Factory tokens

Royal Arsenal, Woolwich

At its peak, during the First World War, the Royal Arsenal extended over some 1,300 acres (530 ha) and employed around 80,000 people. The Royal Arsenal by then comprised the Royal Gun & Carriage Factory (which had amalgamated under Colonel Capel Lofft Holden in 1907), the Royal Laboratory (which in 1922 split to form the Royal Ammunition Factory and the Royal Filling Factory) and separate Naval Ordnance and Army Ordnance Store Departments.

In 1695, a laboratory was established (subsequently known as the "Royal Laboratory") for the manufacture of ammunition and pyrotechnics at The Warren in Tower Place, and in 1716 a foundry for casting brass guns was built there.

Royal Carriage Factory, Woolwich.

The first store ('Old Carriage Yard') had been built as early as 1682, and probably also contained workshops for the repair or scrapping of old carriages. In 1697 a far larger complex of sheds ('New Carriage Yard') was built on what had been Prince Rupert's gun battery.

By the 1750s manufacture of gun carriages was also taking place on site, overseen by the Constructor of Carriages. This took place around New Carriage Square (a low quadrangle of storehouses built alongside, and as an extension of, the Great Pile storehouses in 1728-9). In 1803 this activity was formalized as the Royal Carriage Department, a recognition of the importance of effective carriage design and manufacture, alongside that of guns and ammunition, as part of ordnance provision. In 1803-5 a substantial Royal Carriage Factory was built.

Military Stores Depot

A depot was established at Weedon in 1803. The Depot became redundant to the Army in 1965 but is still in use for storage and light industry.

See 'The Ordnance Depot' at ... http://www.blisworth.org.uk/images/Canal/historyweedon.htm

See also *Scott 25.4 for a similar item.

Probably the Army Ordnance Depot at Didcot.

S.F.F. Georgetown 1d

brass 28.6mm

The halfpenny, penny and threepence tokens are known with a centre hole and a smoothed reverse to remove the S. This adds more significance to the S on the reverse - what could it have represented?

The Scottish filling factory was located near Bishopton, it was named Georgetown in honour of Lloyd George; by 1917 Georgetown employed 10,000, closed after the War.

Some parts of the site went on to become the southern part of the Second World War munitions facility, known as Royal Ordnance Factory, Bishopton.

Worn halfpenny 1870 counter-marked W.B. No 5 1916 I

W.B. may refer to William Beardmore & Co Ltd. Glasgow, Scotland.

During World War I, Fisons helped make explosives, but the company had returned to fertilizer by the end of the war to buoy dwindling food production.

Amatol Explosives Factory Aintree, UK was known as the No. 2A National Filling Factory. It was built slightly west of the No. 2 National Filling Factory which had been established on a greenfield site at Bland Park Farm, Sefton.

Amatol is a highly explosive material made from a mixture of TNT and ammonium nitrate. The British name originates from the words ammonium and toluene (a raw material of TNT). Amatol was used extensively during both World War I and World War II.

See: http://www.colorantshistory.org/AintreeExplosives.html

An error was made with some of the N.A.F. 2d tokens being stamped on the wrong colour blanks, these were crossed out and the correct denomination of 3d applied to the other (blank) side.

The National Explosives Co Ltd

Brass 30mm

During the war Aveling-Barford built Bren gun carriers for the army, shell fuse caps and various precision-made components for tanks and submarines.

During World War I, the military took the normal production cars, lorries, buses and ambulances together with a scout army vehicle and engines used in ambulances, trucks, and double-decker buses. Special products included aero-engines and complete aircraft, tank and tractor engines and munitions.

During World War II, Daimler turned again to military production. A four-wheel-drive scout car, known to the Army as the Dingo had a 2.5-litre engine and the larger Daimler Armoured Car powered by a 4.1-litre engine and armed with a 2-pounder gun were produced, both with six-cylinder power units, fluid flywheels and epicyclic gearboxes.[102] These military vehicles incorporated various innovative features including disc brakes on all four wheels.[102] The Dingo was designed by parent company BSA and took the name "Dingo" from an unsuccessful competitor submitted by Alvis.

Elisabethville was a Belgian ‘colony’, a model village created by the First World War coalition government, in the town of Birtley, Co. Durham. The colony was created to house Belgian refugees who had fled from the German advance in Europe and were moved to the area to work in local munitions factories.

Factory Pass No 28 H.M. Factory Langwith

Brass 37 X 37mm

Used during the period 1916 to 1919 at a purpose built facility next to Langwith Colliery and Coke Works in North Derbyshire, England. The factory made the explosives accelerant ammonium perclorate.

C & W Walker Midland Works, Donnington cmkd 633

uniface brass, 32.8mm

During the Second World War, C&W Walker, best-known for the manufacture of gas storage equipment, expanded and diversified its product range, manufacturing a range of assorted military hardware to meet the needs of the nation. Bomb casings, equipment for detonating mines and steel plates for aircraft and large guns were all produced at the Midland Ironworks.

The 1 July establishment of the Ministry of Munitions, managed by David Lloyd George, impacted severely on working life. Under the Munitions of War Act workers were required to be diligent in attendance and work to full efficiency, failure to do so would inevitably lead to the offender appearing before a tribunal. The tribunals met throughout the war and some of the local misdemeanours included the mid July appearance of Thomas Jones, a furnace man at Church Ironworks, Ince. The defendant should have been at work in order to have the furnace ready for rollers early in the morning. He failed to do so and forty men were left without employment. The defendant admitted his guilt, and said he had been drinking with soldiers. He was fined 20s for wrongfully leaving his munitions employment.

During the second world war, Henleys were involved in several important military projects. They manufactured degaussing equipment for ships to counteract the threat of German magnetic mines and submarine indicator loops. They made components for PLUTO (pipeline under the ocean) that was used to pump fuel from England to France after the D-Day landings in 1944.

Imperial Smelting Co.

The National Smelting Company was a nationalised zinc smelting company in Avonmouth, United Kingdom. It was formed by then Minister of Munitions Winston Churchill to produce mustard gas during World War I.

After World War I, it was bought by private business interests. From 1929 it became part of Australia’s Imperial Smelting Corporation. A.E. Higgs Esq. became the Director of the National Smelting Co. in 1948. The site – also known as the Britannia smelting works – was where the famous Imperial Smelting Process was developed. See Wikipedia for more.

Nuffield Mechanizations and Aero Limited, also known as Mechanizations and Aero Ltd and Nuffield Mechanizations Ltd. During World War II Nuffield Mechanizations was engaged in military production. Among their activities was production of the Liberty L-12 engine for use in British tanks of the period.