More information : SE 430 465 (site-centred): Thorp Arch post 1940 munitions factory,
still extant as an extensive building complex. Currently in use as a
trading estate. (1-1a)
Financial approval for the construction of Royal Ordnance Filling
Factory No.8 Thorp Arch was given in March 1940. The total cost of
the factory was £5.95 million. As one of the early group of filling
factories it was designed to fill a variety of munitions and was
divided into seven production units, along with storage magazines, a
proof range and ancilliary buildings. At the end of the war
production ceased at Thorp Arch an dthe factory was mothballed as a
war reserve factory. During the early 1950s rearmament programme
Thorp Arch was one of the few reserve factories brought back into
service. It was, however, later closed and its site developed as a
trading estate.
The layout of the factory may be traced in the roads of the trading
estate. Many of the former factory buildings also survive and some
have been converted to new uses, many with only superficial
alterations. Others sections of the factory are derelict, although
the buildings remain in reasonable condition. The most notable
losses are the proof ranges along the southeast perimeter of the
site, the former Group 1 buildings centred at SE 446 460, and the
northeast corner of the site which is now occupied by the British
Library.
Associated with the factory is a group of detached magazines centred
at SE 435 490 (SE 44 NW 29). The magazines are arranged as five
blocks of four magazines surrounded by earthwork traverses. They
are of a type known at other Royal Ordnance factories. Also
associated with the factory are some small estates of workers
bungalows, again of a type characteristic of wartime Royal Ordnance
Factories. Adjacent to the factory along Grange Avenue is a single
row of factory housing. A small estate of bungalows at Boston Spa
is centred at SE 423 460 (SE 44 NW 30), communal buildings
associated with this estate are now in use as a school (2)
Part of the factory lies within the area of the Vale of York Project and the extent of the factory was outlined and early vertical photographs noted.
(3)
The features described above are visible as stuctures on air photographs centred at SE 4482 4652. The complex covers an area of over 2.07 square km and the proof ranges and other destroyed buildings are visible. The site has been mapped as an extent of area.
(4) |