Another world war 2 explore as were a bit fascinated with the subject at the min. We've done our best to research the site but apologies in advance if we've misidentified anything.
History - Built in 1941 the Royal Ordnance factory at Healey Hall was designated as an assisted factory with guidance provided by the Royal Ordnance Factory in Chorley. ROF Healey Hall specialised in 20-lb bombs for the RAF and also mortar shells for the army. During it's operation it filled 136 million 20-lb bombs and 4 million mortar bombs. Apparently although the site closed for production in 1943 it was ‘moth balled’ into the 1950’s ready to be brought back into production if the Cold War escalated.
The site had a large number of buildings that were grouped for the filling of munitions. Explosives magazines were required by each group to store the incoming explosive materials and to store the outgoing filled shells, which were usually packed in ammunition boxes. Storage buildings were also needed on each ‘group’ to store the incoming empty shells which were produced in other factories.
The factory was self contained and had a variety of services on site including Air raid shelters, cottages for the workers, a medical building, a police station, a reservoir and a sewage treatment plant. The site also had a branch of the train line running to it for the transport of raw materials, although it appears the track has now been removed.
Workers on the production line and an example of a 20lb bomb similar to the type produced at this site.
Original site plan.
Explore - We headed to this place as we've been looking into world war 2 sites a bit recently and while we've found remnants of ROF factories we've never seen one that's largely complete, pretty much all the buildings remain although in varying states of repair and decay. The factory is spread out over quite a large area mostly covered by woodland. The main section of the factory is now home to a few active businesses, including the base police station which has now been converted to a cafe for the nature reserve.
Access is a mixed bag, some areas are just spread around the woods and you can mooch around easily, the buildings are a bit more challenging to access although not that difficult if you don't mind a tight squeeze and some muddy crawling.
All in all we found this a really interesting place and had a fun day trekking through the woods and clambering up and down banks trying to track down as much of it as we could.
As it is now from google maps with the areas we explored marked.
Bomb filling areas.
Reservoir.
I think this is the boiler room although it was hard to identify.
Air raid shelters.
Pump house.
Nissen huts. I'm unsure what these were used for, possibly additional storage.
Magazines.
Blast wall next to one of the magazines.
Sewage treatment.
Pillbox.
Thanks for looking.
History - Built in 1941 the Royal Ordnance factory at Healey Hall was designated as an assisted factory with guidance provided by the Royal Ordnance Factory in Chorley. ROF Healey Hall specialised in 20-lb bombs for the RAF and also mortar shells for the army. During it's operation it filled 136 million 20-lb bombs and 4 million mortar bombs. Apparently although the site closed for production in 1943 it was ‘moth balled’ into the 1950’s ready to be brought back into production if the Cold War escalated.
The site had a large number of buildings that were grouped for the filling of munitions. Explosives magazines were required by each group to store the incoming explosive materials and to store the outgoing filled shells, which were usually packed in ammunition boxes. Storage buildings were also needed on each ‘group’ to store the incoming empty shells which were produced in other factories.
The factory was self contained and had a variety of services on site including Air raid shelters, cottages for the workers, a medical building, a police station, a reservoir and a sewage treatment plant. The site also had a branch of the train line running to it for the transport of raw materials, although it appears the track has now been removed.
Workers on the production line and an example of a 20lb bomb similar to the type produced at this site.
Original site plan.
Explore - We headed to this place as we've been looking into world war 2 sites a bit recently and while we've found remnants of ROF factories we've never seen one that's largely complete, pretty much all the buildings remain although in varying states of repair and decay. The factory is spread out over quite a large area mostly covered by woodland. The main section of the factory is now home to a few active businesses, including the base police station which has now been converted to a cafe for the nature reserve.
Access is a mixed bag, some areas are just spread around the woods and you can mooch around easily, the buildings are a bit more challenging to access although not that difficult if you don't mind a tight squeeze and some muddy crawling.
All in all we found this a really interesting place and had a fun day trekking through the woods and clambering up and down banks trying to track down as much of it as we could.
As it is now from google maps with the areas we explored marked.
Bomb filling areas.
Reservoir.
I think this is the boiler room although it was hard to identify.
Air raid shelters.
Pump house.
Nissen huts. I'm unsure what these were used for, possibly additional storage.
Magazines.
Blast wall next to one of the magazines.
Sewage treatment.
Pillbox.
Thanks for looking.
