World War One Audit of Surviving Remains
Date 3 October 2013
Event ID 964998
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type World War One Audit of Surviving Remains
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/964998
The military Ordnance Depot first appears , marked "Ordnance Stores", on the 2nd edition OS map (Perth & Clackmannan, surveyed 1899). At that date it comprised ten buildings of varying size, at the northern end of what be the final extent of the site. Six of the buildings were directly served by railway sidings The depot was linked to the goods sidings of Stirling Station at its southern end.
By the time of the 1922 Stirlingshire sheet nXVI.NE (25-inch map, surveyed 1914) the depot (still labelled "Ordnance Stores" had grown. There were now over 20 buildings, virtually all of which were adjacent to railway sidings. The mapping of War Office boundary stones suggests that the depot extended by this date as far north as Shore Road and incorporated Forthside House (NS79SE 259).
The depot seems to have remained at this size until at least 1938 (when the OS 6-inch map published in 1947 was surveyed). A 1:2500 map (surveyed 1942, published 1947) shows that there had been considerable expansion in the early years of the war.
Six buildings of the complex survive, three of which were on the 1899 map, and all on the 1913 survey. The largest, sometimes called 'barrack-like' but having large ground- and first-floor loading doors, the latter with a gantry over, seems unliekly as being for accommodation.
To its north four storage buildings, each with three loading doors on both floors, survive; the western pair were in place by 1899, the eastern by 1913. These buildings were served by two railway sidings running between them.
To the north again a sixth building, now isolated, stands. It was in place by 1913 and has a large south-facing door and a raised lantern running the length of the roof. On the 1913 map this building is shown as having a rail siding running to, and perhaps through, the southern door.
Information from HS/RCAHMS World War One Audit Project (GJB) 3 October 2013.
