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Annie Corrin sat on a chair. This is a black and white photo from the past.

Annie Corrin – Gretna Girl

By Collections blog

Annie Corrin left Port S. Mary in the Isle of Man, and went to work at the Gretna plant when she was 19. She remained there from August 1917 until early 1919. She received roughly 15/- per week, after board and lodging had been deducted. Despite the fact that these wages were considered to be high for the period after she had sent money to her home she couldn’t afford to go to the cinema or dances in Carlisle or Dornock.

 

Eventually she was billeted in the Central Hotel, near Carlisle station, which had been commandeered for the munition workers. However, about six months later the hotel became a hospital for the war wounded and the girls were sent to the hostels in the Gretna township. These hostels were usually newly erected wooden huts, and the one she was sent to was called “Florence Nightingale Hostel”.

 

Work at the plant as based on a three shift system 7.00am – 2.00pm, 2.00pm – 10.00pm and 10.00pm – 7.00am.

 

Annie had initially been sent to work in the Cordite Section, and was provided with a mop cap, tunic and trousers. Her job was to separate large trays of Cordite, by taking a small handful and smashing the end, to separate the strands. The strands were then put into boxes, similar to fish boxes and weighed. After this procedure had been completed, the boxes were provided with lids which were then nailed down.

 

After six months, she was transferred to outside work in the Loading Sheds. She was provided with an oilskin coat, and sou’wester hat, for this work. She was instructed by a man called ‘Geordie’ into the best methods of lifting and loading the boxes of cordite sticks on to the trucks. The girls then pushed these trucks outside on rail tracks, for about a mile to another shed. Although she never found out what happened in these sheds she does remember that there were usually a couple of girls lying outside in  what appeared to be a drunk state, cause by exposure to cordite.

 

Early in 1919 Annie left the Gretna Plant and returned to the Isle of Man.

Jonathan from ERIH presents Museum Chairman Richard Brodie with a certificate of membership for display within the Museum.

Visitor from European Route of Industrial Heritage

By Archive

The Devil’s Porridge Museum was very pleased to join the prestigious European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) at the end of 2019.  This weekend, we were visited by Jonathan, the British Representative of this organisation.  He thoroughly enjoyed his visit to the Museum and was most impressed by its quality and the originality of the history it recounts.

Jonathan from ERIH presents Museum Chairman Richard Brodie with a certificate of membership for display within the Museum.

Jonathan met with Judith, the Museum Manager and Richard, Museum Chairman to discuss opportunities for the Museum to get involved in ERIH projects and programmes and ways in which ERIH can help promote the Museum across Europe.  We hope to work with this organisation more in future.  For more details on ERIH (including a page on The Devil’s Porridge Museum), see: https://www.erih.net/

A map on display in The Devil's Porridge Museum.

New display within the Museum

By Archive

We have a new display within the Museum showing the Eastriggs depot after World War Two.  This site was originally HM Factory Gretna (the greatest munitions factory on earth in World War One).  After the War, most of the Factory plant was sold off but the land was retained by the MOD (who still own it today as ESD Eastriggs).

This aerial photograph, from Google Earth, shows Eastriggs (where the Museum is located) and the site of ESD Eastriggs on the Solway.

In World War Two, the site was used as a storage depot for weapons (we know some of the weapons from one of our local sites ended up in the USSR via the Arctic Convoys, for more detail see: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/world-war-two-ammunition-shipped-to-russia).  These two maps show the Eastriggs site after that period and will surely bring back memories for any who worked there or has memories of Eastriggs and area at that time.

ESD Eastriggs

Also on display in this area of the Museum is a Hawker Hurricane Rolls Royce Mark III Merlin Engine which dates from World War Two.

Thanks to Neil and Graham for creating this display (and getting the engine upstairs which was a challenge!) and to Calum for these photos and the temporary sign on the Engine (permanent interpretation panels will go on display soon).

If you are interested in World War Two in this area, this book is a must: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/product/the-solway-military-coast-book

If you are specifically interested in the depots of Eastriggs and Longtown in World War Two, this may interest you (this booklet is contained within The Solway Military Coast book as a chapter so no need to purchase both): https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/product/the-ministry-of-defence-depots-longtown-and-eastriggs

 

 

Quintinshill Signal Box

Quintinshill Signal Box

By Archive

A new object was put on display at the Museum over the Christmas break, it is a Caledonian Railway Type CRS4 from Quintinshill signal box. It was on display there for many years and can be seen below.

 

 

The Signal box (below) was opened in 1903 and had 45 levers. This object became the last operational CRS4 type box working the West Coast mainline between Gretna and Glasgow. The signal box closed in 1973 and control went to the Carlisle Signalling Centre.

 

 

If you would like to know more information about Quintinshill see one of our previous articles here: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/ww1-bugle-from-quintinshill

Front cover of an events booklet from 2020.

Events at the Museum in 2020

By Archive

The Devils Porridge are holding many events each month at the Museum this year. If you would like to know more information about these events you can see an overview below (more information will be on our Facebook page):

 

 

Group Gretna girls in World War One.

“The female excess”: the ‘problem’ of too many single women after World War One

By Collections blog

The Devil’s Porridge Museum’s main focus is on HM Factory Gretna, the greatest factory on earth in World War One.  It employed 30,000 people in the production of cordite (aka the devil’s porridge).  12,000 of these workers were women.

women who worked at hm factory gretna

A display within the Museum.

The majority of female workers were single and young.  We know that some women married while they working at Gretna and there were married women and those who had been widowed due to the War working at the Factory but the majority of the girls were probably affected by the post-War shortage of men.  The ‘lost generation’ i.e. the young men who died in the War meant that a lot of women remained unmarried and single women were perceived as a ‘problem’.

This article from the Times Newspaper in 1920 (published recently in their archive section), makes the point clear.  One cannot help but think of the 12,000 ‘Gretna Girls’.  They did so much to help win the War and it continue to impact on their lives in the decades to come.

1920s girl and the elusive male

This poem, written during the War by one of the female workers sums up how many of the girls may have felt: they were doing their duty, waiting for the boys to come home.  Sadly, many of the boys never did return and the course of the girls’ lives did not run in the way they had anticipated.

bravo gretna poem

If you would like to know more about the Lives of some of the Gretna Girls who made munitions at HM Factory Gretna in World War One, you might like this booklet (available from our online shop):

Lives of Ten Gretna Girls booklet

Someone carrying a haaf net down a beach.

February objects of the Month: Haaf nets

By Collections blog

This month’s object of the month display was created by Łukasz, from Annan Academy, who does work experience at the Museum every Thursday.

Lukasz removing the old object of the month from the cabinet ready for the new display.

Object of the Month – February

Haaf net fishing objects

The Museum’s current exhibition (running until March 31st) is on Haaf Net Fishing.  These objects have been loaned to the Museum by local haaf net fishermen.  We also have several other objects on loan in the exhibition including a full sized haaf net, a cleaning stick for stake nets (used to clean the nets when the tide was ebbing) and a fish storage box (a type used in Annan to transport fish packed in ice to London on the 6am train every morning except Sunday).

Object of the month cabinet

Fish Shipping Labels

These labels would be attached to boxes of fish for transport to markets in England.  Some are pre-printed, suggesting fish was sent regularly from the Solway to these destinations (London and Grimsby).  Other labels are blank so the address can be handwritten on.  Fresh fish from the Solway used to be a major source of income for local people and was shipped across the UK by rail in boxes packed with ice.  We were told by the donor of these objects that fish went out every day (except Sunday) at 6am on board the train from Annan.

Ancient Fishing Traditions photo courtesy of Allan Warwick and annanhaafnets.org

Objects for knitting a haaf net

Haaf nets were traditionally made of hemp.  They rotted away quite quickly and at least two nets had to be knitted each fishing season.  The knitting of the nets could be done by the fisherman himself or by his wife.

Ancient Fishing Traditions courtesy of of Allan Warwick and annanhaafnets.org.uk

The three objects to the left were used for knitting and the three objects to the right were used to make the nets the correct size.  The squares of the net needed to be the right size to catch the right kind of fish.

The largest, thickest block was for making nets to catch salmon (far right).

The medium, lighter coloured block was to make a net for catching trout (in the middle).

The long, thin block was used to make a net for catching herling (nearest).  A herling is a one year old trout.

These objects for knitting nets belonged to Slogger , the father of the donor of these objects and one of the organisers of the Haaf Net Exhibition.

Courtesy of annanhaafnets.org

For more details on our current exhibition see:

Haaf Net Fishing

To purchase items relating to Haaf Net fishing from our online shop:

https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/shop-online

For more details about Haaf Net fishing see (photographs of haaf net fishing used in this article, courtesy of this website):

http://www.annanhaafnets.org/

A selection of historic images can be seen here:

https://www.scran.ac.uk/database/results.php?QUICKSEARCH=1&search_term=haaf+net

 

 

 

 

 

A group of people stood by the animals in war memorial outside The Devil's Porridge Museum.

Dickin Medal

By Archive

The Devils Porridge has a fantastic new item on loan – a Dickin Medal. The Dickin Medal was created by Maria Dickin, founder of the PDSA in 1943 to recognise the brave contributions made by Animals in War. It has been awarded just 71 times – 31 dogs, 32 World War Two messenger pigeons, three horses and one cat have been awarded. The medal is on loan from the Royal Pigeon Racing Association (the RPRA) and is one of only three medals they have loaned from their collection across the UK. The medal commemorates ‘Dutch Coast’ a pigeon who delivered an SOS from a ditched air crew in 1942. The pigeon covered 288 miles in 7.5 hours. The entire crew were rescued as a result of this action.

“The Museum has a memorial outside to commemorate Animals In War” said Judith Hewitt, Museum Manager, “and last year members of our Young Historians Club worked with the RPRA and the Carlisle Animals In War group to curate an exhibition about all the animals who also served. We are delighted to be able to bring this rare object to our region and to share it with our visitors. It will go on display within the next few weeks and will offer something different for everyone (especially animal lovers) to see.”

The State Management Display inside The Devil's Porridge Museum.

State Management Display

By Archive

A recent visitor to the Museum took a photo during their visit of our State Management of alcohol display (specifically a bottle of Brandy which must date from the 1970’s at least!) here we share a little bit more about this unique social experiment in Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway.

Ten thousand (mainly Irish) navvies built HM Factory Gretna, the greatest factory on earth in World War One. They worked in difficult conditions to build the factory in a hurry and within eight months, it was fully operational and producing the Devils Porridge (cordite, an explosive)

The arrival of these hard working and hard drinking men caused social problems. Alcohol was a particular issue. On one famous night, ‘The Night of a Thousand Whiskies’, a barkeeper in Carlisle lined up 1000 shots of whisky for the navvies to consume. They drank their drink and then roamed around the streets of Carlisle raising hell. The residents of Carlisle and Annan were adamant: something had to change.

Some bottles of alcohol from the State Management Scheme

So the state took control of the alcohol supply: limiting people to buying one drink at a time, taking over the pubs, inns and taverns to make them more social with bowling greens and restaurants as well as producing their own alcohol (a weaker brew). This control of alcohol became known as the State Management Scheme or the Carlisle Experiment. It was introduced in World War One in response to a perceived immigrant disruption of social life but it remained long after the migrant navvies had left.

Statistics demonstrating the success of State Management

The State Management of Alcohol in parts of Cumbria and South West Scotland lasted until 1973. It is one of the most tangible impacts of HM Factory Gretna on this region. Many people from across the region were employed within state management.

 

The Devils Porridge Museum has a display relating to this experiment which showcases different bottles of wine, sherry and alcohol as well as showcasing beer pump stoppers, coasters and even dining sets (there were state managed hotels as well). A recent visitor donated to us a crate of State Managed beer. The bottles are full but I wouldn’t like to drink one! You often wonder what else is hiding out there in someone’s attic or garage and what part of the fascinating story of our region it helps to tell?

State Management Display in the Museum

A green house made out of plastic bottles.

Eco Greenhouse

By Archive

Over the weekend February 8th and 9th The Devils Porridge Eco Club would like your help to build a bottle green house at the Museum.

Many hands make light work so whether you can help over both days or just have a spare half hour to come along 12 till 2 on Saturday and Sunday.

 

The green house will be made using empty 2 litre plastic juice bottles so if you have any empty bottles between now and the even bring them along or drop them off at the Museum. (we will need a lot).

 

As well as building the green house there will be plenty of other gardening jobs to be done as we strive to get our Dig for Victory garden ready for Spring.

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