Talk:Royal Small Arms Factory

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Hi. Under the Closure and reuse of site heading. The text states ordnance and explosives testing ground being sold and recycled into the now Gunpowder Park. I believe this area formed the South site of the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills see heading Sale of South Site by Royal Ordnance and was not part of the RSAF. The text should be removed. Your thoughts please (Northmetpit (talk) 06:43, 24 September 2009 (UTC)).

From the photograph, I would suggest that you are correct in the above statement. The 1895 OS map does show a 900 yard rife range behind the factory (on the other side of the River Lea furthest way from Enfield Lock) but that does not fit the picture. Pyrotec (talk) 11:42, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you Pyrotec for your comments. By the time of the 1984 sell off Gunpowder Park would have been part of the South Site of the Waltham Abbey Gunpowder Mills. Hard to pin down this place as the whole area was out of bounds and guarded by MOD police. I will delete the offending text as it's covered in the Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey article. (Northmetpit (talk) 10:27, 12 October 2009 (UTC)).

Comming back to Waltham Abbey, the site was indeed guarded by the MoD Police, but the whole of the site was surveyed in 1993 by RCHME and published as a survey "The Royal Gunpowder factory, Waltham Abbey, Essex. An RCHME survey, 1993" (I have a copy, I bought it in 1994). The photograph that I previously refered to, but can't find now, looks more like this area: [1], ie. Turnershill Marsh / Hooks Marsh; and if I'm correct that would make it North site not South site. Pyrotec (talk) 10:55, 12 October 2009 (UTC)