In The Railway, Locomotives and History 1916-1919 of the H.M.E.F. Stratton, Swindon: Ammonium Nitrate Explosive Works the author, Colin Judge, has researched the history of the Stratton Works at Swindon, one of the 28 H.M. Explosive Factories sites to be found in Britain by the end of World War One.
During the war military equipment was in great demand and women regularly took the place of men, helping to keep the factories running. The need for armaments was so important that in Britain a government post, the Minister of Munitions, was created to increase the production of armaments by overseeing and co-ordinating production and distribution, and by settling labour disputes. The Stratton Works factory at Swindon was one of several H.M. Explosive Factories which were built by the government, and were under the control of the Ministry of Munitions. The purpose of the factories was to produce the explosives to fill shells, as well as charges to propel them. In late 1916 a shortage of Ammonium Nitrate led to the decision to build a new factory specifically for its production. One of the reasons the site at Swindon was chosen was that the wives and daughters of the workers at the Great Western Railways Carriage & Wagon Works at Swindon were considered to be a good source of female labour for the factory, and also for its close proximity to the GWRs rail network, so allowing easy access for bringing in supplies and shipping out the end product. Stratton Works was built over an area of 67 acres and when it opened in 1917 the factory covered an area of 340,087 sq ft. Made up of several large buildings the site was serviced by an internal industrial railway system which had around 3 ½ miles of track. The author covers the internal railways system operations and the locomotives and rolling stock used.
The history of the works is not a long one as the factory closed in 1919, however the site was used until 1922 for storing locomotives which had returned from overseas military duties.
As well as the photographs there are also images of a wide variety of documents and ephemera.
61 black & white photographs, 80 pages