Coventry Ordnance Works

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Coventry Ordnance Works was a British manufacturer of heavy guns, particularly naval artillery. The firm was based in the English city of Coventry. The company was set up in 1905 by a consortium of British shipbuilding firms John Brown, Cammell Laird and Fairfield in order to compete with the duopoly of Vickers and Armstrong-Whitworth. Initially H.H. Mulliner was the managing director, but after a series of altercations with the Admiralty he was replaced by a retired admiral Sir Reginald Bacon. The company also had a factory in Scotstoun, Glasgow which made heavy gun mountings. The C.O.W. 37mm gun was the first modern autocannon developed in 1917. The firm also designed the 5.5 inch Naval gun and a 15 inch siege howitzer for the British Army.

The firm struggled in the recession after the end of World War I which affected Britain's arms industry and closed in 1925.

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Harland and Wolff, who took over the Scotstoun, Glasgow, work from COW, continued to build naval guns into the late 1960s, building the "standard" 4.5" turrets for the County and other classes. barrels were brought in from Vickers but in earlier times they were made locally at Beardmores.

This factory consequently had some of the largest m/c tools in the UK one, a vertical boring mill had a turntable 36' in diameter, used for turning the turret gear rings. The building had 3 tiers of overhead cranes and could together lift several hundred tons. The building still survives looking as good as new and now belongs to BAE warship yard (Yarrow's).