1968 Bessemer Park Housing commenced (1,009 houses). With the creation of the Ministry of Munitions, it was a logical step for that Ministry to take over supervision of these factories and co-ordinate their production with that of the other National Factories then being established. The back streets stand deep in filth and mud. Known to have produced .303 cartridges in: Armour Piercing W Mk 1 and W Mk 1 Special. IMPERIAL Canadian Industries Ltd, Montreal, CANADA and Plattsburg, NY, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Modern Spennymoor was built on mining and has its origins with the sinking of the Wittered pit in 1839. We had workers playtime during our half hour break. 1921 Royal Ordnance took over the National Filling Factories. DAL or LAC Dominion Arsenal, Lindsay, Ontario, CANADA. Whitworth Hall severely damaged by fire. We were then taken to the canteen for lunch, which consisted of battered spam and chips. The coal industry has been replaced by manufacturers of consumer goods, and factories of Electrolux, Thorn Lighting and Black and Decker were established. ITALY used both bullet tip and annulus codes, Armour Piercing Incendiary (Phosphorus filled) Blue tip, Armour Piercing Incendiary (Thermite filled) Green tip, UNITED KINGDOM AND COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES BEFORE c 1955,ie Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa used bullet tip and annulus code from about 1918 onwards, Armour Piercing Green tip, Green annulus, Tracer Short Range White tip, Red annulus, Tracer Dark Ignition Grey tip, Red annulus. Edward lll was otherwise engaged at Crecy in France at the time, but his Queen, Phillipa, with the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of Durham, Lincoln and Carlisle, and the Lords Neville and Percy and others marched North, and with an array of 16,000 men, moved along the ridge from Auckland to Merrington. In 1930 the coke ovens which remained on the ironworks site were only working intermittently. In 1963 changes were indicated and Durham County Council and then then Ministry of Housing and Local Government agreed that Spennymoor should be a new growth point and that town centre redevelopment should take place; that the Tudhoe ironworks site should be reclaimed; that a major highway scheme should be put into hand; that the Royal Ordnance Factory Industrial Estate should be extended and that the Green Lane Industrial Estate should be developed. Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and At the factory we made .303 and .5 cases and caps, as well as bullets. 1985 There were 12 Royal Ordnance Factories still in operation. Spennymoor is a town in County Durham, England. The later Mark 6 and 7 incendiary rounds could also be used in this role if required. When, in 1894, Spennymoor and its adjacent villages achieved a measure of self government on the Spennymoor Urban District Council, the new authority found itself facing a legacy of poor housing. 1897 Kenmirs furniture factory opens in Silver Street. 22. ROF Spennymoor; SAA Factory No. Known to have produced .303 ball cartridges. HN Royal Ordnance Factory, Hirwaun, South Wales, UNITED KINGDOM. people who designed and built them. FNT Fabrica Nacional de Espana, Palencia, SPAIN. The three historic state-controlled munitions factories at Woolwich, Enfield, and Waltham Abbey were taken over as National Factories were controlled by the Army Board at the outbreak of the war, under the Master General of the Ordnance. Known to have produced .303 cartridges in: Ball, Nitro-cellulose Mk 8Z ( Canadian Pattern ), Cartridge Rifle Grenade, Ballistite H Mk 1Z ( Canadian Pattern ), Tracer G Mk 2Z, G Mk 4Z, G Mk 6Z ( Canadian Pattern ). 1920 Durham County Water Board provides water supply. Slightly before that, in the 1860s, a rather advanced area of working-class housing had been erected at Tudhoe Grange built by Marmaduke Salvin to house local workers. Aycliffe filled the cases which we produced and this was very dangerous work. ROF Bishopton; Explosive ROF (3 factories). 1913 Queen Mary visits the town. Known to have manufactured .303 cartridges in: MH Small Arms Ammunition Factory No 3, Hendon, AUSTRALIA. 1869 Shaft sunk at Tudhoe Grange Colliery. Floral waistcoats and ribboned hats were worn on these highly colourful occasions. World War II had diverse effects upon the town. Subsequently became part of BAE Systems Land and Armaments business. I listened to Vera Lynne and Tommy Handley who's catchphrase was 'Ta Ta for now (TTFN)'. 1987 Town wins National Allotment Society Waterlow Trophy. 1763 The Greenwich magazine was moved to Purfleet. KN Kings Norton Metal Co., Birmingham, UNITED KINGDOM. After ROF I worked for C.I.E.M.E. Beretta Group owns now the Tikka arms brand. 1853 Tudhoe Ironworks established. JAPAN is known to have manufactured nitro-cellulose loaded Imperial Japanese Army Year Type 89 Machine Gun ammunition, which is interchangeable with the .303 cartridge, without any headstamp codes in: JAPAN is also known to have manufactured nitro-cellulose Imperial Japanese Navy Year Type 92 Machine Gun ammunition, which is interchangeable with the .303 cartridge, at their Aichi Naval Arsenal, Toyokawa Naval Arsenal and Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in the following configurations, SPAIN manufactured .303 ammunition and used it on a limited scale during and after the Civil War of 1936 39. Known to have produced .303 cartridges in: MJB Incendiary Annexe to MJ Hendon, AUSTRALIA. 1880 Tudhoe Iron Works produced 17,000 tons of iron and 2,000 tons of steel. 1818 The work of the Lewisham establishment was transferred to Enfield. The comparative isolation of its moorland situation ended too with the opening of a branch railway from the mainline at Ferryhill in 1876. Known to have produced .303 cartridges with this headstamp April 1921 to December 1923, although some also produced in March 1924. Dunkirk survivors housed in halls and schools. They factories employed 300,000 people and were responsible for producing two-thirds of guns made in the UK and a similar proportion of the ammunition[7]. Cases were supplied by MJ, Ball Mk 7 (loaded into cases with BVI head stamp). Royal Powder Mill Factory No 31. Inside, the most interesting feature is the screen, a typical example of late-17th century work. It was intended as a training aid only, for the observation of long range shooting where accuracy of fire was not always easily defined, even if tracer ammunition was used. More workers came from Wales and Lancashire with the opening of the mine at Page Bank (ten lives were lost in a pit fire here in 1858), and with the sinking of a new pit at Tudhoe in the 1880s. Although these were the only houses built before the war, they did provide some hope and allowed the clearance of some of the worst of the squalid areas. 1987 Middlestone Moor Community Centre extended. The propellant interests being concentrated mainly at Ardeer within the Nobel Division of ICI. Known to have produced .303 cartridges in: Tracer G Mk 2,G Mk 3, G Mk 4, G Mk 5 and G Mk 6. Royal Ordnance Factory. 1904 Tudhoe Rugby Club defunct. Population declines to 15,440.First Council houses erected on racecourse site. ROF Aycliffe; ROF 59 (Filling Factory No. Spennymoor, United Kingdom (1913-1945). Gateshead refugees arrived in Spennymoor. Explosive bullets were not produced in the UK after about 1933 due to the relatively small amount of explosive that could be contained in the bullet limiting their effectiveness, their role being successfully fulfilled by the use of Mark 6 and 7 incendiary bullets which were also of a less complicated construction. Its head office is at Glascoed. The origin of the name remains somewhat uncertain some believe it to be derived from the Latin Spina which means a thorn (possibly from the Roman influence at Binchester) and Mor which was the Anglo-Saxon word for a moor. 21. Spennymoor Settlement, opened in 1931 with a grant from the Pilgrim Trust, aimed to support the unemployed by encouraging : Tolerant neighbourliness and voluntary social service and {giving} its members opportunities for increasing their knowledge, widening their interests and cultivating their creative powers in a friendly atmosphere. 102.56 KB. MQ Small Arms Ammunition Factory No 5, Rocklea, AUSTRALIA. The arms factory was closed in 1987. This distinction was abandoned in May 1920 and thereafter all ball rounds had the purple annulus. Ammunition production ceased completely at Woolwich in 1957, the last known production of .303 ammunition there being Mk 7 Ball in 1957. The cases were made by BSA for Maxim machine guns in the 1890s. AOC Bombrini, Parodi et Delfino, Rome, ITALY. HXP Greek Powder and Cartridge Co, Athens, GREECE. 1941 Royal Ordnance Factory opens. Maintained by Sapere Software. 1973 Spennymoor Town Council created a Successor Council. A strike, which lasted 13 weeks, paralysed the area in 1892, although out of the enforced idleness came foundations of new growth, for the machinery at the Tudhoe Iron works was then renovated and a new mill laid down. Policy. 1985 Victoria Jubilee Park purchased by the Town Council. My thanks to John Kindred for clarification on the monograms used on Australian small arms ammunition. It is impossible to walk between the rows of cottages without being convinced that the surface of the ground is to a large extent composed of the overflowing contents of these midden boxes. He was in a parachute regiment when Italy capitulated. A A On cartridges c 1917 indicated a Pomeroy explosive incendiary Mk 2 bullet, C on early pre 1912 cartridges denoted a Cordite propellant charge, K On cartridges c 1918 indicated a Brock explosive incendiary bullet, Z indicated a nitro-cellulose propellant charge in the cartridge. 1889 William Anderson was appointed Director General of Ordnance Factories, responsible for the ordnance factories, laboratory, carriage department and gun factory at Woolwich Arsenal, the small-arms factories at Enfield and Birmingham, and the gunpowder factory at Waltham Abbey. Some military training seems to have been given, doubtless with a view to the then unsettled state of the country due to the growing tension between Parliament and the King. Known to have produced nitro-cellulose loaded .303 (identified on headstamp as 7.70) cartridges during 1918 in: Also known to have produced ball rounds in the 1920s and 30s, A VE Atelier de Construction de Valence, FRANCE. As he was being transferred from Italy to Germany he escaped by jumping from the train and for this among many other things he received the Military Medal. 1942 1942 1943 1944 Tikkakoski Arsenal - Finland Tikkakoski was the first private arms manufacturer in Finland. 1886 The Sparkbrook factory of the National Arms and Ammunition Co was sold to the government[2] in order to secure the production of small arms. 1951 Population 19,740. It was originally built by the Normans and its splendid strategic position led to it being fortified in 1143 by the Scots intruder, William Cumyn. We were shown how the airmen assembled our bullets and taken to try the Frainer Bomber (named the Lincoln Frainer). The ROF Regiment were stationed in Spennymoor factory under the leadership of Captain Calderbank. These men, early industrial workers, wore their hair long and on these gala days it flowed freely over their shoulders instead of, as usually was the case, being tied in curls. The headstamp code B denoting the manufacturer should not be confused with B as in BVIIZ which indicates incendiary ammunition. On 2 January the majority were vested in the UK Government-owned company Royal Ordnance Plc together with 3 Agency-operated Factories, the Waltham Abbey south site and the Royal Small Arms Factory. Population 22,000. Known to have manufactured nitro-cellulose loaded .303 Ball, Mk 7 cartridges. Produced .303 Mk 7 ball ammunition in cases believed to be made by Eley. K2 Imperial Chemical Industries Kynoch factory at Standish, near Wigan, Lancs, UNITED KINGDOM. The huge munitions factory employed some 17,000 . Band Stand refurbished to its former state. ROF Bishopton; Explosive ROF (3 factories). Nevertheless, the whole of this countryside was made desolate by Williams soldiers, and for many years it was the haunt of outlaws and wild animals. 1875 Croxdale Colliery explosion 1 miner killed. Although coal-mining continued and the ironworks and engineering businesses were also providing employment, the start of the 20th century saw the start, too, of a long period of depression. Known to have produced Ilmavoimat Konekivaarin Patruuna Kal 7.70 machine gun cartridges, which are interchangeable with the .303 cartridge in: W or WRA Winchester Repeating Arms Co., New Haven, Conn., UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Known to have produced .303 cartridges in: Ball, Nitro-cellulose Mk 7 ( Canadian WW1 contract pattern ) 1914-16, Ball, Nitro-cellulose Mk 7Z ( Canadian Pattern ), Tracer G Mk 2Z, G Mk 4Z ( Canadian Pattern ). The Badcock Armoury closed. The Custom was when the boys used these parachutes successfully it was usual for them to send a letter of thanks and a present to whoever had packed the parachute as the girls would have their name and address inside the package. 1935 Tudhoe Colliery closes. Known to have produced both ball and blank .303 cartridges. The arms factory was closed in 1987. Known to have produced .303 cartridges in: Gallery Practice Mk 1 ( Black powder Canada ), Gallery Practice Mk 1 ( Smokeless Canada ). We were then introduced to a number of Canadian boys. This story has been placed in the following categories. It was involved in the production of .303 cartridges in only a very limited way and is known to have manufactured these cartridges in: Tracer G Mk 2 (in cases dated 1943 and 1944). 2001 Memorial to two Hurricane pilots killed in aircrash at Tudhoe in 1942 unveiled at York Hill Cemetery. Royal Ordnance Factory. U = Utah Ordnance Plant - Salt Lake City, Utah. 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