When rearmament began in the 1930s, the need for more powerful fighter aircraft armament than the 0.303" machine gun resulted in the British government setting up a shadow factory for the production of the 20mm Hispano Suiza aircraft cannon on this site, under the enigmatic title of 'British Manufacturing and Research Company' (BMARC). This was a completely new type of factory for Grantham: low machine shops full of automatic and semi-automatic machine tools, ammunition filling sheds surrounded by protective blast walls, and even tunnels into the nearby hillside for the testing of finished guns. Grantham soon became accustomed to the heavy roar of these and, as 24 hour working became the norm, BMARC became a non-stop hive of activity. When hostilities began, right from the outbreak this became a prime target for the Luftwaffe. It was bombed several times although even more damage was caused to the town from misdirected bombs. A number of outstations for this factory were built during the war, to disperse production into the surrounding countryside. After the war, an abortive attempt to produce a small people's car and a light tractor (both bearing the name Kendall) merely delayed the closure of BMARC and its conversion to a wide variety of peacetime uses. In 1974, the company acquired a site at Faldingworth (near Market Rasen) that had the capability to store nuclear weapons such as Redbeard and WE.177. The company later closed in 1992, and the site was sold in 1994. The former site's offices are now home to the Springfield Business Park, with the rest of the factory site now developed for housing. {1}