East guardhouse, at entrance to former Eastriggs munitions factory

East Guardhouse at Former Eastriggs Munitions Factory Entrance

Built in 1916 by the Ministry of Munitions with mid to late 20th century additions and alterations, the former main entrance to the Eastriggs site of His Majesty's Explosives Factory Gretna comprises two guardhouses and two associated gatepiers. These structures are located at the end of a minor, latterly private road, approximately 560 metres southeast from the junction of Melbourne Avenue, The Crescent and The Ridge in the village of Eastriggs.

Architectural Description

The two guardhouses are detached, multi-phase, single-storey buildings, roughly L-shaped on plan and constructed in red brick with raised brickwork quoins and cills.

The principal north elevation of the east guardhouse is roughly five bays wide with a small, flat-roofed, rectangular-plan entrance extension attached to its west elevation. There is a timber veranda running along its west elevation forming a covered walkway. The west guardhouse is four bays wide and has a similar timber veranda along its east elevation. The veranda columns sit on low, squared concrete plinths.

The window and door openings are mostly boarded up. Some of the window openings have 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case frames, visible from inside. The roofs of each guardhouse are piended and swept and are covered in slates. The east guardhouse has a central chimneystack along the roof ridge and there are a mixture of metal and plastic rainwater goods throughout. The flat-roofed verandas are covered in felt.

The interior of the guardhouses largely dates from the mid to late 20th century. The internal walls are of painted and exposed brick. There are no historic fixtures or fittings, such as original doors or lights. The fireplaces have been blocked up and a number of rooms have been reconfigured and some window and door openings changed. There is a later toilet block extension on the west elevation of the west guardhouse, which is excluded from the listing.

The tall, square-plan gatepiers are chamfered and constructed in brick with a decorative concrete band a little above the centre point of each. The tops of the gatepiers are corniced and are surmounted by squared concrete slabs. The remains of 20th century electric lamp fittings are set into each concrete top. Each gatepier is connected to a guardhouse by a squared brickwork entranceway with concrete band decoration, forming a pedestrian walkway on each side.

Historical Context

The Eastriggs site, commonly known as Eastriggs, Dornock or Site III, was part of the industrial munitions production complex known as His Majesty's Explosives Factory Gretna. The factory was developed in direct response to a single issue: an insufficient supply of small and large calibre munitions during the First World War, commonly known as the 1915 shell crisis, which was widely publicised in the press. Trench warfare was an essentially static form of warfare and used large numbers of shells and explosives to control the lines held. As a result, stocks of shells were soon depleted. This created a need for large-scale supplies of key constituents, such as the propellant Cordite RDB (Research Department formula B), which was a key constituent of shell production. The Ministry of Munitions was formed in 1915 to oversee and coordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort.

The purpose-built complex at His Majesty's Explosives Factory Gretna spanned an area of around 12 kilometres from Mossband near Longtown in the east to Dornock and Eastriggs in the west. Its function was to exploit innovations in industrial chemistry and large-scale manufacturing to produce cordite propellant during the First World War. The construction of the Eastriggs site began in 1915 and formed the westernmost part of His Majesty's Explosives Factory Gretna, covering approximately 1000 hectares, 5 kilometres by 2 kilometres. Constructed by around 10,000 mostly Irish workers, the first factory workers arrived at His Majesty's Factory Gretna in March 1916. The Eastriggs site was the start of the production process. It was here that raw and constituent materials were deposited by rail and processed into chemicals such as acids, explosive constituents nitro-glycerine and nitro-cellulose or gun cotton, before being turned into the finished explosive, cordite RDB. These constituents were stored on site before being transported by rail, eastwards, for finishing and storage at Gretna and Longtown.

Building plans, dated April 1916, show the guardhouses at the Eastriggs entrance were constructed as police offices. The east guardhouse housed 7 rooms, including a search room, waiting room, Commandant's room, clerk and assistant rooms, detention room and matron's room. The west guardhouse was smaller and housed five similar rooms, including a cell, with the provision for later extension westwards if required. The east and west guardhouses had a veranda on their west and east elevations respectively, forming two covered pedestrian walkways. The east guardhouse entrance was designated for women, the west one was for men.

A historic photograph taken around 1916 to 1918 shows the guardhouses flanking the main road into the factory site with two brick and timber-constructed, rectangular-plan buildings (the parcels and checks offices) to the southwest. These contemporary buildings were demolished sometime between 1924 and 1940. They are not shown on a 1940 aerial photograph but are shown on a 1924 sales map. This photograph shows dirt tracks connecting the entrance buildings and large metal gates between the gatepiers and guardhouses.

After the First World War ended, the high level of output was no longer required and the number of workers employed at Eastriggs was significantly reduced. In 1921 the Ministry of Munitions proposed the closure of the Eastriggs factory. The entire His Majesty's Factory Gretna, including the townships at Gretna and Eastriggs and the Longtown (Mossband) and Eastriggs (Dornock) factory areas, was put up for sale by auction at the County Hall in Carlisle in July 1924. The auction catalogue outlines around 600 lots, including stone, brick and steel-constructed factory buildings as well as public buildings and around 300 houses. Smaller auctions of dismantled steelwork, iron and timber are recorded in the same year in Hamilton. Attempts to sell or re-purpose the factory largely failed, and the site lay dormant for a number of years.

By 1936, the factory ground at Eastriggs was described as a mass of dismantled and broken-down buildings. By the late 1930s, part of the Eastriggs site was acquisitioned and utilised under the national defence programme. The site was reused and adapted for large-scale munitions storage during the Second World War and into the 21st century as ESD Eastriggs (Explosive Storage Depot Eastriggs). The Longtown site also became a storage depot in 1938 and continues in use as such today in 2022.

Aerial and oblique photographs taken in 1940, 1963 and 1975 clearly show the L-shaped footprint of both guardhouses with the addition of some extensions over time, particularly to the western elevation of the west guardhouse. The buildings have continued to be used for their intended purpose as a security point and guardhouse complex. A photograph taken in 1996 shows the guardhouses and gatepiers in much the same configuration except for the addition of a flat-roofed, Ministry of Defence police station extension to the north elevation of the east guardhouse.

ESD Eastriggs closed as an ammunition depot in about 2010.