Machinery Procurement

The Ministry of supply set aside £40,000 for the procurement of machine tools for the site, although this does not appear to be a large sum until it is equated to current costs that would approximate £2 million today.

Whilst the site construction was in progress the procurement phase got underway all manner of machines were ordered, from the simple to the more complex milling machines.

Some of these were procured from outside the UK whilst others were sequestered from companies not involved in the war effort, especially following the outbreak of war. Other, machines and tools would have been specially made by one of the existing Royal Ordnance Factories or one of their suppliers.

Large numbers of machines would have been required; these would have to been fitted and commissioned in an orderly fashion so that some form of serial production could take place.

Equipping one machine shop with machines, gauges and tools is difficult enough, but equipping so many must have been a logistic nightmare. Add to this the fact that many machine operators would have to be employed, and trained ; this was a daunting task, yet it was done, and was successful.