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Trying to identify UK Ordinance

R

rpash78

New Member
I wonder if people could help me identify this, I'm trying to work out its value and how to sell it.

My father in law recently passed away and in clearing out his factory space found this practice shell. The story behind it is that my father in law was a custom engineering parts producer. He was contracted by a Crane manufacturer fulfilling an MoD order about 35-40 years ago. He was given this large Naval Artillery Shell in order to create custom fittings to enable its transportation, at the end of the contract he was given the Deactivated Shell. I recently had an MoD EOD team check it, after checking they confirmed that all internal working have been removed from the shell and it had been weighted for authenticity, as such they stated that it was classed as a replica as no explosive or internal components remained.

Some Information about it:
  • Markings: GD3/85 & LOT RLB 2/84
  • Dimensions: Approx. 4 feet (122cm) tall, 6.5-inch (165mm) base diameter
  • Weight: Correctly weighted for authenticity (38kg)
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It's a 4.5" Royal Navy gun round, which was/is (if they have any ammunition left) the main armament on British warships.
The case was made by Royal Ordnance Factory Birtley in February 1984. Some work has been carried out on it by Royal Ordnance Factory Glascoed in March 1985. This is somewhat strange as Glascoed is an explosives and filling facility and as far as I'm aware has no engineering capability. The deep blue of the projectile denotes that it is for drill or kindred. CRB would suggest RNAD Royal Navy Armaments Depot (title of the time) Crombie, which, when Rosyth dockyard was open acted as their ammunition depot. The fuze plug is stamped for "Ram" suggesting the whole round was for testing the ramming action on the gun, however one would normally expect the headstamp to be marked accordingly. I suspect the steel 'primer' in the base extends into the base of the projectile to prevent it becoming displaced after repeated loadings.

TimG
 
The PRF (Plug representing Fuze) looks like it has an expanded ring over the setting ring, so it may be something to do with the fuze setter?

Crombie is still active.. As Tim says, the involvement of Glascoed is a bit odd although they did have some engineering and rework capability in those days. They also ran a disposal facility at that time as I used to go down there from the School of Ammo to find "interesting stuff" for the museum!

Also its "Ordnance" not "Ordinance" :)
 
Thanks so much, that's a massive help. i wonder if the 1985 work was to make it safe/weighted correctly for use with the contractor my father in law worked with. Very much appreciate the time you've taken to reply.
 
Perhaps as GD was/is a filling and assembly plant the markings indicate the final assembly of this piece
 
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