Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills: ‘The Old Establishment’

NOTES AND REFERENCES

• The background literature on this subject, especially the contributions made by Society members, was surveyed by the author in her earlier paper, 'The Technology of Gunpowder Making in the Eighteenth Century: Evidence from the Bristol Region', Trans. Newcomen. Soc., vol. 67 (1995–96), pp. 125–159. Special reference was made to Oscar Guttmann's two-volume account of The Manufacture of Explosives (London, 1895), to which a further note may now be added in the light of correspondence recently discovered in the papers of Rhys Jenkins, (Science Museum Library, Rhys Jenkins Papers, Box 46, folder 3). The letters reveal a generous exchange of information amongst these early scholars, see the Appendix to this paper.
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• The Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills Charitable Foundation Trust was set up in March 1997 to safeguard the site in perpetuity, and to arrange for its management by an Operating Company. Substantial funds have been received by the Foundation from the Ministry of Defence and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The present author is one of four Foundation Trustees proposed by public bodies, and she is grateful to the Science Museum, by whom she was nominated, for the opportunity to be involved in developments at this important site.
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• Charcoal burning was carried on in the forests of Essex from at least the beginning of the fifteenth century, but the native trees were not best-suited for gunpowder making so plantations of lighter, and more porous woods such as dogwood, alder,, and willow were established at the Waltham Abbey works and on adjoining land. Until the mid- 1790s the wood was charred in the traditional manner on a wood-land 'hearth', but this 'pit-coal' was then replaced by the more effective 'cylinder-coal', baked in a closed metal cylinder in the manner devised in the 1780s by Bishop Richard Watson. Local timber would also be used for the heating and refining or condensing of the two imported ingredients, saltpe-tre and sulphur. In the case of saltpetre refining, potash (potassium carbonate), another local forest and farm product of great importance, was produced in the county until at least the mid-nineteenth century. Victoria County History (VCH), Essex, vol. 2 (1907), pp. 372-375, 447-450. See also E Gray, H. Marsh & M. McLaren, 'A Short History of Gunpowder and the Role of Charcoal in its Manufacture', Jnl. Materials Science, vol. 17 (1982), pp. 3385–3400.
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• Frederick G. Engelback, 'Her Majesty's Ordnance Factories', The Army and Navy Illustrated, Part I (11 Oct. 1899), pp. 105–107.
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• John Rennie, 'Report Presented to the Honourable Board of Ordnance, 18th September 1806', vol. 4 of Rennie's Papers (9th Dec. 1805-20th Oct. 1807), Archives of the Institution of Civil Engineers. I am grateful to the staff for enabling me to study this document. Other papers are held at the University of Edinburgh where Rennie was a student 1780–83. His biographer has concluded that this education enabled him to apply 'scientific theory, as well as practical experience, to the design of structures, and... to seek out the root causes of problems he encountered ...'. Cyril T.G. Boucher, John Rennie, 1761–1821, The Life and Work of a Great Engineer (Manchester Univ. P., 1963), p. 7.
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• VCH, Essex, vol. 5 (1966), pp. 162–5. Three corn mills were recorded in the manor of Waltham in 1086. By the early fifteenth century there was a fulling mill (recorded on a map of c.1590, Essex Record Office, TIM 125) on the site later occupied by the gunpowder works.
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• Roger Bacon, Epistola de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae, et de Nullitate Magiae (Letter on the Secret Workings of Art and Nature, and on the Vanity of Magic), c. 1267. The proportions prescribed by Bacon were: Saltpetre 7 parts (41.2%), Sulphur 5 parts (29.4%); & Charcoal 5 parts (29.4%). Experiments were later made with a wide range of proportions and the standard military mix came to be 75-10-15. In mining and other civil use the proportion of saltpetre was usually lower. For the Chinese origins of gunpowder see Joseph Needham et al, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 7, Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic (Cambridge, 1986).
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• J. R. Partington, A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder (Cambridge, 1960), pp. 69–81, discusses the breaking of Roger Bacon's code by Henry W. L. Hime, Gunpowder and Ammunition, Their Origin and Progress (London, 1904), chapter 8. For a more recent critical review see Vernard Foley & Keith Perry, 'In Defense of LIBER IGNEUM: Arab Alchemy, Roger Bacon, and the Introduction of Gunpowder into the West', Jnl. for the Hist. of Arabic Science, vol. 3 (1979), pp. 200–218.
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• W. H. Simmons, A Short History of the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey (Controllerate of Royal Ordnance Factories, 1963), pp. 2–3.
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• See A. R. Williams, 'The Production of Saltpetre in the Middle Ages', Ambix, vol. 22 (1975), pp. 125–133, for Honrick's recipe.
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• Joan Thirsk, Economic Policy and Projects (Oxford, 1978). In 1567 the citizens of Maidstone invited craftsmen, including gunpowder makers, to settle in their town, p. 47.
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• See my paper on 'Saltpetre: A Commodity of Empire', presented at the 26th Symposium of the International Committee for the History of Technology, Lisbon, August 1998, to be included in the fourthcoming volume on the proceedings of the Gunpowder Section of ICOHTEC.
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• E. A. Brayley Hodgetts ed., The Rise and Progress of the British Explosives Industry (London, 1909), p. 215.
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• Richard W. Stewart, The English Ordnance Office, 1585–1625. A Case Study in Bureaucracy ( Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1996), pp. 86–87. From 1589 almost to the Civil War, the Evelyn family main-tained at various times the powder mills at Tolworth (also known as the Worcester Park Mills); at Wotton on the Tillingbourne; at Godstone near the village of that name; and possibly at some time at Kingston-on-Thames. See also VCH, Surrey, vol. 2, pp. 311–318 and Glenys Crocker ed., Gunpowder Mills Gazetteer (1988).
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• Thomas Fuller, The Worthies of England (1662; new edit. introd. by John Freeman, London, 1952), p. 165. Fuller noted the danger of powder making,the mills in my parish having been five timesblown up within seven years, but blessed by God, without the loss of any one man's life'. But this safety record could not continue and in October 1665 two deaths registered in the parish were of men 'killed with a powdennill', Simmons, A Short History, p. 6.
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• Keith Fairclough, 'Early Gunpowder Production at Waltham', Essex Journal, vol. 20 (1985), pp. 11–16.
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• A general survey of the complex waterways is provided by the VCH, Essex, vol. 5 (1966), pp. 165–167. On the Lee Navigation see John H. Boyes, 'The River Lea and the Lee Navigation' in R. Angus Buchanan ed., Engineers and Engineering, Papers of the Rolt Fellows (Bath University Press, 1996), pp. 1–26. G. B. G. Bull's 'Elizabethan Maps of the Lower Lea Valley', Geographical Jnl., vol. 124 (1958), pp. 375–378, is not as informative as the title suggests, but it does show Cheshunt Marsh and what must be the Small River Lea (both shown to the west on Fig. 2 of this paper), which formed a sometimes disputed parish boundary between Cheshunt and Waltham Abbey (or more accurately, the parish of Waltham Holy Cross).
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• Quoted by Fairclough, 'Early Gunpowder', p. 14
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• Buchanan, 'Gunpowder Making in the Eighteenth Century', pp. 145–146, quoting The Diary of Sir James Hope, 24 January-October 1646, vol. 9 (Misc. Scottish Hist. Soc., 1958), pp. 156–8.
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• The use from the 1720s of edge runners rather than stamps for the incorporation of gunpowder in the Bristol region was discussed in my paper 'Gunpowder Making in the Eighteenth Century', and although some earlier examples have recently been described by Glenys Crocker and Keith Fairclough in their article on 'The Introduction of Edge-runner Incorporating Mills in the British Gunpowder Industry', Industrial Archaeology Review, vol. 20 (1998), pp. 26–36, none of those cited shows the same continuity of use over the eighteenth century of the examples from the Bristol region.
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• Olaf Mussmann, 'Gunpowder Production in the Electorate and the Kingdom of Hannover', in Brenda J. Buchanan ed., Gunpowder: The History of an International Technology (Bath University Press, 1996), pp. 329–350. For further comments on the advantages of edge runners see the written contri-bution by E. F. Clark to my Newcomen paper, 'Gunpowder Making in the Eighteenth Century', pp. 157–158.
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• Fairclough, 'Early Gunpowder', pp. 14.
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• Fairclough, 'Early Gunpowder', pp. 14–15; Jenny West, Gunpowder; Government and War in the Mid-Eighteenth Century (Woodbridge, 1991), pp. 209–210.
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• Quoted by Col. Sir Frederic L. Nathan, 'The Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey' in Brayley Hodgetts, British Explosives Industry, p. 318.
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• Wayne Cocroft & colleagues, The Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey, Essex (RCHME Survey, 1993), with a separate Collection of 'Plans and Illustrations'.
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• I am grateful to Malcolm McLaren, formerly librarian at WARGM ( MoD), for allowing me to use his copy of Farmer's engraving, and for discussing the possible meaning of the term 'dumb mill'. My thanks also to members of the Newcomen Society who have tried to shed light on this puzzle. We are also indebted to Dr. Ken Bascombe, formerly of WARGM (MoD), who organized an early archaeologi-cal investigation into the core of the site (Post-Medieval Archaeology, vol. 8, 1974, p. 132). An exca-vation near the mill head of the stream suggested levels of re-use by revealing that a bank which was probably late seventeenth century, made up of tile fragments etc., had been extended into the stream by a brick wall, probably of the late eighteenth century. A leat was 'enclosed by planks backed by clay'.
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• BM Add. MSS 57318, Letters from Sir John Ligonier, 1754–7. This correspondence was quoted pre-viously in a paper presented by the author in October 1995 at Fort Ligonier, Western Pennsylvania, USA, named in 1758 in honour of the then Commander-in-Chief of HM Forces. Ligonier's long-stand-ing connection with the Board of Ordnance has been noted. He was also MP for Bath.
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• West, Gunpowder, Government & War, p. 67, with reference to War Office papers of 1757 and 1758.
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• Arthur Percival, 'The Faversham Gunpowder Industry', 2 parts, Industrial Archaeology, vol. 5, nos. 1 & 2 (1968), pp. 1–42, 120–134.
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• West, Gunpowder, Government & War, p. 70. In contrast, in December 1761 the Bristol powdermakers learnt that they had been commended by the Board of Ordnance for 'the Grain and Cleanness of the Samples' sent to London for testing, see Brenda J. Buchanan, 'Meeting Standards: Bristol Powder Makers in the Eighteenth Century' in Buchanan ed., Gunpowder, pp. 237–52.
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• West, Gunpowder Government & War p. 73.
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• The London Chronicle, 17–20 May 1760. On the Saturday morning one of the powder mills at Waltham Abbey 'blew up'. One workman was killed and another injured.
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• The role of the Bristol powdermakers and merchants in this trade was discussed at the February 1999 meeting of the Western Branch of the Newcomen Society, in a paper by the author on 'Gunpowder Manufacture and the Bristol Slave Trade'.
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• West, Gunpowder, Government & War, pp. 73–6.
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• The exclusion of the provincial Bristol powdermakers from this metropolitan network is discussed by the author in 'Meeting Standards' in Buchanan ed., Gunpowder, pp. 237–252.
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• 1783, 'A Plan of the Powder Mills at Waltham Abbey and the Fishery on the River Lea the property of Walton Esq.' (PRO Kew MR 593); 1801, 'Plan describing the whole of the Land and its situation at Waltham Abbey belonging to the Board of Ordnance (PRO Kew MR 580[2] extracted from WO 78/ 2591); 1806, 'Map of the whole site including Lower Island' PRO Kew MR 580[3] extracted from WO 78/2591 PFN/555). See n. 5 for details of Rennie's Report. Frederick Drayson's Treatise on Gunpowder of 1830 (PRO, Supply 5/762) provides additional information; see also the account of the powder works in 1787, quoted by Simmons, A Short History, p. 27.
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• The Office of the Ordnance developed out of the Royal Privy Wardrobe in the fifteenth century and had its own Board by the mid-sixteenth century, Stewart, English Ordnance Office, pp. 6–7. William Congreve (bart. 1812, d. 1814) was from 1783 the Deputy Comptroller of the Royal Laboratory at Woolwich, and from 1789 its Controller and also the Inspector of the powder works at Faversham and Waltham Abbey. He has been overshadowed by his son of the same name, who succeeded to his title and offices. The son's rockets were spectacular but the father made a long-lasting and significant con-tribution to the production of high quality gunpowder at WARGM.
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• Geo. III c. 61 (1772).no Person or Persons whatsoever shall, for the making of Gunpowder,employ, work, or use, any Mill or Engine, worked with a Pestle or Pestles, and commonly called a Pestle Mill, upon Pain of forfeiting all Gunpowder manufactured therein, and also Two Shillings for every pound of such Gunpowder'. The mills of the parishes of Battle, Crowhurst, Seddelcomb and Brede, manufacturing 'fine Fowling Gunpowder only', were excluded from this order.
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• The engineering designs of John Smeaton FRS, including those for these three gunpowder mills, are housed in the Library of the Royal Society. I am grateful to the Royal Society for the privilege of con-sulting these. See also Paul N. Wilson, 'The Waterwheels of John Smeaton', Trans. Newc. Soc., vol. 30 (1955–7, pub. 1960), pp. 25–48,, and Denis Smith, 'Mills and Millwork' in A. W. Skempton ed., John Smeaton, FRS (1981), pp. 59–81.
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• Simmons, A Short History, p. 6. Smeaton made several reports on the navigation of the River Lea, especially as it affected the Waltham Abbey Powder Mills. That of 1771 refers to the 'corning-engine weir' in terms which suggest that the large mill was then still active. Obstructions in the water courses were to be cleared, and at the corning-engine weir an additional conduit was to be built, 10ft wide, its floor to be as low as that of the weir, with a draw-gate to enable barges to pass to the mills (Library of the Royal Society, Reports of the late John Smeaton, FRS, vol. 1,1812, pp. 282–3).
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• Guttmann, The Manufacture of Explosives, pp. 198–201, noted that rifle powder was then (1909) incor-porated for 51/2 hours. The long period of incorporation meant the powder was mixed more intimately and its density increased—so that it could be pressed more easily ignited more rapidly, and transported more safely. Although the causes of explosion were not fully understood, Guttmann suggested they sometimes happened when the mill stopped, perhaps because 'by the sudden starting and stopping suf-ficient mechanical vibration was concentrated in one point to produce explosion', or because the steam engine or waterwheel made a small jerk after stopping completely, due to the valve of the former or the shutter of the latter not having been closed tightly.
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• It was noted in 1801 at the Woolley powder works near Bath, that the annual stocktaking took place in June because thenour Mills usually stand still for want of Water', B. J. Buchanan & M. T. Tucker, 'The Manufacture of Gunpowder at the Woolley Powder Works near Bath', Industrial Archaeology Review, vol. 5 (1981), p. 189.
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• Buchanan, 'Meeting Standards' in Buchanan ed., Gunpowder, p. 244.
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• See Begoña Bas, 'Fireworks for the Community: The Use of Windpower and Simple Techniques in Galicia' in Buchanan ed., Gunpowder, pp. 137–155.
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• O. F. G. Hogg, The Royal Arsenal, its Background, Origin and Subsequent History (Oxford 1963), pp. 1064–5, describes the poor condition of the works in 1787.
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• Cocroft, Royal Gunpowder Factory, p. 117.
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