Despite its name, the Royal Ordnance factory at Dunham-on-the Hill was in fact an ammunition storage depot rather than a factory as such. It was built during World War II and covered an area of around 1 squre mile. Twenty eight storage buildings or magazines were spread (for obvious reasons!) around the site. It was mostly used for the bulk storage of explosives and the magazines were protected by earth embankments.
The depot had a rail connection to the nearby Chester to Helsby line, with almost five miles of track, each shed having its own siding and buffer stop. Post-war, the site was under care and maintenance but was again used for ammunition storage during the Suez and Hungarian crises of 1956.
The railway tracks were lifted in the mid 1960s and for a while the site was used as a buffer store for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The site was eventually sold in 1990 and has now reverted to farmland, although some of the storage huts can still be seen from the nearby M56 motorway.