Royal Gunpowder Mills

Enjoy a great day out at the Royal Gunpowder Mills in Waltham Abbey! The Royal Gunpowder Mills (RGM) offers opportunities for days out for all the family, special interest and school groups.

The site opened as an independent heritage attraction in May 2001 and visitors can now discover more about its fascinating history and the scientific and technological innovations that took place behind closed doors during its 300 year secret history. Set in 170 acres of parkland boasting 20 listed buildings, canals, woodland and wildlife it offers a range of activities, events and exhibitions.

Because of its historic importance, the Royal Gunpowder Mills also is a key site on the East of England section of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

Opening Times

The Royal Gunpowder Mills are open from 11am to 5pm (last entry 3:30pm) between 25 April 2009 to 27 September 2009, all weekends and Bank Holidays plus Wednesdays in the Summer School Holidays.

Full details including admission charges and event details can be found on the website.

Royal Gunpowder Mills website

You can contact RGM:
• by email to info@royalgunpowdrmills.com
• by post to Royal Gunpowder Mills, Beaulieu Drive, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 1JY
• by telephone to 01992 707370
• by fax to 01992 707372

Visitor Information

School visits and education programmes
Our education staff offer History & Explorer Programmes for Key Stage 1 and 2 (20 to 120 pupils) with topics such as Victorian Life and Gunpowder, Treason and Plot. Contact RGM to learn more about the opportunities of the ‘Farewell to Arms’ collection provides for First and Second World War studies (ideal for Year 9 to 10 and GCSE respectively).

Group visits
When booked in advance special discounted rates for groups are available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from March to October, as well as normal opening days.

Volunteering
Volunteers are an essential part of RGM’s operation with many opportunities, including stewarding exhibitions, being a tour guide, leaflet distribution, grounds maintenance and helping to construct a narrow gauge railway onsite.

Site Activities

Award winning film and interactive exhibition
This highlights the impact that the creation of gunpowder has had on the world, both for military and commercial use, plus the fascinating and unique 300 year history of the Royal Gunpowder Mills (one of Britain’s best kept secrets!).

With sound and lighting effects, the film and the exhibition with computer interactive displays and stories of the people who worked at the Royal Gunpowder Mills is a great introduction to a site.

Land train tours
A 40 minute guided tractor trailer ride around the site (small additional charge applies) - you may even catch a glimpse of the resident herd of fallow deer.

Extensive events programme
As well as special weekends, such as ‘Victory in Europe’ Celebrations, Rocket & Space event and Victorian Christmas, check out our full programme including many living history and re-enactments (often with child / family ‘hands on’ activities), plus our fun children’s activities in the summer school holidays.

‘The Gunpowder Plot - Parliament and Treason 1605’ exhibition
Thanks to the Parliamentary Archives, this exhibition was relocated to Waltham Abbey in 2008 and tells the real story of the events from actual archive materials that led up to the infamous plot of 5th November.

‘Farewell to Arms’ exhibition
An interesting and informative historic small arms and military memorabilia display with a ‘hands on’ experience, illustrating periods from the English Civil War to the present day.

Rocket exhibition
Learn more about the development of rocket motors that helped propel probably the world’s largest space programme (the Skylark) and you may even meet a real live rocket scientist!

1940’s exhibition
A chance for grandparents to reminisce and children to discover what life was like in the 1940’s. Peek into a kitchen and back yard with its Anderson shelter and experience the sites and sounds of being in an air raid shelter. The general store, post office and toy shop all display items of the period.

Transport exhibition
See a powder barge that one carried gunpowder on the extensive 5 mile canal network and railway engines reminiscent of the later transport systems once on site. Includes restored firefighting equipment.

Historic buildings
Take a look at some of the buildings that once made gunpowder and other explosives from the Saltpetre house to the Incorporating Mill and the Press House.

Nature walk
Enjoy a walk through the woodland and look out for kingfishers, herons and woodpeckers and other wildlife.

Background to the Royal Gunpowder Mills

Established in the 17th century and acquired by the Crown in 1787, the Royal Gunpowder Mills has a very important place in both the history of Great Britain and its home town of Waltham Abbey.

It has been described as ‘the most important site for the history of explosives in Europe’ for its contribution to:
• the development and production of high quality gunpowder after 1787 with its scientific methods making British gunpowder the envy of the world
• the quantity of gunpowder produced and supplied to British forces including the Napoleonic Wars
• the development of Congreve’s rockets in 1804
• the production of the propellant cordite, used in large quantities in the First World War - when the Waltham Abbey workforce employed about 5,000 people (with over half being women)
• its involvement in the development of the explosive RDX, which was later used for the bouncing bomb in the ‘Dambusters’ raid of the Second World War
• in the more recent period after the Second World War, when it became a series of Ministry of Defence research and development establishments at the cutting edge of non-nuclear explosives technology, until the site closure in 1991

From the 400 acres, on two sites north and south of the town, about 170 acres of the north site was secured for the development of the visitor attraction. With support from the Ministry of Defence and a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills Company Ltd (registered charity no. 1062968) took over the site and opened it to visitors, after a major restoration and interpretation project.

The aim of the Trust is to preserve and manage the site for the benefit of the public in terms of its historical, archaeological heritage and the natural environment with a view to improving the education and knowledge of the public in related aspects.

Over two thirds of the site is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument and about half is notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its alder woodland and heronry. Twenty buildings are listed, including one Grade 1 and seven Grade 2*. Six of these, constructed between 1861 and 1889, form the largest and most impressive complex of stream powered gunpowder mills in Britain.