Woolley Gunpowder Mills
Other Business Names:
- Strachey family
- Worgan family
Locations city-town / local authority / county1974 / region-state / country:
- Woolley, Bath & North East Somerset, Somerset, South West, England
Sectors:
-
Chemical production
Explosives & fuses production
Notes:
Established 1722 by leading Bristol merchants, some involved in the slave trade in which gunpowder was an important barter good. The Strachey family, Somerset gentry, also became involved in mid 18th century as important partners through marriage. A major plant. For long managed by the Worgan family. Sought unsuccessfully contracts with Board of Ordinance. In decline in the last decades of 18th century due to fall off in merchant demand and closed around 1800
Publications:
- Bath's forgotten gunpowder industry. The powder mills at Woolley in the eighteenth century by Buchanan, Brenda J
- Manufacture of Gunpowder. A study of the documentary and physical evidence relating to the Woolley Powder Works, near Bath by Buchanan, Brenda J, & M T Tucker
- 'Meeting standards. Bristol powdermakers in the eighteenth century' in B J Buchanan (ed), Gunpowder. The history of an international technology by Buchanan, Brenda J
- Technology of gunpowder making in the eighteenth century. Evidence from the Bristol region by Buchanan, Brenda J
Groups:
Other Business Names:
- Strachey family
- Worgan family
Locations city-town / local authority / county1974 / region-state / country:
- Woolley, Bath & North East Somerset, Somerset, South West, England
Sectors:
- Chemical production Explosives & fuses production
Notes:
Established 1722 by leading Bristol merchants, some involved in the slave trade in which gunpowder was an important barter good. The Strachey family, Somerset gentry, also became involved in mid 18th century as important partners through marriage. A major plant. For long managed by the Worgan family. Sought unsuccessfully contracts with Board of Ordinance. In decline in the last decades of 18th century due to fall off in merchant demand and closed around 1800Publications:
- Bath's forgotten gunpowder industry. The powder mills at Woolley in the eighteenth century by Buchanan, Brenda J
- Manufacture of Gunpowder. A study of the documentary and physical evidence relating to the Woolley Powder Works, near Bath by Buchanan, Brenda J, & M T Tucker
- 'Meeting standards. Bristol powdermakers in the eighteenth century' in B J Buchanan (ed), Gunpowder. The history of an international technology by Buchanan, Brenda J
- Technology of gunpowder making in the eighteenth century. Evidence from the Bristol region by Buchanan, Brenda J