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ROF Thorp Arch
ROF Thorp Arch was one of sixteen Second World War, UK government-owned Royal Ordnance Factory, which produced munitions by "filling" them. It was a medium-sized filling factory (Filling Factory No. 9). It was located on the banks of the River Wharfe, north-east of the two villages of Boston Spa and Thorp Arch; and four miles (6.4 km) south-east of the town of Wetherby, West Yorkshire in England.
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Thorp Arch Trading Estate
Thorp Arch Trading Estate is a trading estate, with both industrial and retail space, 3 miles (5 km) south-east of Wetherby in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England. The estate occupies the major part of the site of a former Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF), ROF Thorp Arch, in the parishes of Thorp Arch and Walton. There is evidence of its former use around the site which was similar in layout to the former ROF Aycliffe in Darlington, County Durham.
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The Second World War Experience Centre
The Second World War Experience Centre, based in Otley, West Yorkshire, England, is a registered charity and museum/archive which was set up in 1998 to preserve personal memories of the Second World War before they are lost forever. The archive is international in scope and holds letters, diaries, photographs and papers donated by individuals - the collection is unique as it concentrates only on the Second World War and personal experience. A network of volunteers across the UK also tapes record veterans' memories for the Centre, and its collection now numbers in excess of 9000 lives.
The Centre is used by researchers, students, schoolchildren, authors and members of the public studying for degrees, books or simply their family history. The Centre's mission is "To collect and encourage access to the surviving testimony of men and women who lived through the years of the Second World War, and to ensure that different audiences share and learn from the personal recollections preserved in the collection".
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HM Prison Wealstun
HM Prison Wealstun is a Category C men's prison, located near the village of Thorp Arch in West Yorkshire, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service.
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Walton, Leeds
Walton is a village and civil parish 2 miles (3 km) east of Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England. It is adjacent to Thorp Arch village and Thorp Arch Trading Estate. The nearest locally important town is Wetherby, with Tadcaster and the large village of Boston Spa nearby. Walton has a population of 225. increasing slightly to 225 at the 2011 Census.
The name Walton comes from settlement/farmstead of Wealas - native Celts which is what the new Anglo Saxon speaking peoples called the native inhabitants of England.
There is strong evidence that in many areas of England taken over by Germanic speaking settlers, the native British (Wealas) remained undisturbed, farming the same land they did when the Romans left.
Over time they just adopted or forgot their Celtic tongue (similar to Old Welsh/Cornish) for the language and culture of the newcomers in order to climb the social ladder or were coerced to do so.
It was in the Anglo Saxon interest that the native British carry on as usual to ensure the economy produced food and goods for the new landowners.
For a while in the 1990s there was a plan to develop Walton into a New Town. Although this plan was never put into practice, the plan could still be brought back onto the table due to the land being still available and the communications in the area being even better.
The village has one public house, The Fox and Hound. This suffered a fire recently. The village is overlooked by the eight-storey buildings of the British Library on the Thorp Arch Trading estate. The trading estate was a former Royal Ordnance Factory, Thorp Arch, and it houses the local corporation (Leeds City Council) recycling centre, the British Library Boston Spa, George Moores furniture factory, a sewage works and retailing park (containing Empire Direct, DFS, The Sofa Company, The Greenery Garden Centre and many other retailers). The retail park once housed a Miller Brothers before the company liquidated and a Texas Homecare.
There are now speed cameras on the Walton Road, between Wetherby and Walton (the only ones in the area). The village also has a small church. Not being on a main road or itself having any notable features, Walton is little known outside of the Wetherby area of the City of Leeds metropolitan borough.
Walton was once on the Harrogate to Church Fenton Railway Line, until it was dismantled under the Beeching Axe in the 1960s. The village itself never had a railway station, the nearest being in Thorp Arch. The village is both commutable for the cities of Leeds and York.