“These mills, built in 1861, were the prototype for the line of gunpowder incorporating mills that stretches along Queens Mead. Each unit of this Grade 1 listed building was T-shaped with originally two, and later three, mills on either side of a central engine house.
Shortly before World War I, the building was altered to produce cordite, when the workforce increased to about 5,000 (with over half being women).
The Incorporating Mill was again converted after the Second World War, this time into offices and research areas under the various Ministry of Defence establishments, which operated until the site closure in 1991.”