Devil’s porridge

Early in 1915, in response to a growing shortage of munitions, the government commissioned a huge new cordite factory on the Anglo-Scottish border. The 9-mile-long site was remote, thinly populated and with little infrastructure. In August,10,000 Irish Navvies started arriving, building their own timber houses before starting construction of the biggest factory in the world. Work also started on 2 new Garden Townships to house the 8,000 managers and 12,000, mostly women, workers coming to “stir the Devil’s Porridge”. Astonishingly, within 12 months, cordite was being produced and in May 1917 the King and Queen came to celebrate production reaching 800 tons a week which was as much as all the other Royal Ordinance Factories combined.

HM Factory Gretna transformed our region and the story told by the Devil’s Porridge Museum sheds light on an overlooked aspect of the War. The talk will cover the use of cordite, the building of the factory and of Eastriggs and Gretna, the role of women in the production process and the government response to perceived excessive drinking by workers at the factory.

Speaker: John Anstey Trustee, Eastriggs & Gretna Heritage Group

Organised by: IET Retired Members

Contact: Suzanne Flynn (suzanne.flynn@ietvolunteer.org)