History

Originally owned by the Royal Ordnance, the Royal Small Arms site was a famous centre for firearms manufacture for more than 170 years and home to a whole community of families living and working at the factory.

Buildings on site included a church (the original font is displayed in the central courtyard at the Centre) a police station and a school.

Here are some important dates in the rise and fall of the Royal Small Arms factory:

1816: Royal Armoury Mills (later RSAF) open at Enfield Lock
1856: The building of the large machine room was completed so that machinery from America, to aid mass production, could be installed
1857: RSAF became the first factory in Britain to manufacture weapons with interchangeable parts using a system of mass production
1861: The American Civil War began and Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle was sold by private dealers in large quantities to the armies of both North and South
1895: The famous Lee-Enfield Magazine Rifle MK1 is first produced
1914: The First World War begins and women workers are taken on at Enfield Lock for the first time
During World War II, the Bren, Sten, Hispano and Canon were made in vast numbers at the RSAF site in Enfield
1950: The war in Korea returns the RSAF to large scale weapon manufacture
1987: Closure announced of the RSAF
2001: The RSA Island Centre opened as a business park and "Village Centre" following the restoration of the listed Main Machine Shop. All profits from commercial rents are distributed to charitable causes in Enfield and the Lee Valley.