On a recent holiday at St Bees Head I came across this book about the munitions industry at Gretna and, while not exactly CCI material, it is sometimes useful to know about such industries in order to provide background details for articles, books or other research.

It examines the background of dynamite prior to the Great War and the problems facing the British government in 1914, with an industry that was totally unprepared for the scale of war that it was encountering. The March 1915 attack on Neuve Chapelle had failed for want of ammunition, according to Sir John French. Many munitions had to be imported from North America and so Lloyd George acquired the skills of George Booth, who concluded that the War Office was incapable of running a munitions industry. Changes in government saw the appointment of K.B. Quinan from South Africa and he designed the massive propellant factory at Gretna. Gretna and Eastriggs were purpose built to house the 30000, mainly women, munitions workers that were brought in from all over the country. These new communities did not exist for security reasons and were known as Moorside. RDB, a new type of cordite was developed and 1916/17 production was 700-800 tons per week. The factory ran for nine miles and had its own 125 mile railway network, served by 34 engines. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in his capacity as war correspondent, was shown the plant and remarked that the girls he saw working were 'stirring the devil's porridge'.

The book is illustrated throughout to show the processes and the people who worked there. There is now a museum at Eastriggs, called The Devil's Porridge, dedicated to telling the story of this mighty factory (www.devilsporridge.co.uk).