Gretna, Hm Factory, Eastriggs Explosives Factory
Barracks (First World War)
Site Name Gretna, Hm Factory, Eastriggs Explosives Factory
Classification Barracks (First World War)
Canmore ID 374011
Site Number NY26NW 46.09
NGR NY 24293 65505
NGR Description NY 24293 65505 centred
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/374011
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Dornock
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Annandale And Eskdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
WWI and WWII explosives stores situated SW of Eastirggs. The site is still used by the Ministry of Defence, access is still restricted. The site forms part of a larger area for which see NY26SE 10.
J Guy 1999; NMRS MS 810/6, 102-103 (vol.1)
The explosives works and stores are visible on a series of RAF WW II oblique aerial photographs (F 309, 10572-10591, flown 26 January 1942), which show the general layout of the works. The works are also visible on more recent vertical air photographs (All Scotland Survey [Jasair], 507 88 140-142, flown 10 June 1988), which show that much of the site had been abandoned by that date.
Information from RCAHMS (DE), April 2006
The site is now mainly used for explosives storage. Many of the huts and buildings with enclosing earth banks survive and the site retains a railway connection from the main line from Dumfries to Kilmarnock to Glasgow.
Information from RCAHMS (DE), April 2010
Field Visit (9 May 2022)
NY26NW 46.9
NY 24281 65506 (centred)
Nothing is visible of the eight buildings at Butterdale which were situated 425m WNW of the point where the main railway line (NY26NW 46.10) entered the Second World War security fence (NY26NW 46.11).
These buildings (of which there were eleven altogether) are identified as Military Barracks on the plan of the works (MMW 1919, plan) given with a Ministry of Munitions of War report outlining the processes involved in the manufacture of the cordite propellant during the First World War at H.M. Factory, Gretna (Site 3). They were rectangular on plan, measuring 18.5m from WNW to ESE by 4m transversely and spaced 8m apart. Ground-based photography taken during and after construction (MUN 5-297 pt1, 245; Pearson Collection 309) held by the National Archives at Kew, illustrates the character of the buildings. They were low, single storey, timber-built structures, with raised floors and rubberoid ridged roofs from which emerged a simple chimney. They had six windows in the SSW elevation and a single doorway in the ESE gable. The plan and one of the photographs (Pearson Collection 309) also shows a small timber hut (NY 24338 65551) with a ridged roof to their ESE. This was also rectangular on plan and measured 12m from NNE to SSW by 3m transversely.
Visited by HES Industrial Archaeological Survey (Miriam McDonald and Adam Welfare) 9 May 2022
