Royal Small Arms Factory

RSAF machine shop overlooking basin

The Royal Small Arms Factory was a government-owned rifle factory near Enfield, though just over the county border in Essex. The site of the complex has been developed since the 1990s into Enfield Island Village, within which some of the factory remains as a heritage asset.

The site is beside the River Lea Navigation, a canalisation of the River Lea, between the canal and the diverted course of the Lea to the west. The old course of the Lea (some of which remains) marked the county border.

The factory it is day produced British military rifles, muskets and swords from 1816. It closed in 1988, but some of its work was transferred to other sites.

History

Foundation

The factory was located at Enfield Lock on a marshy island bordered by the River Lea and the River Lee Navigation, built on the instructions of the Board of Ordnance near the end of the Napoleonic War. The land was acquired in 1812 and the factory completed by 1816, the year after peace had been won at Waterloo. The site had the advantages of water-power to drive the machinery and the River Lee Navigation for the transportation by barge of raw materials and finished weapons to the River Thames, 15 miles away to be loaded onto ships. Neighbouring farmland was acquired to become a restricted area to test ordnance from the Royal Gunpowder Mill. The RSAF was originally all situated on the east side of the Lea, in the parish of Waltham Abbey, on the land of the hamlet of Sewardstone. The course of the river was diverted during the life of the factory.

The original ambitious plans by Captain John By included three mills. Later, the engineer John Rennie the Elder recommended the construction of a navigable leat. The leat was made, although only one mill with two waterwheels was completed.

In 1816, the assembly of guns began: the barrel branch was transferred from Lewisham in Kent and by 1818 the lock and finishing branches had been moved to the site, enabling the closure of the Lewisham factory. A sword-making department was set up in 1823.

The Crimean War

The factory fought off the threat of closure in 1831; and remained quite modest in size until the Crimean War of 1853/1856, which resulted in vastly increased production.

By 1856 a machine shop was built on American mass-production lines, using American machinery powered by steam engines. The shop was based on a design by John Anderson and built by the Royal Engineers. The workforce increased to 1000, and by 1860 an average of 1,744 rifles were produced each week.

In 1866 another major expansion took place, when the watermill gave way to steampower. The total number of steam engines grew to sixteen; and by 1887 there were 2,400 employees.

Sparkbrook

On the liquidation of the National Arms and Ammunition Company in 1887 a number of workshops at Sparkbrook were purchased and named Royal Small Arms Factory, Sparkbrook. There were also repair operations in Birmingham. On 1 March 1893 there were 2,025 employees at Enfield and 664 at Sparkbrook, the Sparkbrook number having been reduced by ten per cent in the previous six months. The following year repair work was moved from Bagot Street to Sparkbrook but in 1905 manufacture at Sparkbrook was ended and the factory acquired by Birmingham Small Arms (now trading as BSA) in early 1906.

Production of the new model rifle designed by James Paris Lee began in 1889. The famous Lee–Enfield rifle was designed in 1895.

20th century

The factory expanded again in First World War; and in Second World War. Two other Royal Ordnance Factories were set up in Second World War to manufacture rifles designed at RSAF Enfield, and hence to increase arms output in areas less vulnerable to bombing: ROF Fazakerley and ROF Maltby. Both of these have long been closed.

Decline set in after Second World War; and in 1963 half the site was closed.

The Royal Small Arms Factory was privatised in 1984 along with a number of Royal Ordnance Factories to become part of Royal Ordnance plc; and was later bought by British Aerospace (BAe). They closed the site in 1988.

The significance of RSAF Enfield

The factory was set up because of disappointment with the poor quality and high cost of the existing British weapons used in the Napoleonic Wars. At this time in Britain, they were built as individual gun components mainly in the Gun Quarter, Birmingham by a number of independent manufacturers and then hand-assembled to produce rifles. These component makers eventually combined to become the Birmingham Small Arms Company. The Enfield factory was intended to improve the quality and to drive down costs.

Weapons designed / built at RSAF Enfield

Almost all the weapons in which the Royal Small Arms Factory had a hand in design or production carry either the word Enfield or the letters EN in their name;

• Enfield Pattern 1853 Rifle-Musket which used the Minié ball ammunition.
• Snider–Enfield Rifle: an 1866 breech-loading version of the 1853 Enfield.
• Martini–Henry Rifle: breech-loading lever activated rifle, manufactured from 1871-1891.
• Enfield revolver: standard issue sidearms, two main versions from 1880 to 1957.
• Martini–Enfield: a conversion of the Martini–Henry rifle to.303 calibre, from 1895.
• Lee–Enfield rifles - using the Lee bolt action. There were 13 variants from 1895 to 1957.
• Pattern 1914 Enfield Rifle: intended as a Lee–Enfield replacement, mainly used by snipers in First World War.
• Bren (Brno + Enfield), .303 Light machine gun from 1935 onwards.
• Sten (Shepherd, Turpin + Enfield) 9mm Sub-machine gun from 1941 to 1953
• Polsten low cost version of 20 mm Oerlikon (acknowledging two Polish designers + Sten (=Shepherd, Turpin + Enfield)), from 1944.
• Taden gun: .280 calibre experimental machine gun, 1951.
• EM-1: .280 calibre bullpup design experimental assault rifle, 1951.
• EM-2: .280 calibre bullpup design experimental assault rifle, 1951.
• ADEN cannon (Armament Development Establishment + Enfield): 30 mm revolver cannon for aircraft use, entered service in 1954.
• L1A1 SLR, a British FN FAL derivative 7.62 mm Self Loading Rifle, from 1954.
• L42A1, a rebuilt and re-chambered conversion of the Lee–Enfield Rifle No 4 into a 7.62mm sniper rifle; entered service in 1970.
• RARDEN cannon, (Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment + Enfield): 30mm autocannon for light armoured vehicles, entered service in 1971.
• SA80 (L85) assault rifle, from 1987.

The RSAF, Enfield, was famous for its Pattern Room which was a collection, or master set, of every weapon made at RSAF Enfield. After closure this collection was moved to ROF Nottingham; which has since closed. The collection is now held at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds.

Closure and reuse of the site

RSAF Interpretation centre

Closure was announced on 12 August 1987, shortly after privatisation as Royal Ordnance, and the site closed in 1988; the machinery was auctioned off in November 1988. BAe then formed a joint venture with the property company Trafalgar House to redevelop the site.

The majority of the site is now covered by the new village development called Enfield Island Village. The original machine shop frontage and the older part of the rear structure has been retained and was converted into workshops and retail units by the Enfield Enterprise Agency. The buildings also house the RSAF Interpretation centre which can be viewed by appointment only.

The Rifles public house originally known as the Royal Small Arms Tavern was compulsorily purchased by the government at the time of the First World War. It closed down in 2004 after a large fire damaged the structure. The partially destroyed building is currently standing (2015). Other pubs which had been built for local works remain standing including The Greyhound just west of the River Lea and The Plough in Sewardstone.

Community

By 1895, the community had long had its own school (demolished), but it now also had a church (demolished in the 1920s), police station—with three sergeants and nine constables in 1902—and a fire brigade which was manned by one professional and 32 amateurs. Housing conditions in the mid 19th century were poor in the area.

Government Row, and extant a terrace of cottages, was built between the Lea Navigation and the straightened parts of the old course of the Lea to house some of the factory's workers. Several public houses were opened close to the complex including The Royal Small Arms Tavern renamed Rifles in the late 20th century, The Greyhound, Ordnance Arms and The Plough with only the Greyhound surviving today (2009) and the brewers Truman & Hanbury became responsible for the catering within the factory.

When the volunteer movement began in the mid-19th century, workplaces across the land formed volunteer rifle companies, commissioned by the lord-lieutenants of each county, the men buying their own uniforms and weapons. The Enfield factory was an early participator, and its company was reputedly the best armed of them until the government began fully funding the volunteers' weapons.

Evidence of the factory is still to be found in the immediate area such as pill boxes, bridges and original buildings on the site such as the police house.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Royal Small Arms Factory)

• Location map: 51°40’7"N, 0°-0’58"W
• Great British Railway Journeys

References

• Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: London 4: North, 1998 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09653-8page 452–3 & 45
• Maj.Gen. John Hay Beith, CBE, MC 'R.O.F. The Story of the Royal Ordnance Factories, 1939-1948'. (His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1949)
• Putman, T. and Weinbren, D.: 'A Short History of the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield' (Centre for Applied Historical Studies, Middlesex University, 1992)