EPW019255 ENGLAND (1927). Chittening National Filling Station, Avonmouth, 1927

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Nearby Images (9)

EPW019255
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EPW019262
  151° 29m
EPW019253
  247° 105m
EPW019260
  238° 113m
EPW019256
  157° 154m
EPW019258
  275° 191m
EPW019254
  176° 194m
EPW019252
  185° 215m
EPW019261
  133° 316m

Details

Title [EPW019255] Chittening National Filling Station, Avonmouth, 1927
Reference EPW019255
Date 1-September-1927
Link
Place name AVONMOUTH
Parish
District
Country ENGLAND
Easting / Northing 353141, 181541
Longitude / Latitude -2.675594974357, 51.530351287842
National Grid Reference ST531815

Pins

(Receiving Shed / Empty Shell Store) This shed is the larger of the two Receiving Sheds. The floor of the shed is concrete, the walls, are of brick. The shed consists of 14 spans which are covered by a Belfast truss roof. Four spans have an aperture just below the roof line, on the south-east side of the building, possibly, to house an extractor fan? There are 56 goods handling doors which are of the folding type. Services from the boiler-house, pass along the southern-facing wall of the shed and wrap around the corner of the building for first one and a quarter spans, before following the line of the Charging and Assembly Sheds, and continue in a south-easterly direction. Most, if not all of the First World War railway track, has been removed from the verandah loading platforms and area adjacent to the sheds. The Receiving Shed is linked to the Charging Sheds by concrete cleanways. The dimensions of the shed are, 450ft x 120ft, total floor space is 5,400 square feet.

steve
Tuesday 27th of November 2018 08:59:25 PM
(Receiving Sheds) The Receiving Sheds or empty shell stores are the two largest buildings on site at Chittening. Empty, 6-inch howitzer shells brought to the Receiving Sheds by rail, were unloaded at the verandah type platforms that extend the length of the two buildings. After delivery, the shells placed in store wait to have any oil and debris removed prior, to the application of paint. When the cleaning and paint operation is complete, shells are ready to be issued to the Charging Sheds. The dimensions of the smallest Receiving Shed are, 390ft x 120ft the approximate amount of floor space that it is possible to use is 46,800 square feet. The brick walls of the shed, have been built on the substantial concrete base/floor, of the building. The building consists of 12 spans, which are covered by a Belfast truss roof, each roof span has a glazed monitor. Goods in and out of the shed, are handled through one of 48 folding doors, 4per span. Heavy duty iron girders which are used to support the roof and shell lifting equipment, are used throughout the Receiving Shed. The shed has electricity and is steam heated. Three spans may have had an extractor fan set in the wall just below the roof line. The Receiving Shed is connected to the Charging Sheds by concrete cleanways.

steve
Monday 26th of November 2018 08:04:01 PM
(Boiler and Compressor-House) The boiler and compressor-house are of brick construction. The boiler-house comprises two or three furnace/boilers, situated in a double span building with each span having a curved roof. Each span has a longitudinal glazed roof monitor with ventilation louvres along its length. The front of each span has an arched opening with two windows to its side, one window above the other. The rear of the boiler-house is devoid of windows. The boiler-house chimney is of a square design which is connected by a brick discharge flue to the boiler-house burners. The dimensions of the boiler-house are, 50ft x 45ft the building height is approximately 20ft to the apex of the roof monitor. Compressor-house and plant room, including service pump and ancillary equipment necessary for the water treatment process. The approximate dimensions of the compressor-house are 35ft x 20ft building height 20ft. Single span structure with a curved roof. The roof has three circular metal air vents. The side wall has two windows, the wall that faces the chimney stack has one window, possibly two? The front wall has a door, and an opening, perhaps a window? It may have been possible to gain entry into the compressor-house through the boiler-room. Services from the boiler-house are routed through the compressor-house and exit the building via the side wall. The steam main is supported on steel posts and enters the factory production area through a gap between the receiving sheds. The steam main terminates at dispatching shed number five. The pipe supplying compressed air to the mustard gas discharge system is also visible, "but not on this image." The method of support for the compressed air pipe is similar to that of the steam main. The location of the 24-ton capacity main storage tank for mustard gas is approximately a 130ft south west of the compressor-house. The transfer of mustard gas from a 10-ton railway tank wagon to the main storage tank required a minimum air pressure of 10 lbs. P.S.I. The discharging process took about 90 minutes. There is no obvious sign of an area near the boiler-house used as an open-air coal store. Ideally, a self-draining hard surface is required, for this purpose. The boiler-house was served, by rail. In all probability, the coal was handled, manually from railway truck to the bunkers adjacent to the boilers. For ease of handling, coal may have been, delivered in sacks.

steve
Saturday 17th of November 2018 11:03:50 PM
Ammunition Box Store. Double span building, each span has a Belfast truss roof with louvred monitors. The side wall that faces the railway track has six material handling doors. "In this photograph, the track is non-existent." The removal of the railway track has left an impression which is still visible as it cuts through the ridge and furrow plough-marks. The end walls are devoid of windows. The side wall of the bay that face north-west has sustained damage, it appears to have collapsed inward, which in turn has caused the demise of the roof. The dimensions of the building are, 100ft x 80ft. The floor area is 8000 square feet.

steve
Sunday 4th of November 2018 11:28:51 PM
Ammunition Box Store and Workshop. Single span building of brick construction with Belfast truss roof which has a longitudinal glazed roof monitor with ventilation louvres. The building is set back fifty feet from the railway track. Three slightly raised platforms, perhaps constructed of timber lead from the railway track to the building. These platforms may have had steel rails attached to facilitate the use of hand pushed trucks to move materials into the store. In this image, only the central doorway appears to have been in use. The wall on the opposite side of the building has six doorways that open out onto a low concrete platform. Above the platform is a curved roof. This roof is built out from the side wall of the store. Support for the opposite side of the roof is on metal stanchions. There is no evidence on this photograph, of a road or railway track on that side of the building connecting it to adjacent buildings? The dimensions of the building are, 100ft x 40ft. The floor area is approximately 4000 square feet. Buildings two and four in the filled shell stores and dispatching sheds group may have had the term box store used to describe their function.

steve
Sunday 4th of November 2018 11:08:57 PM
Railway siding. When the factory was operational, a railway siding of the single-ended type, which had three roads, lay alongside sheds one and two. The siding extended 200ft beyond shed one in a south-westerly direction. The siding capacity, calculated on wagons with a length of 19ft over the buffers would have been 68 wagons. The siding is non-existent in this photograph.

steve
Friday 24th of August 2018 02:07:22 AM
Building number three. The dispatching sheds that were used by the Army Ordnance Department and located in buildings number three and five contain the railway loading platforms. The dimensions of the dispatching shed in building number three are 130ft x 120ft, with a useable floor area of approximately 15,600 sq.ft, this figure does not include the loading platform. The length of the veranda enclosed platform is 130ft. The estimated number of railway wagons at the loading platform at any one time is six. Building number five, the other dispatching shed, is the largest in the group of sheds and comprises nine spans. The dimensions of this building are 290ft x 120ft which has a usable floor area of approximately 34,800 sq.ft, not including the platform. The railway loading platform can accommodate up to fifteen wagons at any one time. The approximate floor area of the five buildings is 97,200 sq.ft.

steve
Friday 24th of August 2018 01:54:47 AM
Building number one. Filled shell stores, numbers one, two and four are of the same outward appearance. The dimensions of these buildings are 130ft x 120ft, with a useable floor area of approximately 15,600 sq.ft each. The buildings have four spans each. The side of the buildings that face the railway track has a buttressed wall of brick construction, rising to a height of approximately 18 feet, "near to the top chord of their respective Belfast truss roofs." Piercing the walls of each building are eight railway, loading-way doors? The wall on the opposite side of each building, "overlooking the assembly sheds" has a pair of double material handling doors and a window. Buildings, one and two, and three and four have been laid out as double units to function as pairs. Their respective adjoining walls have three sets of material handling doors with clean-ways to facilitate lateral movement of goods between the buildings. The roof configuration is Belfast truss the same as that used throughout the factory. The spacing between buildings which have lateral access to each other is 30 feet. The spacing between buildings two and three and four and five are 70 feet.

steve
Friday 24th of August 2018 01:13:28 AM
Building number five. Filled Shell Stores and Despatching Sheds. The filled shell stores and despatching sheds lie on the east side of the factory and are made up of five separate buildings. Two of the buildings have covered railway loading platforms of the veranda type, these platforms were used by the Army Ordnance Department (AOD), to transfer munitions from the factory to the (AOD) supply system. Before the transfer of responsibility took place, the factory conducted a final quality check on each round. An inspection of weight, legibility and correctness of stencil detail, possible damage to the copper drive bands, and to ensure that the rope drive band protector was in place. Finally, a general visual inspection of the round. The inspection complete the shells became the responsibility of the (AOD) who put each round in a wooden box ready for transit. The Army Ordnance Department had an ammunition storage facility at Chittening, in addition to these stores there were railway sidings where trucks laden with ammunition could wait pending forwarding instruction. There was no segregation of (AOD) operations from the factory production area by a fence, which was sometimes the case at ordnance factories. From the time that the factory became operational, the total production time available at Chittening was eighteen weeks, before the end of hostilities. At times production figures were low due to the intermittent supply of mustard gas, and high numbers of the workforce that succumbed to gas poisoning. Experimental charging under laboratory supervision began at the end of June 1918. Output propper commenced on Monday 8 July and by 14 July despatch had a thousand finished shells. Production figures for July and August reached 7,636 shells, September, 18,215. In October the vacuum charging line went into production, and output for that month was 59,573 shells. For the eleven days of November 976 shells were produced, this low number was because of problems with mustard gas production at the Avonmouth factory.

steve
Friday 24th of August 2018 12:28:38 AM
Assembly Sheds. The factory has 14 assembly sheds which are set out in two groups. The first group consists of 8 sheds that are separated by a 51.8-metre break from the remaining 6. The spacing between individual sheds is 8.5-metres. The approximate dimensions of each assembly shed are 39.3m x 11.0m, height 4.88m. Each shed has a concrete floor with walls of brick construction. The roof is of the Belfast truss type which has a continuous glazed top monitor with ventilation louvres along its side. The side walls have 20 doors, 10 per side. Between the doors are windows. The end walls of the shed have twin material handling doors with a total useable width of 3.05m, shells enter and exit the assembly shed through these. It is likely that each assembly shed had 10 head filling work units or stations. The arrangement of these units are uncertain, to carry out the operation of head filling a bench of some description is required. Alternatively, a free running roller conveyor system which gives shells adequate support during the filling operation would be acceptable. Shells were brought into the assembly shed by trolly and delivered to the various filling units/stations. At the filling unit, the head filling operation began with the weighing of the fumyl bursting charge. The next step was the insertion of the fumyl bursting charge into the charge pocket, an undertaking achieved by pouring the fumyl charge through the nose of the shell. This operation was known as stemming. The fumyl charge now required some form of compression, normally done by tamping the charge down using a wooden stemming drift and mallet. However, this method was time-consuming, a trial using a press was conducted at Woolwich this proved encouraging, and this method of production may have found favour at Chittening.

steve
Monday 23rd of July 2018 01:29:17 AM
Fumyl Expense Magazine The fumyl expense magazine was used to hold the explosive material contained in the bursting charge of mustard gas shells. For safety reasons only relatively small amounts of the explosive fumyl were held in the shell assembly line sheds at any one time. Supplies of fumyl were trolled to each shed as required. Approximate dimensions of the expense magazine are 6.096m x 6.7056m. The magazine is brick built it has a Belfast truss roof with one air vent. There are four windows and one set of material handling doors. Fumyl was a formulation of Trinitro (TNT), Ammonium Chloride and Ammonium Nitrate.

steve
Monday 7th of May 2018 12:21:35 AM
Reaction House and H.S Storage. The Reaction House where the mustard gas was to be manufactured using the Thiodiglycol / Thionyl Chloride method at Chittening was a twin bay building with Belfast Truss roof. The roof of each bay had a centrally mounted louvered ventilation monitor. Light into the building was via six windows located just below the roof line, three on either side of the building, doors were also part glazed. The approximate dimensions of the Reaction House was 15.24m x 15.24m. On the Charging Shed side of the building were brick piers, the original intention was to mount two 24 ton capacity H.S storage tanks on these, in eventuality it's most likely only one tank was mounted? The 7.6cm feed pipe from this tank was supported on wooden A-frames and ran to a subsidiary tank located in a building between the two groups of Charging Sheds and from here to the 200 gallon feed tanks of the individual Charging Sheds. Accounts relating to the method of supply to the charging machines do conflict? A low level feed line to supply the vacuum charging machines was laid and ready to go into operation when the Armistice was declared. This system of supply was considered to be superior to the old and the accident rate would have be greatly reduced. The Thiodiglycol / Thionyl Chloride method of manufacture was soon considered to be inefficient and unable to meet the envisaged demand for H.S. The Department of Explosives Supply at Avonmouth would take over production of H.S using the Ethylene Sulphur Monochloride process at its Eastside Plant. When the D.E.S got into its stride H.S arrived by rail from Avonmouth in 10 ton tank wagons. Transfer of H.S from the railway tank wagon to the Chittening factory main storage tank was by means of compressed air.

steve
Wednesday 4th of April 2018 11:05:55 PM
Subsidiary tank building.

steve
Wednesday 4th of April 2018 10:15:54 PM
Charging Shed Number 1. It was proposed to charge shells with the agent N.C in charging shed 1. The necessary machines and ancillary plant were on order. Plans had also been made to receive and store N.C in bulk at Chittening. At the time of the Armistice none of the above had come to fruition. What was N.C.? Not absolutely sure. It was said to be a substitute for P.S. N.C may have been a combination of P.S and K.J.? K.J. Stannic chloride, a clear liquid that fumes on contact with air. Severe irritant and burn causing agent. P.S. (Port Sunlight) Chloropicrin, oily, clear or slightly yellow liquid, but a brown colour in the commercial state. Powerful irritant. This agent may have been supplied by H.M. Explosives Factory, Ellesmere Port. If you have any information or comments on the above please send it to this page. Thank you,

steve
Wednesday 1st of November 2017 11:22:36 PM
Shed Number 5. Emergency Surgery? Contrary to what was said under the charging shed number 8 pin, that shed 5 would be used as a charging shed. This seems unlikely, the construction of the planned medical facilities at the factory were not completed until after the Armistice was signed. A report published in 1919 stated this fact, and went on to say that one of the charging sheds was set up as an emergency surgery. This may explain the modified end to building 5, the projection has a sloping roof and standard width doors fitted? Building 5 is located next to the production sheds.

steve
Tuesday 31st of October 2017 09:11:25 PM
Charging Sheds 12, 13 and 14 Charging Sheds 12 and 13 were fully fitted out with 5 machines per shed and ready to go into production but were stood idle for lack of H.S. (mustard gas ). The new vacuum machines could charge 40 plus shells per-hour as opposed to the gravity machines 12 shells per-hour. Charging Shed 14. Contractors were at work here when the Armistice was signed. It was estimated the line would go into production by mid-November. When the Armistice was signed these sheds had not filled a single shell.

steve
Monday 30th of October 2017 10:40:24 PM
Vacuum Charging Machines in Charging Shed number 11. The vacuum machines used at Chittening were based on a French design of which sketches had been made available by the French. At a conference held at Banbury on June 24th 1918 the problems and difficulties encountered to date with charging H.S into shells was discussed. The outcome of this meeting was to contact the Lennox Foundry Company Ltd and they produced a vacuum charging machine based on the French design. This underwent trials at the National Filling Factory Banbury. This prototype machine proved to be a success, albeit modifications had to be made to the delivery valve, extraction system and method for handling shells on, and to and from the machine. After the initial teething troubles had been overcome Samuelson & Co of the Britannia Works Banbury undertook manufacture of the revised design. The new vacuum machines for charging H.S into 6 inch shells were installed in charging shed number 11, and were an instant success with the workforce. The working environment had been transformed at a stroke, gone were the dangerous fumes and leaking glands which plagued the gravity machines, production outstripped that of a gravity machine by a long way. When the Armistice was signed on November 11th 1918 there were five vacuum machines in charging shed number 11 in production.

steve
Sunday 29th of October 2017 09:04:50 PM
Fume extraction in Gravity Machine Charging Sheds. (Pin in charging shed No 6.) When initial H.S charging trials began in C.S 8 early in July 1918 it was evident there was a serious air quality problem within the charging shed. The factory was built with no clear understanding of the hazards of working with H.S (mustard gas). The materials the buildings were constructed of were porous and not fit for purpose. An efficient fume extraction/purification system was non-existent. The charging sheds when constructed had roof monitors with continuous louvres to provide natural ventilation. At each end of the sheds, just below the roof line was a small diameter extractor fan. The gravity charging machines had a fume extraction pipe ending in a fish tail nozzle. This was situated above the H.S pouring nozzle and 13 millimetre diameter filling hole in the side of the 6 inch howitzer shell. In order to cause an up draught a steam injection system was employed. This extraction system was considered ineffective. In an attempt to improve the situation two fans were installed at ground level on the outside of the building, one at each end, next to the material handling doors. These fans were connected via ducts to the machine rooms, but not to the charging booths. The level of extraction this gave still proved insufficient so an additional five fans were placed at ground level at the side of the building and linked directly to the charging booths via ducting. Initially air quality inside the charging shed was good. Unfortunately this triumph was short lived due to the fact that the exhaust fans were placed near the ground, and H.S laden exhaust fumes discharged straight to atmosphere at low level. There was no system in place to clean the exhaust gas before discharge and no flue to take the exhaust to a safe height before its release into the atmosphere. Consequently poisonous fumes surrounded the buildings creating a hazard to those working outside. Fumes were also drawn back into the charging sheds. Recycled air being made worse under certain weather conditions when the noxious exhaust fumes were slow to dissipate and got drawn back into the charging sheds with greater intensity. It's likely the area surrounding the Chittening factory had become contaminated with the untreated output, and unsuspecting members of the public tempted to pick blackberries from the hedgerows or produce from gardens or fields could have been at risk.

steve
Wednesday 13th of September 2017 12:34:01 AM
The Port of Bristol Authority acquire 270 acres of land at Chittening formerly the National Filling Factory. (Pin 1). When this series of Britain From Above photographs were taken in September 1927 the National Filling Factory site at Chittening had been in Port of Bristol Authority ownership for over a year. The Government advertised the sale of the factory in September 1922 through "Surplus" the official publication of the Disposal and Liquidation Commission. Surplus had this to say.The property has its own railway siding off the Great Western Railway, Severn Tunnel Line. The site covers a land area of 262 acres with a total building floor area of 472,000 feet. The package includes two farms, Washingpool Farm and Green Splot Farm. The Government asking price was £60,000. At the end of July 1926 the Docks Committee recommended the purchase of the former filling factory for £20,000. During negotiations with the Government the Port Authority stated the single story factory buildings were of little value to its future needs as they did not feature in its redevelopment plan of the 270 acre site. Concern was expressed by some of possible contamination issues at the site. These arguments may have been reflected in the final £20,000 price, in any event Bristol Corporation felt the purchase price to be a bargain. With the cessation of hostilities in November 1918 production at Chittening came to an end. Staff who wanted to end their employment at the factory were allowed to do so. Many continued working at the factory to help with the clean-up and decommissioning process. New staff were also taken on. March 1919 at Lawford's Gate Petty Sessions, Bristol 13 special constables were sworn in to work at the Chittening factory. At the time the factory was advertised for sale in 1922, ex-servicemen were making ordnance stored at the factory safe prior to being sent for scrap.

steve
Thursday 24th of August 2017 10:52:45 PM
The Port of Bristol Authority acquire 270 acres of land at Chittening formerly the National Filling Factory. (Pin 2). The Ministry of Munitions organised various sales by auction of equipment from the Chittening factory from 1919 onward. An interesting sale by auction of Machinery, Plant and Effects from H.M. factories, Chittening and Henbury, held on 27 and 28 January 1920 this included pumping machinery, ventilating, heating and drying plant, also a complete plant for the production of ether. The factories had their own steam locomotives to serve H.M. factories Avonmouth and Chittening. These locomotives and associated equipment were to be sold off. The sale included two standard gauge, 6 wheel coupled locomotives, cylinders 12in diameter by 18in stroke. Five-ton locomotive steam crane, standard gauge. Contractor's wagons and side-tip wagons. Sets of points and crossings also sections of rail. Chittening was served by an extensive internal rail network. Evidence of this can be seen in some of the Britain From Above photographs. The Receiving and Despatching Sheds, Army Ordnance Department Stores and various stores and magazines were all inter connected. There were railway sidings within the factory complex and another alongside the GWR Severn Tunnel line near to where the railway spur entered the factory site.

steve
Thursday 24th of August 2017 09:57:01 PM
Charging Shed Number 8. (Pin 1) Charging Shed No 8 was the first shed to go into production. Sheds 7, 6 and 5 were soon to follow. The charging shed layout was as follows. In the centre and running the length of the building beneath the glazed roof monitor were 5 small brick built machine rooms. The dimensions of each room was 3.6576m x 2.4384m approx... Each room contained 2 charging machines, these were enclosed inside of separate wooden booths which had glass observation windows through which the operator could view the shell filling hole alignment and charging process. Empty 6inch howitzer shells from the Receiving Sheds were brought into the reception gangway of the Charging Shed by truck and were feed into the various machine rooms and onto the charging machines via roller conveyers. After the shells had been filled with approximately 3.63 Kg of H.S (mustard gas) the shells were plugged on a plugging table and then loaded onto a truck in the material handling gangway to be transported to the adjacent Head Filling Shed for the next operation. When C.S 8 first went into production the average output per charging machine was 5 shells per hour but this increased as improvements were made to the charging machines and the addition of a fume extraction system. C.S 8 was the first unit to be fitted out with the Nobel design, Gravity Charging Machines. The machines were initially fed with H.S from a 909 Litre capacity header tank which was supported on a 3.51m high wooden gantry situated at the end of the charging shed that faces the River Severn. The gantry platform was provided with a roof to give protection to personnel when filling the feed tank. Drums of H.S with an approximate weight of 272Kg were manhandled up a ramp to the platform at the top of the gantry with the aid of ropes and the contents of the drums were siphoned into the storage tank. There is no evidence of these gantries in the Britain From Above photographs. Initially there were two types of drum in use, the first was similar to a modern 45 gallon drum but bound with iron hoops. This held the drum clear of the ground and made manoeuvrability less difficult. The second type was a steel barrel, the same pattern as that of a wooden barrel. These barrels are thought to have had a greater capacity and thus heaver and more difficult to manoeuver and haul up the ramp safely.

steve
Monday 21st of August 2017 12:53:43 AM
Charging Shed Number 8. (Pin 2) Supplies of H.S from Levinstein Ltd, of Manchester arrived at Chittening toward the end of June 1918. The Castner Kellner Company despatched 5 tons of H.S in drums at the beginning of July. A small consignment of H.S may have been received from Chance & Hunt. Meanwhile there was feverish activity at Avonmouth by the Explosives Supply Department to construct a pilot plant for the manufacture of H.S as a stop-gap until the main production plant was finished. Production of H.S on the pilot plant began on 3 July 1918. The full scale process started output on 11 September 1918, the hope was to produce 5 tons of H.S per day. As soon as the H.S feed system in Charging Shed 8 had been filled experimental charging trials began under laboratory supervision. The first production run began on July 8 1918.

steve
Monday 21st of August 2017 12:01:16 AM
Chittening Farm

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