2014

NT5829 : Interior Of A Former Munitions Factory Building

taken 10 years ago, near to Charlesfield, Scottish Borders, Scotland

Interior Of A Former Munitions Factory Building
Interior Of A Former Munitions Factory Building
The remains of some sort of barrow and the remains of the extraction system are evident in this image.
Charlesfield Incendiary Bomb Munitions Factory, St Boswells

A selection of images of the remains of the munitions factory.

The factory was built c. 1942 with bomb production ending in 1945. The site was later given over to the Royal Navy and used as an Armaments Depot, thus becoming RNAD Charlesfield from 1948 until 1963. Thereafter, the site was used for agricultural purposes before an industrial estate was established in the mid 1970s. Today, it is a thriving industrial site, with large and small businesses alike utilising the site's central Borders location and easy access to the A68.

Charlesfield was one of only two factories producing the 4lb thermite incendiary bomb, used so effectively against the enemy during World War II. The factory was controlled by the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP) and operated by Nobel Explosive Company/ICI. Incidentally, the second factory was at Bowhouse, near Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, controlled by the Air Ministry. An item in the 'Glasgow Herald' on 28 May 1945 stated that 4,000 Scottish workers at the two sites mentioned above and ICI Linlithgow made more than 90,000,000 incendiary bombs - 'one for each of the inhabitants of greater Germany', with magnesium for them being manufactured at Bellshill. Nearby Charlesfield Halt to the west served the factory, as did a siding from the east.

See the RCHAMS Canmore site LinkExternal link for further information and aerial images. An interesting interview with Margaret Cessford, a worker at Charlesfield during the war, can be found at LinkExternal link whilst a diagram of the 4lb incendiary bomb can be found on this page: LinkExternal link


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright James T M Towill and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
This photo is linked from: Automatic Clusters: · Munitions Factory [4] · Remaining Buildings [4] · Interior [2] ·
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
+
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
TIP: Click the map for more Large scale mapping
Grid Square
NT5829, 31 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
James T M Towill   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Sunday, 30 March, 2014   (more nearby)
Submitted
Tuesday, 1 April, 2014
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NT 5858 2931 [10m precision]
WGS84: 55:33.3426N 2:39.4893W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NT 5858 2931
View Direction
WEST (about 270 degrees)
Clickable map
+
NW N NE
W Go E
SW S SE
Image classification(about): Supplemental image
This page has been viewed about 235 times
You are not logged in login | register