Royal Small Arms Factory
| Private, privatized in 1984, - formerly Government Owned | |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Successor | Royal Ordnance, then BAE Systems |
| Founded | 1816 |
| Defunct | 1988 |
| Headquarters | Enfield Lock, United Kingdom |
| Products | British military rifles, muskets, swords |
The Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF) was a UK government-owned rifle factory in the London Borough of Enfield in an area generally known as the Lea Valley. The factory produced British military rifles, muskets and swords from 1816. It closed in 1988, but some of its work was transferred to other sites.
The factory was located at Enfield Lock on a marshy island bordered by the River Lea and the River Lee Navigation. It was built on the instructions of the Board of Ordnance near the end of the Napoleonic War. The land was acquired in 1812 and the factory completed by 1816. The site had the advantages of water-power to drive the machinery and the River Lee Navigation for the transportation by barge of raw materials and finished weapons to the River Thames, 15 miles away to be loaded onto sailing ships. Neighbouring farmland was acquired to become a restricted area to test ordnance from the Royal Gunpowder Mill. The RSAF was originally all situated on the east side of the Lea, in the county of Essex in Waltham Abbey parish, Sewardstone hamlet. The course of the river was diverted during the life of the factory, and part of the site then fell in Enfield parish. Local boundary changes initiated by SI 1993/1141 after it closed transferred the site entirely from Epping Forest (district) to the London Borough of Enfield.
The original ambitious plans by Captain John By included three mills. Later, the engineer John Rennie recommended the construction of a navigable leat. The leat was made, although only one mill with two waterwheels was completed.
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