Royal Navy Cordite Factory , Holton Heath The Royal Navy Cordite Factory , Holton Heath , ( RNCF ) , was set up at Holton Heath , Dorset in World War I to manufacture Cordite for the Royal Navy . It was reactivated in World War II to manufacture gun propellant s for the Admiralty and its output was supplemented by the Royal Navy Propellant Factory , Caerwent . After the end of World War II , the explosive manufacturing areas of the site were closed down and some areas of the site reopened as an Admiralty Research Establishment . A major part of the explosives site became a Nature Reserve in 1981 . Other parts of the site were converted into an Industrial Estate ; and some may be used for housing . The Admiralty Research Establishment became part of Defence Research Agency ( DRA ) and DRA Holton Heath finally closed in the late 1990s . None of the site is now owned by the Ministry of Defence . The site . A site was needed because Winston Churchill , the First Lord of the Admiralty , insisted that the Royal Navy had their own independent supply of Cordite . The Army was to be supplied with Cordite from the HM Factory , Gretna , at Gretna , Scotland , another remote location . Holton Heath was chosen in 1914 because of its remote location , away from centres of population , and its good transportation links , on a backwater of Poole Harbour , adjacent to the London and South Western Railway , and the A351 Wareham to Poole road . During construction and during World War I , it was guarded by a detachment of armed Metropolitan Police . After World War I , the site was guarded by the Royal Marine Police ; and later the Ministry of Defence Police . There were several scares and false alarms during construction , i . e . claims that various builder ' s and contractor ' s English or Irish employees were German spies or saboteur s . All these claims had to be investigated . In 1935 , during the Re - armament Period , a new nitroglycerin plant was bought from Cologne , Germany , and installed by German technicians . It was necessary for the police to guard them , as they may otherwise have been attacked due to resentment about the rise in power of Nazi Germany and memories of World War I . The main site was bounded by the A351 , Station Road and the London and South Western Railway . Holton Heath railway station was opened to serve the RNCF , which was linked to the railway by a siding which entered the site just east of the station . A few administration buildings were built on the other side of Station Road . A coal - fired water pumping house was also built away from the main site , at Corfe Mullen , to pump water from the River Stour . Supplied with coal from its own railway siding on the Somerset and Dorset Railway , which passed nearby , it was linked to a 3 . 5 million gallon reservoir inside the RNCF by a 16 inch water main . A jetty , Rockley Jetty , was also constructed in Poole Harbour just outside the main site . It was used to transport Cordite by boat to Priddy ' s Hard , in Gosport . The jetty was linked into the factory ' s railway system using standard gauge track . This private track ran parallel to the London and South Western Railway ( LSWR ) for some distance . It crossed over the top of the LSWR means of a bridge . A feature length documentary DVD entitled " Cordite ! The Story of the Royal Naval Cordite Factory " , filmed and directed by John Hale of Wareham , Dorset , was released in 2012 . It features the stories behind many of the buildings past and present mentioned in the paragraphs above , together with the experiences of some of the past employees of the RNCF . The DVD , which runs for 109 minutes , is introduced by John England and Dr Bob Dukes , both of whom latterly worked on the site . World War I . To be added . Chaim Weizmann and Acetone . Production of Cordite required large volumes of the solvent Acetone and this was in short supply . At the time , acetone was manufactured by destructive distillation of wood . Chaim Weizmann had developed a process of bacterial fermentation , using Clostridium acetobutylicum , in 1912 but it did not appear to have any commercial value . Chaim Weizmann was introduced to David Lloyd George , Minister of Munitions , and Winston Churchill in 1915 and was given facilities to develop the process . He used a laboratory at the Lister Institute in London and industrial plant at Nicholson ' s Gin Distillery in Bow ( Three Mills ) to perfect it . A full scale acetone plant was set up at the RNCF using bacterial fermentation of . By 1917 there was a shortage of grain so Horse Chestnuts were used as an alternative source of starch . Local school children were asked by the Ministry of Munitions to collect Horse Chestnuts ; and six huge storage Storage silo s were built to store the Horse Chestnuts . A larger bacterial fermentation plant was also set up in Canada as they had more Maize than the United Kingdom . After the end of World War I the bacterial fermentation plant was demolished but the silos were kept . In World War II the basements of RNCF silos were converted to Air - raid shelter s ; the silos being filled with earth to provide protection . They survived beyond the closure of the Holton Heath site ( see below ) . World War II . Note : The Royal Navy Cordite Factory , Holton Heath , like the Royal Navy Propellant Factory , Caerwent , were never part of the Ministry of Supply / Royal Ordnance Factory management chain ; they were controlled by the Admiralty . However , they were functionally very similar to the Explosive ROF s . Post - war use . After the end of World War II , propellant manufacture ceased at Holton Heath , although Caerwent continued to produce Cordite . The camp was also used as the fictitious ' Sandford Army Camp ' in the UK television series ' Bad Lads Army Extreme ' in 2006 . Secrecy of the installation . The site is located at the centre of this 1946 O . S . map above and to the right of Holton Heath station , which was opened during the First World War to allow staff to reach the works . There is however no trace of the works , which occupied the space between the railway and the main road , on the map . References . Notes . < div class = " references - small " >