Littleton Gunpowder Works

Gunpowder was the only explosive available for military use and for blasting in mines and quarries until the mid-19th century.

Production of gunpowder is thought to have begun at Littleton between Winford and Chew Magna in around 1650. The production of gunpowder was hazardous, so the site chosen was away from existing towns and villages but reasonably close to the port of Bristol, to enable the export of the finished product.  The Winford Brook, a tributary of the River Chew, provided a source of power for watermills. There were two other gunpowder mills in Somerset: one at Woolley to the north of Bath and one at Moreton, which now lies beneath Chew Valley Lake.

Gunpowder was produced by mixing saltpetre (potassium nitrate) with sulphur and charcoal.  The saltpetre, which was imported from India by the East India Company, was boiled, drained, washed and crystallised to refine it.  The charcoal and sulphur were boiled and sieved.  Once prepared the three ingredients were mixed, moistened, glazed, pressed and heat dried.  The gunpowder was then packed into 100lb barrels. Most of the gunpowder produced at Littleton was sold in Bristol to merchant and privateer ships or exported via Bristol to Africa and America.  The remainder was sold for use in local mines and quarries and for private uses such as hunting.

At the height of production in the mid-18th century Littleton was the largest gunpowder producer in the South West of England. It had three watermills located in a row between the Winford Brook and a 250 metre long clay lined mill pond, which had been constructed to provide a head of water for the mills.  The three mills were used for different processes: 

1. Crushing - preparing the raw materials

2. Incorporating - mixing the ingredients

3. Corning - forming the gunpowder into pellets 

A house was built to house the manager of the mill, a terrace of three cottages was built to house the millworkers, a clock tower was erected and other buildings were constructed to store and dry the gunpowder.  There was also a cooperage on site.

In the 1750s the mill at Littleton was owned and operated by five Bristol merchants led by Jeremiah Ames.  In 1755 a fire at the Littleton Gunpowder Mill destroyed most of the buildings but they were later rebuilt. The site was owned by the Strachey family in the second half of the eighteenth century.  

Production of gunpowder at Littleton ceased in the 1820s after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.  The site then became a farm: the manager’s house became the farmhouse, the storage facilities were used as a barn and the watermills fell into ruin. The farmhouse, which is still called Powdermill Farm, barn and the millworkers’ cottages are on private land but can be viewed from the public road to Upper Littleton.

The barn formerly used for gunpowder storage is on the left of the photograph

Powdermill Farm, Littleton

Former Millworkers’ Cottages