.: Devil's Porridge :. An amazing exhibition.....

Devil's Porridge

What is the Devil's Porridge?

An amazing exhibition tells the story of the greatest munitions factory on earth.... In 1915, Britain was losing the war through lack of ammunition..... until 30,000 women and men came from all over the world to work in the massive factory on the Solway
Mixing the paste

People working to create the dangerous paste

When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, visited HM Factory Gretna in 1918, he described the explosive paste which was mixed by hand as the Devil's Porridge.

It is a very apt name for the highly explosive mixture of nitro-glycerine and nitro-cotton. The dried paste was processed into cordite- which looked like uncooked spaghetti - which was put into shells and bullets to propel them.
Mixing the paste in tubs

The Factory Had:

* Its own railway network had 125 miles of track, with 34 railway engines.
* Its own large power station provided electricity for the factory and the townships
* It had its own water treatment plant handling ten million gallons daily
* A telephone exchange which handled 2.5 million calls in 1918
* The factory bakeries produced 14,000 meals and 13,000 loaves daily
* The laundry could clean 6,000 items daily

The Solway factory produced more cordite than all the other plants in Britain put together.

Tel: 01461-700021 email: devils-porridge@tiscali.co.uk