Distinguished service recalled of factory giving bang for the buck
Today, this site in Caerwent is used for training purposes and is occasionally used as a filming location for big Hollywood films or family-favourite TV shows, but Branwen Jones looks back at its potentially explosive past
ABOUT five miles west of Chepstow and 12 miles east of Newport you’ll find the Royal Navy propellant factory in the Monmouthshire village of Caerwent.
The huge site, which has more than 400 buildings and bunkers, covers an area of about two miles by 1.5 miles and a perimeter road that is more than seven miles long and covers more than 600 hectares, was once used to manufacture and store munitions and subsequently housed various armies.
Today it is used for training purposes and is occasionally used as a filming location for big Hollywood films or family-favourite TV shows, but originally it was dedicated to the manufacture and storage of Royal Naval munitions.
In the summer of 1936, the Royal Navy’s requirements for a new factory were drawn up. The establishment had to be in a place that would not be vulnerable to air attacks, was not located in an industrial place, but was sufficiently close to a populated area to provide an “adequate workforce”, among other things.
The site was chosen for the availability of water from the nearby River Severn, and construction of the Caerwent Royal Naval Propellant Factory started in 1939 and it was fully operational by 1941 for production of cordite for the British Navy.
From 1938 until the end of the Second World War, many ROFs (Royal Ordnance Factory) were opened across the UK, the first being ROF Bridgend. In Wales, there was a total of eight Royal Ordnance Factories, the aforementioned Bridgend, and Cardiff, along with the Royal Navy Propellant Factory in Caerwent, ROF Glascoed, ROF Hirwaun, ROF Newport, ROF Pembrey and ROF Wrexham.
Over the years the factories employed thousands of workers, and the munitions they provided from various Royal Ordnance Factories across the country helped the Allies to victory in the Second World War.
Like all explosives factories of this type, a large supply of water was needed for use in the manufacturing processes. To manufacture 50 tonnes of cordite per week, the factory would need three million imperial gallons of drinking-quality water per day.
When the Cold War began, Caerwent then went on to produce rocket boosters for the Seaslug missile, which was the first-generation surface-to-air missile. From 1957, various buildings were dedicated to various activities, such as production and testing.
For example, a building named J7 was an environmental conditioning building which could be heated to 70°C or even cooled to -40°C before testing. These buildings were of typical flat-roofed red-brick construction, shielded by large earth traverses.
By 1966, it was decided that the site would be closed as an armament works and RAF Caerwent was transferred to the US administration after the French president at the time, Charles de Gaulle, expelled the US military from France in 1967.
Caerwent became part of the United States Army European “theatre reserve stocks” under the command of the United States Army’s 47th Area Support Group Reserve Storage Activity. It became known as USADA Caerwent, or in other words, the United States Arms Depot Activity Caerwent.
The material stored included small arms ammunition, artillery shells, grenades and flares. At its height, Caerwent was among the largest ammunition supply depots in western Europe, storing more than 80,000 tonnes of conventional munitions, which included a substantial portion of the US Army’s European Stocks.
In 1990, Caerwent shipped 12,000 tonnes of ammunition to the Middle East and played a critical part in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Iraq.
However, following the change in political climate in Europe, operations were subsequently called down and the US army announced it was to close down its storage operations at the Caerwent site in June 1992. Over a period of 10 months, 60,000 tonnes of munitions were moved out of the site, with the last batch removed by train in July 1993.
Nowadays the site is often used as a filming location for various films and TV shows. Scenes from Hollywood blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger were filmed on the site in October 2010, and more recently it was used in the television series Top Gear. It has also been used to film Doctor Who episode Before the Flood.