# Extrodanairy Bomb store near home! Northants



## BikinGlynn (May 24, 2015)

Out again with the "new to Urbexing" Hound Dog (not the spotty one)who seems to have a nack for this!
He sais there is another farm just a few miles from both our houses & after a quick google the hunt was on.
Ok this was secure & not that interesting, but we both noticed some strange "compound" looking things on the overhead eye!
I guessed from this what they were, but the mysteries kept coming as we crossed a field to find concrete reinforced steel walls with barbed wire tops & strange telegraph poles protruding.
Anyone know anything about these I am intrigued?
With my lad & the conspicuous explorer dog in toe the visit went something like this.

The farm with identity protection paramount!


P5240014b by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

Crossing the field the top of the "store" & fencing can be seen & the strange "telegraph poles"


P5240019 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

the original security of this place is obvious 


P5240020 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr


P5240016 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

Out the nettles on the main track we were confronted with this


P5240021 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

Strangely the main gates are open, even more so the grass is cut on either side of these & this place is in the middle of nowhere!


P5240022 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

On the gates are warnings of prosecution!


P5240033 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

Inside each compound is a tightly secure steel door building & loading dock with a notice about wearing slippers or something??


P5240027 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

I am no expert but the brickwork on this is not WW2, Cuban perhaps??


P5240026 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

The gates still moved!


P5240032 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

Strange metal topped wooden pole.


P5240034 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

The corrugated walls were prob 10ft thick at the bottom with concrete inside.


P5240031 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

Leaving the site along the main track there are several signs & a small "security hut" which all seems a bit low key.


P5240036 by Glynn Preston, on Flickr

I should point out this is miles from any of our numerous airfields, I am assuming this may be a "keep off the radar" tactic. 
other oddities were all the hedging down to these neatly cut & power cables down to the site which looked well maintained & "new" looking electric boxes in the corner of each compound.
We have since noticed a third one in side the woods... perhaps this holds the answers!


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## The Wombat (May 24, 2015)

Interesting stuff
thanks for sharing


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## krela (May 24, 2015)

Overshoes... In times contemporary with this bomb store people wore shoes that could be re-heeled, and they heels would be tacked on with metal tacks. Metal tacks + concrete floors = sparks. Sparks + explosives = boom. Overshoes prevented this.

The metal tipped wooden pole probably serves a similar function as a lightening conductor.

The plastic guttering in the second to last picture suggests it's maintained, it may be in use as secure storage or anything. Who knows.

This looks like a really interesting site. Thanks for posting it.


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## noiseboy72 (May 24, 2015)

Given the number of quarries that existed in that area, I would suggest this was a commercial explosives store. Probably storing someone's fireworks now!


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## krela (May 24, 2015)

This is not built to any military design, and bears no similarities to anything else around the country. The sign is for ICI, the well known (and now dead) chemical company which manufactured dynamite and nitrocellulose for many years, it's possible that this site could be a Southern store for those (the stuff itself being manufactured in Scotland).


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## krela (May 24, 2015)

If you combine what I just said with noiseboys info you get your answer.


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## SlimJim (May 24, 2015)

Woah! Cool walls!


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## Sam Haltin (May 24, 2015)

Old ICI Ammunition magazines (C) Deanna Earley :: Geograph Britain and Ireland

This is the solution. I noticed the warning sign "erial Chemical Industries" = ICI and this led me to this website. I think the telegraph poles are in case of lightning strikes.


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## BikinGlynn (May 24, 2015)

Great replied thanks. never thought about the quarrying although its still 5 miles from any quarried area (20 yrs mountain bikin believe me I know). 
I assumed the overshoes were to do with spark reduction.
the security hut was just a brick square but that had a brand new padlock on. the signs appeared 3 times along the track leading up to this.
Suppose its just a luck farmer now using the security to his advantage.


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## BikinGlynn (May 24, 2015)

The discussion here is very interesting... it appears no one really knows!
WEAPONS STORAGE SITE - Little Harrowden [Archive] - The Airfield Information Exchange


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## krela (May 24, 2015)

Something like this will always get people whispering, but I'm 99% sure they were built for commercial explosives. 

Funnily enough even commercial stores are highly secretive, would you want to make yourself a target for the IRA and other people with ambitions to make things go boom?


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## Hound Dog (May 24, 2015)

After doing a bit of digging the stores? If that's what you could call it are still used,ie why the hedges are cut and the buildings are well maintained. Very interesting visit though GB and again some good shots.


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## nanook (May 25, 2015)

A set of carefully placed poles with metal conductors to earth & between the poles can usually protect an enclosed space [ or building ] from a direct lightening strike. If you have another look, the building is possibly protected as well with thick earth cables from the roof [ secondary protection ]. I don't think they'd take any chances with a powder magazine !


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## Dirus_Strictus (May 25, 2015)

krela said:


> Something like this will always get people whispering, but I'm 99% sure they were built for commercial explosives.
> 
> Funnily enough even commercial stores are highly secretive, would you want to make yourself a target for the IRA and other people with ambitions to make things go boom?



Spot on! A very well known site to people of my age who had involvement with explosives/or aftermath of use of same. The references on web to ammunition storage being the reason this was built are rubbish - it was a central store for blasting explosives; however, in the days when owning and using fire arms was legal this facility was sometimes used as a holding place for small amounts of .22 and centre fire ammunition that was in transit from the Northern manufacturing units to the Southern dealers. The place looks tidy because the unit is/was used occasionally for storage of fireworks by a local distributor


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## caiman (Jun 13, 2015)

It's amazing how quickly industries are forgotten. This explosives magazine lies right in the middle of what was the ironstone quarrying area that fed the furnaces at Corby, among other places, up until around 1982. The large ironstone mine at Finedon was just over two miles to the east and the underground mine at Irthlingborough a couple of miles beyond. All substantial users of explosives.


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