Former War Department munitions depot

This is a former War Department magazine, originally built in 1889 and expanded in 1890, with some further additions constructed in 1938 or shortly after.

Materials and Construction

The buildings are mainly constructed of good quality brickwork, primarily laid in Flemish bond, with sandstone used for copings and some lintels. The roofing is generally corrugated sheeting, which has replaced the original slate.

Overall Layout

The original gunpowder magazine is set centrally within a walled enclosure. The building shown on the modern map attached to the north is thought to have been an agricultural building that has since been removed. Immediately to the south of the gunpowder magazine, forming part of the enclosure, is a guard block with a surviving part of the rail transhipment shed extending southwards. To the south there are two buildings clad in corrugated iron sheeting.

Forming the eastern side of the complex is a run of six north-south oriented brick-built buildings along with a smaller outbuilding, with the remains of a tramway running along their western side. These are believed to date to 1890, some with surviving signage indicating their former use as explosive and small arms ammunition stores. Immediately to the west there are three further store buildings thought to have been built about 1938.

The north-eastern corner of the complex is formed by an east-west oriented building also believed to date to 1890. Signage shows a previous use as a set of filled shell stores. The eastern extension to this building and the larger building to the north are both modern agricultural buildings. The north-western corner of the complex is formed by a terrace of three houses built in 1889.

Gunpowder Store (1889)

The gunpowder store consists of three tall store rooms accessed from a broad corridor along the west side. This corridor has pedestrian entrances at the north and south ends, and a broad loading door central to the west side. Extending around the north, east and south sides of the block of three store rooms is a narrow corridor accessed from the north end of the broad corridor and from an entrance lobby that projects south from the south-east corner.

The three stores form a single, tall block that is brick-built of pier and panel construction featuring dentils to the tops of the panels. The block is four panels east to west and six panels north to south. Each store room has its own hipped roof and a brick-built ventilator at the east end. The encircling corridor is of similar construction but of single storey height, raised on a plinth and with a flat roof.

The west side has a large loading entrance with an internal sliding door, the entrance being flanked by sash windows with stone lintels and sills. The narrower corridors to the other three sides are lit along the corridors by sash windows sited at the corners of the building.

Each store room has a central entrance from the broad western corridor flanked by sash windows with external shutters. Two of the store rooms retain original double doors with signage reading '1060 BARRELS' along with a metal flap covered peep-hole. The store rooms have lath and plaster ceilings and unplastered walls retaining evidence for staging and other features.

Wall, Guard Block and Transhipment Shed (1889)

The wall forms a rectangular enclosure with the guard block being central to the south side, the transhipment shed extending southwards from the enclosure. The wall is brick-built, approximately three metres tall with internal buttresses and rounded blue-brick coping. A section of the south side westwards from the guard block has been demolished.

The guard block is single storey, brick-built with brick-arched openings and a flat roof. At its east end is a single room with a doorway and sash window in the north wall and a second window to the east wall. To the west there is a single cell fully opened to the north with an arched opening wide enough for a cart or tramway truck, with a smaller blocked opening through the south wall linking to the platform of the transhipment shed, this being wide enough for a tramway truck with minimum clearance. The next cell is narrower, being a pedestrian entrance to the enclosure with doorways through the north and south walls. The westernmost bay of the building has been mostly demolished along with a section of the attached boundary wall.

The transhipment shed survives as a section of platform with four bays of a now roofless lightweight steel frame structure incorporating brick panels to form the eastern wall. This corresponds with the structure shown on the first edition 1:2,500 Ordnance Survey map.

Corrugated Iron Sheds (Built Before 1905)

The western shed is divided unequally into two rooms internally, whilst the eastern shed is undivided. Both have their entrances on their north side. Both sheds have corrugated side and gable walls with metal framed windows and segmentally curved corrugated iron roofs supported on lightweight steel trusses. The western shed has an internal brick skin and dividing wall, whilst the eastern shed has some surviving internal timber plank cladding.

Stores (Built Before 1905)

This is a row of seven buildings of varying sizes with north-south ridgelines, west-facing entrances and undivided interiors. A 20-inch gauge tramway runs along the west side. All are substantial, brick-built of pier and panel construction with stone coped gables and metal-framed windows. Roof structures are supported by lightweight steel trusses supporting timber purlins, the roof covering being under-boarded.

Building 1 (numbered from the north) is seven bays long with three double-doored entrances on the west side with corresponding windows on the east side, the openings being segmental brick arches. Painted signage over entrances is faded but probably reads 'SAA STORE', SAA being the abbreviation for small arms ammunition.

Building 2 is a very small brick-built shed with a single door and no window, linked to Building 1 with a late 20th-century breezeblock extension.

Building 3 is similar to Building 1 but has clearer painted signage reading 'SAA STORE No 14', '…15' and '…16' over the entrances.

Building 4 is of eight bays and is slightly more elaborate in its detailing, the tops of the panels being dentilated, openings having stone lintels. The building has two rather than three entrances but also has two windows to the west wall in addition to the two windows in the east wall opposite the doorways. Painted signage over the entrances reads 'EXPLOSIVES STORE'.

Building 5 is slightly lower in height but detailed similar to Building 1. It is of five bays with a single entrance to the centre which has lost its lintel. Rising from the south gable is a brick-built ventilator. The link to Building 6 is a late 20th-century extension.

Building 6 is the same design as Building 4, also carrying signage identifying it as an explosives store.

Building 7 is the same design as Building 5 but has a window to the left of the door and an arched doorway (partially blocked) in the southern gable.

Stores (Built About 1938)

This is a row of three buildings of differing designs but with north-south ridgelines and undivided interiors.

The northernmost building (east of Building 3 above) is detailed similarly to Buildings 4 and 6 but with its entrances on the east side, the southern entrance having an external sliding door, the northern entrance including the signage 'SAA STORE No 36'. It also has a segmentally arched window placed centrally to each gable.

The middle building (east of Building 5) is of lightweight steel-frame construction with brick infill panels that are pebble-dashed. It is of seven bays with a blocked central entrance and two timber-framed windows to the east side. It is linked to the southernmost building by a late 20th-century brick extension and has a low breeze block addition to the side.

The southernmost building is of seven bays. It is of plain brick construction (not pier and panel) with a roof with projecting verges, the roof structure having timber trusses and no boarding. It has an entrance central to the south gable with an attic level window above and a second entrance central to the west side. The east and west sides each have three windows.

Filled Shell Stores (Built Before 1905)

This is a single building with an east-west ridgeline and an undivided interior. It is detailed in a similar way to Building 4 but is larger, being longer and slightly wider. It is eleven bays long, the bays being slightly irregular. There are three wide entrances and two windows on the south side with two blocked windows on the north side. The gables have small attic level slit windows, the west gable having a large inserted entrance.

Houses (1889)

This is a terrace of three houses facing south, a mirrored pair to the west (with their entrances together), the eastern house having its entrance at the east end of the façade. Each house is two rooms deep with a third sited in the rear projection, the stairs rising from the entrance.

The terrace is brick-built, incorporating blue engineering brick courses at sill and lintel level and a dentilled eaves course. The pebble-dashed render covering much of the terrace is 20th century. Lintels are flat arches of rubbed bricks, sills are stone and project. Gables are raised and stone coped supported with kneelers. Chimneys are brick with dentilled cornices. Each house has paired windows to ground and first floors with a third window to the first floor set above the door. Windows are four-over-four pane sashes. Outbuildings to the rear have been demolished.

The interior was not fully inspected, being derelict at the time of survey with some sections of collapsed structural timberwork. However some original features such as built-in cupboards do survive.

Subsidiary Features

Further sections of the depot's tramway are expected to survive as buried features, along with other structures. Some of the original War Department boundary stones are also reported to survive. These features have not been mapped.