[NorthMancBeds]

I was visiting my parents on Saturday, who live in Chorley, and thought it was about time I had a look at the scant remnants of the ROF. I have been kicking myself for some time for not actually having made this as it was being decommissioned, though my folks would have me believe that there were some serious site restrictions even then due to significant ground remediation works. I grew up not a mile away and had a neighbour who would bring home inert chemicals like copper-sulphate, for me to examine under a junior microscope. The perimeter wall was this intangibly high brick edifice that kept all of the secrets of the bomb factory hidden inside. Local rumours of massive underground sections and tunnels connecting all the way to the Heapy depot kept the ROF in the imagination of a young mind.

link to forum for Heapy discussion.

The ROF was effectively a small town, employing 35,000 people at its peak. The entire facility was ‘missing’ from OS maps at the time and was later drawn, but labeled only as ‘works’. These two extracts show the difference:


1973


1993


This aerial photo from Google Maps shows a large area of disturbed ground, this was the extent of the site. It is now being developed with warehouses, office parks and housing, it is surprising just how much has been obliterated without trace.


Another aerial shot from English Heritage from 1996 shows the sheer number of structures on site, all now gone.

My intention had been to look at an area that until relatively recently had been operated by BAe Systems, but mild caution lead to a tentative crossing of the threshold into a site monitored by CCTV. I grabbed a few snaps and then headed off, keen to actually arrive at the folks on time and not be held up by any security encounters.


One of the few remaining structures within the main site. I suspect this is a substation or gas inlet valves(?)


A channeled section of stream runs through where many buildings have been demolished.

Before I left I was somehow drawn to take a glance at the railway; I remember a ‘ghost’ station on the Leyland branch line from when we used to take the train to Preston. Apparently this was demolished in 1996 and hadn’t carried workers to the site since the 1960s.


On the other side of the tracks was a pillbox!

This really caught my attention as it was clearly designed to protect the railway and had previously been within the ROF secure perimeter. Some of the administration buildings from the ROF remain on the south side of the railway along Euxton Lane, these have been interspersed with new office units and as such the pillbox was accessible from this side.


As I approached I became fairly excited about the visible ladder and the apparent two-storey nature of the structure. This was unusual and was outside of my knowledge of pillbox typology. I was aware that the ROF sites often had more specific variant types, but had never seen one like this before. It certainly does not fit any of the defined and numbered ‘types’, but is similar to 2n and 2p on pages 125, 126 and 128 of Mike Osbourne’s Pillboxes of Britain and Ireland (BTW, thanks Kitty for the reference there). Both 2n and 2p are described as “constructed of brick, with pre-fabricated loopholes and a concrete slab roof”, which pretty much describes what is here too.


Slab to roof


Looking out of entrance


The lower level has no loopholes, or indeed apertures, other than the entrance. There are two small chambers of equal size, separated by a masonry partition. The lid of the entrance chamber is the external platform to the upper section, accessed by an iron ladder.


In the upper section, most of the central prefab units for the loopholes were on the floor, kids had used them as seats for drinking and smoking sessions by the looks of it; one remains intact.


The chambers are split as per the lower level and there are three loopholes in each section.


The most enticing view is out along the railway line.


The wall adjacent and the remnants of the steel fencing which would have carried barbed wire are clearly contemporary too and part of the pillbox’s design, it is an incredibly ‘neat’ little unit.


This find has really excited me as you can probably tell. I would be keen to hear from the WWII folk on here about their thoughts on its apparently ‘unique’ design.

AndyM has some data on his flickr page and pictures of now demolished structures from other parts of the site.

Wikipedia link to history



Interestingly enough whilst researching this, I found out about the Airey pre-fab houses, manufactured at ROF Chorley and other places, some of which I had photographed last year in Satterthwaite. All in all, a valuable learning incident that started with a whim.

peace
NMB

[NorthMancBeds]

Found a few more links about the ROF and Heapy with pics.

Rare pictures of the depot at Heapy

Photoset from now demolished section of ROF Chorley

Photoset with another pillbox built into a wall

peace
NMB