Devil’s Porridge
Described as “the largest factory in the world”…
Built to address an almost disastrous shortage of shells on The Front in 1915, HM Factory, Gretna was a munitions factory dedicated to the production of Cordite, a smokeless, high explosive propellant used by the military. Employing up to 30,000 workers at one point during its construction, the factory manufactured over 800 tons of the material per week, and gave rise to the village of Eastriggs and township of Gretna within its bounds, created to house its employees. The factory covered an area 9 miles long by 2 miles wide, extending from Eastriggs in the west, across the Scottish/English border, and across to Longtown in the west.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited the factory in 1918, and wrote an article including the phrase “The nitroglycerin on the one side and the gun-cotton on the other are kneaded into a sort of devil’s porridge“, a description which came to be associated with the factory’s product.
The factory was dismantled (and largely forgotten) following the end of World War I, and little remains, but a local historian re-discovered much of the history, and there is now a local exhibition marking the former factory, and its product.
