E test stand, control room and ancillary structures, former Royal Ordnance Establishment, Westcott

MATERIALS: reinforced concrete, steel, brick, plastic corrugated sheeting.

TEST STAND: E site is located in isolation in the middle of the northern test area at SP 71032 16961. It comprises a series of structures built on a concrete apron.

The test building itself is a large shed oriented north-west to south-east and built of concrete and steel. It has a hipped corrugated plastic sheet roof overlying a chain mail torpedo net supported on a grid frame of trusses and steel cables. The main elevation is the north-west entrance elevation which has corrugated sheet at the gable and large metal double doors, with a pedestrian door cut in, flanked by concrete blast walls. There is also an attached metal frame to the north-west. This was a loading gantry to aid the movement of the rocket motor for testing. A raised cable conduit joins the gantry and test stand with the control room. The test stand also has small extensions to the south-west and north-east. Inside the stand is a single space containing a metal framework with ladders and gantries for accessing and lifting the motor. A test photograph of July 1961 indicates that the loading gantry and lean-to lying to the south-west are original features; that the chain mail 'roof' was also original but was covered in corrugated sheet at a later date; that the south lean-to is a later addition and that the enclosure of the north-west elevation is also later, as it did not originally have an end wall here but was an open-ended structure. There is a concrete flume ramp to the north-west.

CONTROL ROOM: a rectangular concrete control building with a flat roof is located to the north of the test building. This has two paired pedestrian entrances in the north elevation which are solid metal doors reached by concrete steps. The interior is divided into an office and a control room by brick dividing walls, the latter retaining its control panel. The join between the walls and ceiling is chamfered, in concrete, for reinforcement. The 1956 layout plan indicates that the control room was to the west and the eastern room originally housed electronics. There is also a small rectangular brick building with a flat roof (no 59) to the south-east of the test stand which is shown as a pump house on the 1956 layout plan.

ANCILLARY STRUCTURES: there is a substantial angled concrete blast wall to the east of the site, which has been built in sections, and a plunge bath for use in case of accident (for the operators to wash off any accidental spillage of the liquid propellant).