# Central Armaments Depot Nesscliffe



## jools (Nov 8, 2011)

,,also known by other names during the war

As these buildings are quite remote, they are vulnerable to thieves,, I can vouch that the Neighbourhood Watch scheme is alive and kicking ,,,,,,,it took less than five minutes for the farmer to arrive,,,,,,,,,, though when I started talking about old railways, the atmosphere thawed out significantly

I was "observed" while I took some pics. The farmer good-naturedly opened one up for me and allowed me inside and was clearly being very patient while waiting for me to finish,,,,,,so I didn't push it. There were several different sized buildings but all made of standard sized sections,,,,,, they don't have any individual character left. 

The former Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway,,,, originally a modest line called the ambitious Potteries, Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway from about 1866 became a "light" railway in 1911 to allow it to operate under the less onerous provisions of the Light Railway Act. It only ran as a route between Shrewsbury (The Abbey station) and Llanymynech with a branch to Criggion.

It was on its last legs before the start of WWII but was taken over by the War Office in 1941 to serve the newly built dispersed ammo dumps and given a general uplift to allow it to continue to operate.

Some 80+ miles of wartime track was laid to serve the storage areas

,,,,can't find out much fine detail about it's service history but it was run by the Army so mostly artillery shell was stored but no doubt bombs were also kept here as there are wartime airfields reasonably close,,,, mention was also made of; incendiary bomb components, smoke mortar rounds & generators and flame throwers. Chemical weapons were stored at nearby Loton Park which has road access only and was run by the USAAF

Here is a map of the 1941 track additions laid to serve the ammunition storage buildings. I started to count the buildings but lost count at over 130,,,,,,,, enough to say,,,, there are lots of them!







,,,,,and applied to a satellite pic






Storage facilities were built of brick with concrete pillars to support the pre-fab concrete roof and then the sides were covered with soil and turfed for camouflage. Once the foundation was laid they could have been built in a couple of weeks. Some buildings had many large roof ventilators, and some didn't. 

The roof of this one is obviously leaking so the owner has put tarpaulins ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,inside 






The buildings had two opposite doors so the rail trucks could be moved through when loading/unloading,,, the steam engines were kept at a safe distance from the explosives by the use of flat "spacer" trucks. In this building you can see where the rail track was,,,, and the now blocked up "back door"


























This was very close,,,, and un-manned,,,,,,,,,so I took a couple of pics,,,,,,,, I bet they can see for miles with that


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## night crawler (Nov 8, 2011)

Nice one, I was beginning to think you were a GOM after reading one of your posts but that was an excellent little report.


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## jools (Nov 8, 2011)

,,,,,,,I reserve the right to be grumpy at little or no notice,,,,,,


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## night crawler (Nov 8, 2011)

I'll let you off you do have a year on me.


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## krela (Nov 8, 2011)

I've seen reports from Jodrel bank before but I didn't know there was something this tasty next to it.


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## jools (Nov 8, 2011)

Well it's not at Jodrel Bank itself but in Shropshire,,,,,,,,,,



> The chain of seven radio-astronomy dishes across England, including Knockin, make up the existing Merlin network (Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network). Signals from the seven dishes are combined to create a clearer picture of the universe.
> 
> While the Merlin network has collected huge quantities of data since the late 1970s, only around 0.5% of the information makes it back to the Jodrell Bank headquarters. The weak element has always been the microwave connection between the dishes. Scientists leading the eMerlin project claim that the new 650km of high-bandwidth fibre optic cable will increase the final data's sensitivity by a factor of 30.



I with they would let me onto the new fibre optic cable,,,,,I can only get 720Kbs!!!!


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## Munchh (Nov 9, 2011)

Wow, never heard of this one before and nice of the farmer to let you in. Thanks very much jools.


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## jools (Nov 9, 2011)

Just out of interest,,, when I was doing pre-visit research I noticed the line shown here on the satellite picture,,,,, bottom right to top left. 

When I was driving around there was no sign of it. The farmer told me it was for the re-lining of the pipes taking water from Lake Vyrnwy to Liverpool. The original cast iron pipes were exposed in varying places and cleaned out and then new plastic pipes were pushed inside the originals thus negating the need to dig long trenches. The re-lining is reckoned to be taking ten years though the section shown here is complete

The radio Telescope shown earlier is at the top of the pic


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## night crawler (Nov 9, 2011)

Hey we got oneof those at work 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spuduka/3249506221/


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