It was never the intention of the RSAF Apprentices Association to get into the heritage business but it just happened when, a few years after RSAF closed, people started donating bits of RSAF memorabilia. Since, then the Association's Constitution has been updated in 2004 to provide a proper basis for custodianship of the growing collection of historic material now held.
The Association's collection comprises mostly photographs both old and recent and documentary memorabilia relating to the Association or the factory, including articles and RSAF brochures etc. We also have two of the four model machine tools, a later apprentice project - the profilator machine, several other items made by apprentices, the personal tools of two former apprentices who spent their careers at RSAF and various other, mostly small, items of RSAF memorabilia.
The collection is in safe keeping but has yet to be catalogued. That is a task which the Associations Heritage Officer, Ray Tuthill, hopes will be possible now he has finally managed to escape from some 30 years or so as Association Chairman, Treasurer / Membership Secretary, general factotum and latterly, General Secretary. He is in touch and co-operates with other heritage organisations with interests in RSAFs history, including:
  • The Royal Ordnance Heritage Centre at the former ROF Glascoed, now part of BAE Systems.
  • The London Borough of Enfield's Forty Hall Museum.
  • The Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey.
  • The MOD Pattern Room (now called the 'National Firearms Centre' at the Royal Armouries, Leeds)
  • The Army's Small Arms School Corps (SASC) at Warminster.
The largest collection of general RSAF archives and artefacts comprises those items which, prior to closure, were selected by RSAF for official preservation and are now housed at the ROFs Heritage Centre at Glascoed. Regrettably, however, a huge amount of material was destroyed or disposed at the time of the RSAF closure.
The largest collection of RSAF weapons is in the National Firearms Centre at the Royal Armouries, some of which (the historic ones) may be in the areas accessible to the public. There are also many Enfield weapons held in the SASC weapons collection at Warminster but that is not accessible to the public. A smaller but significant number may be seen locally as part of Brian Street's collection at the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills, certainly there are many more there than it is possible to display in the limited space within the RSA Interpretation Centre.
There are two important items of RSAF history on display in the Science Museum in London; two of the original machines bought from America in 1856 as part of the change to modern interchangeable production methods. They both happen to be woodworking machines, probably because they are representative of types which survived in production use for over a century, by which time their historic significance had been recognised.
More information is available in the Heritage Section Page #3

They are:
  • A gunstock copying lathe, which is in running order. It is one of several identical machines that continued in use until they were replaced by a multi-spindle equivalent machine in the late 1950s.
  • A multi station lock recessing machine, commonly known as a birdcage. There were several of these machines but in the late 1950s, when it was attempted to replace them, none of the machinery suppliers could provide a modern machine to do the same job! It is thought that the ancient but effective machines eventually had to remain in use until wooden stocks were superseded by injection moulded plastic!
It certainly was our intention to look for the four ¼ scale model machine tools made between 1947-1955 and after a long search they were eventually all found and have since been displayed at Annual Apprentices Reunions. The shaper and the second (perspex) miller are now in the custody of the Apprentices Association. The press and the first miller are held by Forty Hall museum where Ray Tuthill also unexpectedly stumbled upon the Gas Engine made in 1967 whilst looking for the model machines, but no one, including the museum, knows how it got there!
Before being dispatched from RSAF all the model machines were 'stuffed and mounted' and were no longer considered operable. The Gas Engine, which had originally been initiated as a project by a former Apprentice Supervisor, John Hone, was sadly not in working order either when found. Fortunately, after expert renovation by former apprentice Ken Dee, the Gas Engine and most of the models can be seen running again at the Reunions, to the great delight of all the assembled company. The latest addition to the working models collection is the John Hand Press which has been fully renovated after being granted permission by the Forty Hall Museum to carry out the work.
The Association was also approached by Royal Small Arms Island Village Ltd (RSAIV) to help with the project for restoration of the historic RSAF clock and creation of an Interpretation Centre to provide some acknowledgement, on the site, of RSAFs heritage. In the absence of any other volunteer, it fell to Ray Tuthill to do it.
He now manages the RSA Interpretation Centre and some of the material from the Association's collection is displayed there. Once a month he also dons his boiler suit, climbs the clock tower and gives the ancient clock a dose of oil, grease and TLC (tender loving care) together with any necessary adjustments. He has even put it back together when movement of the tower in the exceptional heat of the 2003 summer caused some bits to fall off! Between his visits it is wound each week by one of the on-site residents.