September : 6" shell production had reached its design output capacity of 6000 units per week.
1917
March : 9.2" shell output reaching 5000 per week. 20 June : Repair plant for 18 pounder guns completed, and an announcement that 6" Mk XIX guns to be produced 18 August : Ten repaired 18 pounder guns completed 1 October : The factory name changed to the National Ordnance factory 20 October : Output of 6" shell reached peak at 13,500 per week. 29 October : Last 9.2" shell delivered. Total output 210,262. 4 December : First four new build 18 pounder guns completed
1918
May : First pair of tubes for the 6" gun produceden
11 July : Last 6" shell produced. Total output 685,801. 21 September : First 6" gun finished and dispatched. November : Competed gun output 11 per week
1919
Cammell Laird & Co Ltd still occupied the site under the name of National Ordnance Factory.
1920
Works Manager, National Ordnance Factory, Benjamin Hick received an OBE, Ministry of Munitions.
1923
The site bought outright by Cammell Laird & Co Ltd. The company built railway wagons through the 1920s. Some of the site used to house Nottingham Corporation buses at the time of changeover to trolley buses.
1930
The factory was conveyed to the Metropolitan Cammell Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company.
1935
The above company had gone into liquidation, the new owners becoming the Metro Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd.
World War II
Conversion to an Engineering ROF
In the late 1930s, war was seen as a possibility, if not likely, and a sizeable rearmament programme began, probably also activated by the concern that a large proportion of the arsenal was becoming obsolete.
The factory was bought back by the War Office in September 1936, the conveyance (dated 7 May) detailing a sum of £94,475 for the purchase. It was Royal Ordnance Factory Number 23.
Considerable effort was expended in turning the ROF Nottingham into a modern gun factory. The first machine tools were installed in January 1937 and an article in 'Machinery' magazine of 19 January 1939 describes the last machine tools as installed 'a few weeks ago'
Some idea of the scale of the endeavour can be gauged by Nottingham being listed in the ROF accounts for year ending 31 March 1938 as 'under construction'. As of that date, the amount spent on construction and equipment at Nottingham was £1,725,203 (considerably more than the purchase price). A new production facility (the South Shop) was being built at about this time, and roughly 300 people were employed on the reconstruction in 1937. The payroll level had grown to 2,272 people at the end of March 1938, and 3,796 a year later, shortly after the aforementioned 'Machinery' article had described the factory as 'working to capacity'.
World War II was if anything much busier than World War I had been, with the peak employment being said to number 14,000 (a large proportion being women) on two shifts of twelve hours each.