Gretna, Hm Factory, Eastriggs Explosives Factory, Acids Section, Gas Producers Plant

Canmore ID: 375017

NY26SW 38.29

NY 25008 64933

A concrete floor (NY 25008 64933), overgrown by thorn, moss, and grass, is situated in dense deciduous scrub woodland about 37m SSW of the Acids Compound and 32m of the Nitroglycerine and Denitrated Acid Store (NY26SW 38.27). It is rectangular on plan, measuring about 82m from WNW to ESE by 8m transversely. At the WNW end there is a row of seven small, pyramidical concrete footings for steel stanchions spaced about 5m apart, while midway along the N side there are two similar concrete footings suggesting an outshot in this direction. The floor of this building is situated immediately NNE of a section of the broad grass-grown mound that conceals the Main Flue (NY26SW 38.30) running WNW to the Retort Houses (NY26SW 38.11, NY26SW 38.12), the Nitric Acid Still House (NY26SW 38.31) and ESE to the Gaillard Towers (NY26SW 38.26). The Gas Producers Plant is also linked to a chimney base (NY 25005 64919) to its SSE situated midway along the structure.

The building is identified as a Gas Producers Plant on the plan of, and in text referring to, the works (MMW 1919, plan, 109-115, diagram) given in the report by the Minis-try of Munitions of War outlining the processes involved in the manufacture of cordite propellant during the First World War at H.M. Factory, Gretna (Site 3). It was here that coal gas was produced for the combustion chambers of the Gaillard Towers (NY26SW 38.26), the Nitric Acid Retorts, the Nitric Acid Stillhouse and for superheating steam the Denitration Plant (NY26SW 38.28). The diagram illustrates that the building was a single storey, single bay, steel-framed structure with a ridge roof rising to a height of 10.5m. The coal was delivered by a standard gauge railway running along the N side of the building. The chimney was for ‘burning out’ the waste gases. Ground-based, contemporary official photographs (MUN 5-297 pt2, 225, 251A, 284, 313; MUN 5-297 pt3, 389, 453, 475) taken during and after construction held by the National Archives Kew also show that while the roof of the Gas Producers Plant was clad with corrugated iron sheets, these only extended part-way down the sides of the building with gaps being left for ventilation between the individual sheets. The brick-built flues, here rising to a height of at least 2m above the ground surface, offered additional shelter on the S side.

The building fell into lot 508, which was offered for sale by auction on 22-5 July 1924 (HM Treasury 1924, 101), when the lot was divided between J. M. Temple, Blackhills, Eastriggs and Messrs James Jackson & Co Ltd, St Vincent Street, Glasgow (Carlisle City Archives, DX 2040/3). After its removal from the site, only the foundations were left in place and these together with the whole course of the main flue and the two branches on the S, are readily visible on an aerial photograph (M124/13 04117) flown on 19 August 1940.

Visited by HES Heritage Recording (MMD and ATW), 11 May 2022.