The Industries & World War Two history of Purbeck.
"A Pictorial Record of the Royal Naval Cordite Factory- Holton Heath"

Published by Finial Publishing 2, Linclieth Road, Wool, WAREHAM, Dorset.

(M.R. Bowditch & L. Hayward.)

front cover This book deals with the history of the RNCF which was located at Holton Heath, around six miles North-East of Corfe Castle, on the shores of Poole Harbour.
The factory was the first of its type, being built for the supply of cordite exclusively for the Royal Navy.

Construction of the factory began during the 1914-18 war, on the instructions of Winston Churchill, then the First Lord of the Admiralty.
The book traces all aspects of the factory from the start until the closure (for cordite manufacture) in 1959.
The factory site now encompasses an industrial estate, a large nature reserve, and (until the end of 1997) a division of the Defence  Evaluation & Research Agency.

The Factory was a most important source of employment for the Purbeck area, and was greatly missed when it closed.

During World War Two, decoy sites were built. One on the aptly named "Decoy Heath" near Wareham, the second near the village of Arne. These decoys were very successful, since when the night bombers came too close, waste cordite and fuel oil would be set alight, giving the impression of a successful hit on the "factory".
The village of Arne was evacuated for the duration and a large gun emplacement was built atop a hill nearby.

The book is available by post from:
Les. Hayward, Cefn Gribyn,
Carmel, Llannerchymedd,
Anglesey, N.Wales, LL71 7BU. (Tel: 01248-470606),
for fifteen pounds sterling, including U.K. Postage, or from any bookseller (Excluding W.H. Smith).
ISBN 1-900467-01-1
PLEASE NOTE - This document is almost out of print - only a few available as from 25/2/07

For more pictures and details of Holton Heath, see  The Holton Heath picture gallery.


The areas of Worth Matravers and Langton Matravers in Purbeck were the scene of much pioneering work into the development of Radar during World War 2.
Starting with the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) at Worth Matravers,  the research expanded into Leeson House school at Langton Matravers and at Durlston (Swanage). The chalk hills at Ballard Down near Swanage were used for communications purposes, and old remains may still be seen. An underground
exchange building near Knitson is still relatively intact, as are three underground halls at the top of the hill. Two of these are disused, but one was re-furbished for use with modern communications. Little remains of the extensive site at Worth, which once boasted many buildings and huts, several wooden and one steel lattice masts.
For some  years after the war part of the site was run as a GEE navigational station transmitting on 30.7 Mc/s.

Probably the best personal account of the war years at Worth are described in an
excellent book by R.G.P. Batt. This is entitled "The Radar Army" and is published by
Robert Hale

(ISBN 0 7090 4508 5.)



In addition to the radar work which later involved Swanage locations, a less well known activity was carried on.  This involved my grandfather, R.W. Daw, who was during the WW2 period, the Chief Booking Clerk at Swanage railway station.
He was also a keen radio listener and an excellent morse operator and some suspicious signals  he heard in the early period of the war were brought to the attention of the police. As a result of this he was approached by the Radio Security Service and asked if he would care to do more of the same on an official footing! He readily agreed and was equipped with a Hallicrafters receiver.  (See pictures of some of the government documents)
He never knew the final destination of the messages he received, but we now know that this was to be  Bletchley Park  and in all probability, the messages he supplied were
"Enigma" coded text, most successfully de-crypted by the team at Bletchley.

The beaches, heaths and dunes of Studland were used for training purposes in the  run-up to the D-day invasion. Training was carried out with live ammunition and the beaches were mined, making parts of the dunes a no-go area well after the war had long ended. I can remember mines being exploded as late as 1963.

The area retains many memories of this period including a pill box in the small bay, and a strong concrete observation bunker on the cliff at the foot of the Manor House Hotel grounds. A small low-level bunker can also be located well back on the heath to the inland side of the Ferry Road. Studland also proudly boasted a flame defence system, whereby oil was piped into the sea and could then be ignited.
The rusting remains of some of the oil feed pipes may be found jutting out from the cliffs close to  Harry Warren House. In the fortunate absence of an invasion, the system was never used in anger, but was well tested. This operation caused the sea life to be polluted and the fishing only started to recover around the late 50's.

For a good pictorial account of military remains from the WW2 period I would
recommend the following book:

"Military Dorset Today", by Colin A. Pomeroy (ISBN 1-85794-077-6) published by
the author.

This book is not only well researched, but has useful descriptions of the route to take in
order to locate the many points of interest.


PURBECK INDUSTRIES:

STONE...

Purbeck is noted for its heritage coast and countryside. Within this area are diverse mineral reserves which have been extracted over the centuries. Most famous of these is Purbeck stone, a hard limestone which occurs in varying types from Swanage,  Langton, Acton and Worth Matravers. Stone was also extracted as far west as  Blashenwell Farm in the parish of Corfe Castle.

Over the years Purbeck has supplied stone for many fine buildings including the castle at Corfe. Purbeck stone is not simply a good building material as it can be polished to provide decorative panels and columns. When thus worked, the multitude of fossilised creatures which formed it can be clearly seen.

Stone was mainly won by underground quarrying and hauled to the surface by horse or donkey powering a large capstan winch. Modern methods generally employ open cast  methods - often recovering the stone which was left as the ceiling for the old workings.

CLAY...

Clay mining both above and underground has occurred since roman times. In contrast to the stone industry, clay was until 1998  still worked underground, the most recent shaft being sunk  at Norden close to Corfe Castle in the  early 90's.
The ball clay which is produced has a multitude of uses including toothpaste, as well as the expected use for pottery. For some  time the clay was transported from mine to dispatch point by a wonderful system of  narrow-gauge railways. These sadly, are now gone, only the old tramways remain and  clay like most other products, leaves Purbeck via a rather less romantic method - diesel trucks. Sadly also, a decision was later reached to stop all underground working, leaving the mines on a "care & maintenance" basis. A visit in 2002 showed that the underground workings are now abandoned.

CHALK...

Not quarried on such a scale as the foregoing, chalk is gathered from the ridge of hills  which run from the coast at Swanage, through to Weymouth. Chalk is an excellent  material for hard-core and light road building.
 In earlier times chalk was burned in kilns to produce lime for mortar and soil conditioning. A kiln still remains on the hillside at Church Knowle.

OIL...

At first glance, oil would seem to be a modern industry, yet the outcropping of oil shale  at Kimmeridge was used in early days as a rather smoky form of fuel and when worked and polished, as ornaments. An abortive attempt was made to use the shale on a  commercial basis, but this was short-lived. Around 1960 a small pump was set up on a bore hole at Kimmeridge and has produced a small but reliable source of oil up to the  present day. British gas discovered reserves of natural gas while drilling at Wytch  Farm, Corfe Castle and from this sprang the large undertaking now run by B.P.  Amoco Ltd.

BP has exploited the oil and gas reserves in the Wytch and Poole harbour areas to an  amazing degree, which resulted in the building of a large processing plant at Wytch  and a new access road. Co-operation between the company and the planners has  resulted in minimum disturbance to the countryside, and where possible land once used  for industry has been restored to such an extent one would not have known that it had  existed!

Wytch continues to produce vast quantities of oil and gas, the former being piped out of the district underground, while gas leaves in long trains of pressurised containers via part of the old railway line which formed the Swanage branch.

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