Hi, had a look at the Island, part of the royal gunpowder mills, here is a brief history.
The distinguished engineer John Rennie (1761-1821) coined the phrase ‘The Old Establishment’ in his 1806 report on the Royal Gunpowder Factory. This term refers to the gunpowder mills when they were still privately owned, before they were acquired by the Crown to become the Royal Gun Powder Factory in 1787.
Foundations remain on this part of the site belonging to a large waterwheel which drove two water-powered stamp mills. These giant, noisy, mortar and pestle mills were used to mix thoroughly the gunpowder ingredients. In the 1760s they were replaced by a pair of edge-runner mills known as Head Mills. Stone edge runners from these mills were left around the site.
THE ‘ISLAND’
This is the oldest group of buildings on site. Walton’s House, the mixing house and saltpetre melting house were constructed soon after the government’s purchase of the works in the 1787.
Walton’s House was named after the last private owner of the works. Despite its domestic appearance it seems to have been constructed as a purpose-built office building. Various additions were made to the original two-storied structure. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, it was used as an office.
The mixing house was where the gunpowder ingredients - sulphur, saltpetre and charcoal - were mixed ready for the lengthy process of incorporation. The building alongside it was for a melting house where saltpetre was melted for use in gunpowder manufacture. From the 1780s it was prepared concentrated and crystallised in a refinery whose remains lie beneath the junction of Highbridge Street and Beaulieu Drive.
THE FIRST STEAM-POWERED MILLS
The Group A incorporating mills were destroyed in one of the most spectacular explosions in the history of Waltham Abbey on 27 May 1861, only 4 years after they were built. Men were clearing the mills when ‘one of them, using a wooden handspike saw the powder flash’. He threw himself into the water to extinguish his burning clothes. Another was not so lucky: he ‘was found lying on the long grass in front of the mill, his clothes in a mass of flame’ and later died in hospital.
These mills were the first and the last to adopt an arrangement of interlocking trapezoidal bays , all the other groups of mills were built with rectangular bays.
The engine house and mechanics shop, still exist, along with the boiler house which supplied them with steam, although the chimney has been demolished. Behind these buildings stands the Power House, built between 1908 and 1915. It comprised a boiler room and an engine house.
Enjoy
Andy
The distinguished engineer John Rennie (1761-1821) coined the phrase ‘The Old Establishment’ in his 1806 report on the Royal Gunpowder Factory. This term refers to the gunpowder mills when they were still privately owned, before they were acquired by the Crown to become the Royal Gun Powder Factory in 1787.
Foundations remain on this part of the site belonging to a large waterwheel which drove two water-powered stamp mills. These giant, noisy, mortar and pestle mills were used to mix thoroughly the gunpowder ingredients. In the 1760s they were replaced by a pair of edge-runner mills known as Head Mills. Stone edge runners from these mills were left around the site.
THE ‘ISLAND’
This is the oldest group of buildings on site. Walton’s House, the mixing house and saltpetre melting house were constructed soon after the government’s purchase of the works in the 1787.
Walton’s House was named after the last private owner of the works. Despite its domestic appearance it seems to have been constructed as a purpose-built office building. Various additions were made to the original two-storied structure. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, it was used as an office.
The mixing house was where the gunpowder ingredients - sulphur, saltpetre and charcoal - were mixed ready for the lengthy process of incorporation. The building alongside it was for a melting house where saltpetre was melted for use in gunpowder manufacture. From the 1780s it was prepared concentrated and crystallised in a refinery whose remains lie beneath the junction of Highbridge Street and Beaulieu Drive.
THE FIRST STEAM-POWERED MILLS
The Group A incorporating mills were destroyed in one of the most spectacular explosions in the history of Waltham Abbey on 27 May 1861, only 4 years after they were built. Men were clearing the mills when ‘one of them, using a wooden handspike saw the powder flash’. He threw himself into the water to extinguish his burning clothes. Another was not so lucky: he ‘was found lying on the long grass in front of the mill, his clothes in a mass of flame’ and later died in hospital.
These mills were the first and the last to adopt an arrangement of interlocking trapezoidal bays , all the other groups of mills were built with rectangular bays.
The engine house and mechanics shop, still exist, along with the boiler house which supplied them with steam, although the chimney has been demolished. Behind these buildings stands the Power House, built between 1908 and 1915. It comprised a boiler room and an engine house.
Enjoy
Andy
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