Report - War Department Depot.....Rainford.

[Lister]

I've always been intrigued by this strange shape on the local OS map & after about 20 years I finnaly got round to taking a look a few months ago. It was only intended as a quick rekky but turned out as an 2 hour mootchy explore.

There are about 17 ordanance storage bunkers on the site along with smaller buildings, toilet blocks & pill boxes. Looking at the aerial view onFlashearththere is a faint line which goes north & then turns to the west near the railway line so I guess it was rail connected at on time, possibly in some way to the ordanance factory in nearby Kirkby.
The whole of the site is now industrial units housed within the bunkers with plenty of 'No trespassing' signs so a trip round the pack & across the fields with the freindly horses was in order!
Anyway some pics:-

Pill box

Outer road

Toilet block

Block on stilt foundations!

Remains on a lampost!

Rear on one of the bunkers

Front view

Another one!

Vent!

 

[Woghead1977]

Hi. I worked on there about 21 years ago when all the sheds were used to grow turkeys. Some of the sheds still had their big old steel doors on them and a few still had the conveyor belts at the front that led into the sheds were they must of unloaded ammo. I was told they had that extra curtain wall with soil around them incase of explosion so the blast was contained and the roof would fall onto ofincase of explosi

 

[Lister]

Thanks for the info

 

[TheTimeChamber]

Good to see another local ordnance depot! Nice

 

[Ordnance]

It was a 'Royal Ordnance Factory' Ammunition Holding Depot for nearby ROF Kirkby run by the Ministry of Supply