Keep an eye on our website for details of our new 2021 events!
We're re-opening Easter 2022. We'll be open Sundays and Bank Holidays until October. More opening details to follow... Read more
Until you can visit us again in person this summer, please enjoy a selection of resources to help you explore our site from the comfort of home. Read more
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We’re passionate about our explosive history.
Come and explore, learn and enjoy it with us!
The Royal Gunpowder Mills is reliant on the time, skills, knowledge and hard work given by the team of volunteers. The team works to preserve and share the site and its unique history, for the visitors and for the future.
The Royal Gunpowder Mills is now closed for the winter but we look forward to seeing you at Easter 2022!
Spring has arrived at the The Royal Gunpowder Mills, as we are getting ready for a Covid safe reopening nature is taking over and bursting with life. Read all about it in our news letter. Read more
We have finally completed our upgrade of the Royal Gunpowder Mills cinema! Made possible by the Heritage Recovery Grant, we are all set with light fixtures and accessible space. Perfect for those looking to hire a theatre or conference space. Read more
News update on what the staff and volunteers of the royal gunpowder mills have doing to prepare for their grand reopening. Read more
Feel the forties come to life around you; our special exhibition includes a reconstruction of an air raid shelter and a typical wartime General Store. Read more
Over 3000 women worked as 'Munitionettes' at 'The Powder Mills'. The photo gallery is a fascinating display highlighting the varied and crucial roles women played during the war. Read more
From two shots a minute from a three hundred year old musket to over fifteen hundred shots a minute from a WW2 machine gun, discover how firearms changed over the centuries by visiting our collection of over 300 historic firearms. Read more
Travel back through time and discover 300 years of explosive and top secret history through film, exhibitions and interactive displays. Read more
Tankbusters, rocket motors and anti-aircraft missiles were all on Waltham Abbey's top-secret to-do list. This kind of work gave rise to the Waxwing project: the rocket which first fired British satellites into earth's orbit. Read more