Flax Bourton Underground Fuel Depot was an MoD fuel depot, part of the Government Pipelines and Storage System (GPSS) with its own railway sidings. The site is now disused and used for sheep farming.
This site had so much potential and looks impressive on Google Earth. I went hoping for an interesting explore but it turned out that every door or hatch was padlocked with up to 3 padlocks each. Still I was able to walk around the site with ease despite the warning signs on the fence saying hidden cameras in trees and strangely “children will be prosecuted”. Well I’m not a child, so I felt relaxed on this explore safe in the knowledge that adults were welcome here. Anyways whoever owns this site now must had gone to Homebase and bought about 400 padlocks and is now carrying one hell of a key bunch in his pocket.
Whilst the explore was disappointing, I’m posting this up as this site did appear as a lead on these forums back in 2011 by WhoDaresWins and that lead caused a fair amount of discussion at the time. The site has also recently been added onto a locations map in a regional section of these forums by @Seffy as a site to be done - so I assume there would be interest in me posting this up. This is the first actual report of the site.
HISTORY
The Government Pipelines and Storage System (GPSS) was initially built during World War II and was used to supply fuel for Operation Pluto (the supply of fuel across the Channel to France to support Operation Overlord). It was originally owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and operated by the Oil and Pipelines Agency (OPA) on the MoD's behalf.
It seems that the Flax Bourton depot was built in the 1950s and it's railway sidings (known as Tyntesfield Sidings) built in 1956-7 to serve the depot.
The depot in the 1970s:
In May 2012 the UK Government announced plans to sell all or part of the GPSS and legislation to enable it to do so was included in the Energy Act 2013.
Three years after announcing the plan to sell GPSS, on 20 March 2015, the GPSS was acquired by Spanish oil network operator Compañía Logística de Hidrocarburos (CLH) for £82m. The MoD also signed a contract with CLH for the military to be continued to be supplied with fuel via the GPSS. The sale did not include the six coastal Oil Fuel Depots owned by the MoD, which continued to be operated and maintained by the residual OPA.
Following its acquisition by CLH, the GPSS was subsequently renamed the CLH Pipeline System (CLH-PS).
THE EXPLORE
The site consists of 6 large earth-covered circular fuel tanks, and another 2 underground tanks that are run into a natural hillside.
Unfortunately all doors were padlocked
On top of each tank were various vents and hatches. Again all padlocked, and I did check every one.
The railway sidings ran through the site, with a few remains of wooden sleepers
This was only building/structure that could be entered and was once a pump house:
Next door was a larger building which could not be entered, but here's a shot taken through a window:
Finally the tanker loading/unloading area:
Thanks for reading
This site had so much potential and looks impressive on Google Earth. I went hoping for an interesting explore but it turned out that every door or hatch was padlocked with up to 3 padlocks each. Still I was able to walk around the site with ease despite the warning signs on the fence saying hidden cameras in trees and strangely “children will be prosecuted”. Well I’m not a child, so I felt relaxed on this explore safe in the knowledge that adults were welcome here. Anyways whoever owns this site now must had gone to Homebase and bought about 400 padlocks and is now carrying one hell of a key bunch in his pocket.
Whilst the explore was disappointing, I’m posting this up as this site did appear as a lead on these forums back in 2011 by WhoDaresWins and that lead caused a fair amount of discussion at the time. The site has also recently been added onto a locations map in a regional section of these forums by @Seffy as a site to be done - so I assume there would be interest in me posting this up. This is the first actual report of the site.
HISTORY
The Government Pipelines and Storage System (GPSS) was initially built during World War II and was used to supply fuel for Operation Pluto (the supply of fuel across the Channel to France to support Operation Overlord). It was originally owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and operated by the Oil and Pipelines Agency (OPA) on the MoD's behalf.
It seems that the Flax Bourton depot was built in the 1950s and it's railway sidings (known as Tyntesfield Sidings) built in 1956-7 to serve the depot.
The depot in the 1970s:
In May 2012 the UK Government announced plans to sell all or part of the GPSS and legislation to enable it to do so was included in the Energy Act 2013.
Three years after announcing the plan to sell GPSS, on 20 March 2015, the GPSS was acquired by Spanish oil network operator Compañía Logística de Hidrocarburos (CLH) for £82m. The MoD also signed a contract with CLH for the military to be continued to be supplied with fuel via the GPSS. The sale did not include the six coastal Oil Fuel Depots owned by the MoD, which continued to be operated and maintained by the residual OPA.
Following its acquisition by CLH, the GPSS was subsequently renamed the CLH Pipeline System (CLH-PS).
THE EXPLORE
The site consists of 6 large earth-covered circular fuel tanks, and another 2 underground tanks that are run into a natural hillside.
Unfortunately all doors were padlocked
On top of each tank were various vents and hatches. Again all padlocked, and I did check every one.
The railway sidings ran through the site, with a few remains of wooden sleepers
This was only building/structure that could be entered and was once a pump house:
Next door was a larger building which could not be entered, but here's a shot taken through a window:
Finally the tanker loading/unloading area:
Thanks for reading
