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Click here or on the image for this location's profile page
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Location Category ID:
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3745
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Street View
Yorkshire Evening Post: Tanks for the Memory
Wikipedia: Barnbow
24 Hour Museum: Leeds Manufacturing During Wartime
Wikipedia: Cross Gates
Yorkshire Post: Developer Demands Action
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Latitude, Longitude: |
53.80669533
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-1.43369436
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Location Accuracy: |
7
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Tanks Previously Here: |
Tanks confirmed built here:
1: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - The Tank Museum - Reserve Collection, Bovington, Dorset, South West England, Britain (Delivered February 1962)
2: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - ATDU and Solitary Vehicles, Bovington, Dorset, South West England, Britain (Built as a Mark 2 ca1965)
3: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Royal Armoured Corps Gunnery School, Lulworth Camp, Dorset, South West England, Britain (Built as a Mark 2)
4: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, Quainton, Buckinghamshire, South East England, Britain (Built in 1970)
Models of tank built here:
1: FV4101 Charioteer Tank Destroyer - Charioteer (Conversion by ROF - assumed Leeds)
2: A41 Centurion Tank - Mark 1 (Minor manufacturer)
3: A41 Centurion Tank - Mark 2 (Secondary manufacturer)
4: A41 Centurion Tank - Mark 3 (Primary manufacturer)
5: A41 Centurion Tank - Mark 5 (Manufacturer)
6: A41 Centurion Tank - Mark 5/2 (Manufacturer)
7: A41 Centurion Tank - Mark 7 (Manufacturer 1957-59)
8: A41 Centurion Tank - Mark 8 (Manufacturer 1957-59)
9: A41 Centurion Tank - Mark 9 (Manufacturer 1957-59)
10: A41 Centurion Tank - Mark 10 (Primary manufacturer 1957-59)
11: A41 Centurion Tank - Mark 12 (Manufacturer 1957-59)
12: A41 Centurion Tank - Mark 13 (Primary manufacturer of base Mark 10 1957-59)
13: FV4002 Centurion Bridgelayer - Centurion Bridgelayer (Probable manufacturer)
14: Centurion Target Tank (Manufacturer of base vehicle)
15: FV4003 Centurion AVRE 165 Engineer Vehicle - Centurion AVRE 165 (Sole manufacturer early 1960s)
16: FV4004 Conway Heavy Gun Tank - Conway (Assembly of sole prototype ca1951)
17: FV4018 Centurion Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle - Centurion BARV (Converter to BARV late 1950s)
18: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Prototypes (Vehicle manufacturer)
19: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 1 (Primary manufacturer)
20: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 2 (Primary manufacturer)
21: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 3 (Sole manufacturer)
22: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 3/3 (Sole manufacturer)
23: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 5 (Sole manufacturer)
24: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 5/3P (Sole manufacturer)
25: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 6 (Sole manufacturer)
26: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 7 (Sole manufacturer)
27: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 8 (Sole manufacturer)
28: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 9 (Sole manufacturer)
29: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 10 (Sole manufacturer)
30: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Mark 11 (Sole manufacturer)
31: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - Unknown Model (Primary manufacturer)
32: Chieftain SID Tank (Sole manufacturer of base vehicle)
33: FV4205 Chieftain AVLB Bridgelayer - Chieftain AVLB (Sole manufacturer)
34: Chieftain Willich AVRE Engineer Vehicle (Primary manufacturer of base vehicle)
35: Chieftain Marksman Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun - Marksman (Primary manufacturer of base vehicle)
36: Chieftain 900 Tank (Sole manufacturer of prototypes)
37: Chieftain 2000 Tank (Primary manufacturer of base vehicle)
38: Chieftain Concept Tank (Primary manufacturer of base vehicle)
39: FV4030/2 Khalid Tank - Khalid (Manufacturer ca1981)
40: FV4030/2 Khalid Tank - Khalid Driver Trainer (Manufacturer ca1981)
41: FV4030/4 Challenger 1 Tank - Challenger 1 (Manufacturer)
42: FV214 Conqueror Heavy Tank - Mark 1 (Secondary manufacturer)
43: Conqueror Dynamometer Heavy Tank (Manufacturer of FV221 pre-production vehicles)
Long term:
1: FV4101 Charioteer Tank Destroyer - Barrell Collection, Bedfield, Suffolk, East England, Britain (Conversion by ROF – assumed Leeds)
2: A41 Centurion Tank - The Tank Museum - Public Areas, Bovington, Dorset, South West England, Britain (Restored and sectioned 1982-4)
3: FV4201 Chieftain Tank - The Tank Museum - Reserve Collection, Bovington, Dorset, South West England, Britain (Rework – dates unknown)
4: Chieftain 900 Tank - Royal Armoured Corps Gunnery School, Lulworth Camp, Dorset, South West England, Britain (Returned to factory)
5: Chieftain 900 Tank - The Tank Museum - Reserve Collection, Bovington, Dorset, South West England, Britain (Returned to factory)
6: FV4030/4 Challenger 1 Tank - The Tank Museum - Reserve Collection, Bovington, Dorset, South West England, Britain (December 1983 – July 1984)
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State-owned Barnbow Royal Ordnance Factory opened in 1915 and employed 17,000 people in its heyday, manufacturing munitions in the First World War. The factory was shut down in the 1930s and the buildings were demolished. A new state-owned Barnbow Royal Ordnance Factory was built on a 60-acre site at Cross Gates at the onset of the Second World War in 1939. Initially it produced gun barrels and other gun parts. It began installing gun barrels on American Sherman tanks and moved from that into tank production in its own right. First off the line was the Centurion, and eventually more than 2,000 Centurions were produced. The Centurion main battle tank was succeeded by the Chieftain which was in production from 1959 to the mid-1970s. The last two types of tanks produced at Barnbow were the Challenger 1 and its successor the Challenger 2.
Barnbow RoF was privatised and bought by Vickers Defence Systems in 1986. Vickers constructed a specially-designed new factory at Cross Gates for production of Challenger. However, for a decade the factory faced uncertainty. Its 3,000-strong workforce was halved and by the time the order was placed the Cold War was virtually over, and the demand for tanks for Western forces in Europe had disappeared. Most of the factory’s remaining 600 workers were made redundant in 1999. A small amount of work was transferred to its sister factory at Scotswood in Newcastle. The factory gates were closed in December 2000 and its remaining tools and machines were auctioned off in May 2001. The site is currently being used for storage but is planned to be redeveloped for housing.
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