Possible ROF Elstow [Filling Factory] badge ?????
 

Found this badge today for very little money at an antique fair in Bedfordshire. It came from a house clearance along with a Bedfs & Herts sweetheart brooch. I could not make out the design at first but think they are crossed mortar shells. Hoping the EOL could be Elstow Ordnance Factory. I have no idea on the PAD.
E4 in Jon Mills [Post Warden] book shows a badge that could be Elstow or possibly Engineering Ordnance Factory.

Graham.

EOF
 

Graham,

Nice find.
PAD might be Passive Air Defence- an early term for ARP duties.

Stephen.

Good call Stephen.
That sounds quite likely.

Graham.

Would they have 448+ arp personnel.
Edit, yes as there would have also been fire, first aid, rescue, anti gas squads, observer's, shelter marshal's and controllers in the PAD scheme when started in January 1942.
When first opened the first job for elstow was filling 2" mortar's so I suppose that's why your badge has them on it.

Good detective work all round.

Jon

Just because I have it as an ornament at my workbench, here's a 2" mortar bomb.

Thank you all for the replies. It would be nice to have a definitive identification but I think I can chalk this one up to Elstow Ordnance Factory. I have some fins from a 2" mortar that I found at Sharpenhoe Clappers in Bedfordshire along with some .303 and .300 cases. It was these fins that helped me recognize the design in the badge.

Graham.

ROF
 

Graham,

Sharpenhoe Clappers was used as 61 Div Battle School. They used German PoW to clear it post-war but they obviously didn't do a good job!

Stephen.

http://virtual-library.culturalservi...ce_factory.htm

From this little potted history the filling of 2" mortar shells was a major undertaking at Elstow.

Graham.

ROF
 

Interesting piece. The site also assembled and tested tanks, plus there was experimental work on demolition. Numerous pillboxes were built and then destroyed. I remember being shown air recce photos of the site and one field resembled a Gt War battlefield it had so many craters in it.

Stephen.

....during the war, if Bedford-ites didn't work at Elstow they were probably making bricks at the London Brick Company....that's where they made the bricks for many of the shelters built and tested.....