World War One At Home: Producing Devil's Porridge
As part of the World War One At Home project carried out in partnership between the BBC and Imperial War Museums, Gerry Jackson explores the munitions workers who produced what was known as the Devil's Porridge.
Thousands of workers, most of them young women, were recruited to work at a wartime development which ran from Eastriggs, through Gretna, and over the border to Longtown.
Thought to be the biggest explosives complex in the world, the workers produced Cordite - a mixture of guncotton and nitro-glycerine.
Sheila Ruddick, from The Devil's Porridge Museum in Dumfriesshire, said its "volatile mix" and resemblance to porridge, is what led to its name.
27 Feb 2014
- From the section Cumbria