Skip to main content
Category

Collections blog

Group of Broom Lassies.

ICI Powfoot Membership Card

By Collections blog

This card was issued to a worker at ICI Powfoot which was built during the Second World War. The worker which the card was given to lived in Annan. The Museum has a display within it all about ICI Powfoot and the Broom Lassies who worked there during the Second World War.

 

This is the front of the Membership Card which was given to all of the workers at ICI Powfoot.

In 1940 the government were looking for somewhere to build a munitions factory, they once again looked towards the Solway as an area to build their factory due to the easy access to water and good railway access to transport munitions to other parts of the country. The Ministry of Supply was responsible for ensuring there were ample supplies of  explosive  propellants  for  filling  guns,  shells  and  rifle  cartridges  at  Royal Ordnance Factories across Britain. Thus, the Ministry worked closely with the experts   of   the   privately-owned   Imperial   Chemical   Industries (ICI)   to manufacture the required propellants and high explosives.

 

This shows the inside of the Membership Card and the details of the worker who owned it.

In  early  1940,  the  Broom  Farmhouse  and  outbuildings  near  the  Victorian fishing  village  of  Powfoot,  was  requisitioned  by  the Ministry  of  Supply  to  be used as the site for ICI Powfoot. Construction began in Spring 1940, with Edinburgh based firm A.M. Carmichael contracted to build the factory, drafting in over 600 tradesmen from both sides of the Border to ensure the site was operational by Spring 1941.

 

This is a photo of ICI Powfoot from above and what it looks like today.

At its peak the factory employed over 4000 people, most of which were female. The female workers at ICI Powfoot became known as the Broom Lassies as the factory was built on Broom Farm. almost  90%  of  single women and 80% of married women were employed in essential work for the war effort. Many women in the Annan area were forced to leave their jobs in other  industries  and  were  conscripted  to  work  in  local  munitions  factories, predominately ICI Powfoot.

 

The following books/booklets on this subject are available from the Museum’s online shop:

The Solway Military Coast book

 

Illustration of a child dressed as a police women on a postcard.

Women’s Police Service at HM Factory Gretna

By Collections blog

Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be focusing on one interesting aspect of HM Factory Gretna – the Women’s Police Service.

This first post provides introductory information, then we’re going to take a look in more detail at some of the documents and accounts in the Museum collection.

During World War One, 12,000 women worked at HM Factory Gretna.  They were mainly young, unmarried women and the Ministry of Munitions felt responsible for them, taking several actions which they saw as being for the girl’s own protection. We might now view curfews, searches and the largest women’s police service in Britain as restrictive, but at the time there was a War on and the measures were seen as necessary.

All work at HM Factory Gretna came under the Official Secrets Act. There was large police presence, this building in Gretna was once the police HQ, it still stands and is now converted into flats.

The Devil’s Porridge Museum has several items in its collection and archive which relate to the Women’s Police Service.  There were over 150 members of this unit and they were, on the whole older, better educated middle class women who policed the younger, less educated, working class women who made up the majority of the Factory employees.  These young women were known as the ‘Gretna Girls’ although they came from all over Britain and worked in a Factory which stretched as far as Longtown.  For example, we know one female police officer was born in Braithwaite, Cumbria.

Members of the WPS outside the Women’s Police Barracks, Gretna in World War One.

The Museum archive includes documents about the training of the female police force and their uniforms, photographs of them and the buildings associated with them (one of which, the Police HQ in Gretna, still stands and is now flats).  An interesting document is a petition to Winston Churchill for improved pay.  This dates from 1918 when Churchill was Minister of Munitions and includes the signatures of lots of women employed in this role.  We are also fortunate to have a women’s police truncheon and WPS badge on display in the Museum.

Ministry of Munitions WPS badge from the Museum collection.

What did the women police do?  We know they inspected the girls as they entered and exited the Factory (for example one young woman tried to sneak in her knitting, another some cigarettes, one tried to steal some cordite).  They also policed the morals of the girls (breaking up a kissing couple on the railway platform, maintaining the 10pm curfew and inspecting the back rows of the two factory cinemas).  At the end of the War, some women remained in police service while others returned to their families or other employment.

That’s the end of Part One, Part Two coming soon.

If you’d like to know more about HM Factory Gretna and women in World War One, the following items from our online shop might interest you:

Gretna’s Secret War

Lives of Ten Gretna Girls booklet

https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/product/munition-workers-poems

The Devil’s Porridge Museum Guidebook

Shell damage to a goods waggon at West Hartlepool.

WW1 Railway Wagon Postcard

By Collections blog

This postcard (from the Museum’s collection) shows an explosion within a railway wagon during World War One.  Transporting munitions by rail was dangerous and at HM Factory Gretna (the factory which is the main focus of The Devil’s Porridge Museum) they took several precautions when transporting cordite including the use of fireless locomotives such as Sir James (now outside the Museum).

 

 

Although the railway stations were crowded at this time and both the West Hartlepool passenger station and goods station yard were hit, only rolling stock was damaged with no loss of life.

 

A fireless locomotive is a type of locomotive which uses reciprocating engines powered from a reservoir of compressed air or steam, which I filled at intervals from an external source. Typical usage was in industrial switching where a traditional locomotive was too noxious or risky, such as in a mine or a food or chemical factory (such as HM Factory Gretna). They were used at HM Factory Gretna as they were less likely to cause an explosion, this means that it was easier to transport the munitions across the Factory site without the risk of a huge chain explosion.

 

 

 

This photo is also from the Museum’s collection and shows HM Factory Gretna during its construction.  It has the title “Site 2 showing the scene of the accident” and is dated July 19th 1916.  It seems there may have been a railway accident at the Factory as well.

 

If you would like to know more about railways at HM Factory Gretna, you might find the following booklet of interest: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/product/hm-factory-gretnas-unique-railway-system-booklet

An ARP whistle.

Donation of ARP whistle

By Collections blog

A recent object donation led to the uncovering of a lot of interesting information…

An Air Raid Precaution (or ARP) whistle from World War Two was recently donated to Museum.  It was found in 1964 by the donor, an avid trainspotter, when he was just 14 years old.  He found it at the bottom of a railway wagon (in a pile of old grease).

The railway line as seen from the Signal Box (photo courtesy D.Wilson).

The rolling stock had been left on a railway siding near Shankend on the Old Waverley Line, eleven miles South of Hawick and had interesting markings on the side of it which is why he thought the whistle should be donated to The Devil’s Porridge Museum with its focus on the history of Longtown, Gretna, Eastriggs and surrounding areas in both World Wars and beyond.  On the wagon was written “W.D.Ordnance Gretna” with faded red “Explosives” warnings on each side of it.

In World War Two, Eastriggs and Longtown were the site of ammunition stores (or depots) and we know munitions were transported from them to the North African Campaigns, to Normandy for D-Day and to the USSR via the Atlantic Convoys.

Munitions storage at either Eastriggs or Longtown depot (photograph probably after World War Two).

The Arctic convoys transported items to the USSR (including munitions which had been stored at Eastriggs and Longtown).

It seems munitions regularly travelled north from our region as the object donor writes,

“…during WW2, at night freight trains came up from Gretna Munitions Depot, and the wagons full of various Munitions were hidden in the…[mile long] Whitrope Tunnel…to protect them from being bombed…”  The whistle was found in a wagon that had been abandoned after derailing during the War, it may have belonged to one of the workers from Gretna who came to reload the train after the accident.

ARP display within The Devil’s Porridge Museum.

We certainly found it interesting to place the work done here in the context of the wider war and one of our volunteers shared another interesting bit of information about this section of railway line.  It is located near Stobs, which was a World War One POW internment camp.  Several years ago, a BBC Sound Recordist went to the railway to record steam engines but when he listened back to his recording he could hear German voices on the tape and was amazed to discover he had been standing near the cemetery where German POWs had been buried all those years ago.

For more on Stobs POW camp see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stobs_Military_Camp

If you are interested in the History of World War Two in this region, this book (available from our online shop), may be of interest to you:

The Solway Military Coast book

 

The royal visit to HM Factory Gretna during WW1 with exicted munitions workers.

John Charles Burnham Part 3

By Collections blog

John Charles Burnham comes to Gretna

 

In 1915 Burnham was loaned by his employers to the Ministry of Munitions and became Director of the Board of Management and Superintendent at H.M. Factory, Gretna a post which he held until 1921. During his time at Gretna, he was responsible for the smooth operation of the greatest factory in the world. Spanning nine miles across the Anglo-Scottish border and encompassing two purpose built townships, employing 30,000 people and creating over half of all the cordite produced in Britain during the War. Burnham oversaw it all.

 

In 1917 the King and Queen visited Gretna and Burnham was an integral part of their experience and can be seen in the photograph below standing in between the King and the other man (he is in the middle, walking slightly behind them).

At the end of the War, Burnham was a major part of the Armistice celebrations (his speech on November 11th 1918 was recorded in the local paper, the Annandale Observer as shown below).

 

John Charles Burnham.

John Charles Burnham Part 2

By Collections blog

John Charles Burnham in India

 

1894 – 1899

 

Burnham moved to India to work as Chief Chemist in an experimental Cordite Factory in Kirkee which is in the state of Maharashtra in West Central India (Mumbai is in the same state). The factory was listed as producing small arms and pistol ammunition. It is still there today.

 

1899 – 1915

Burnham was appointed Manager and Chemist at the Government of India Explosives Factory, Aruvankadu Nilgiris in the state of Tamil Nadu in Southern India. This factory produced Cordite and gun cotton (and still produces explosives today).

 

His advice was sought by the Government on many occasions, and his services were recognised by the award of the Companion of the Star of India (CSI) in 1911 at the Delhi Durbar which was hosted by King George V and Queen Mary (photographed below).

 

You can see our previous article about John Charles Burnham here: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/john-charles-burnham

 

If you enjoyed this article then the following books (available from our online shop) may be of interest to you:

Gretna’s Secret War

The Devil’s Porridge Museum Guidebook

Postcard of a ship the HMS Birmingham.

HMS Birmingham

By Collections blog

This is a postcard from our Museum store which shows a photo of the WW1 ship HMS Birmingham. HMS Birmingham was launched on the 13th of May 1913 and was commissioned in February 1914. She joined the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet in 1914, visiting Keil in June that year.

 

On August 9th 1914, she spotted the U-15, whose engines had failed as she lay stopped on the surface in heavy fog, off Fair Isle. The crew of Birmingham could hear hammering from inside the boat from attempted repairs, and so fired on her but missed. As the U-boat began to dive, she rammed her, cutting her in two. U-15 went down with all hands, the first U-boat loss to an enemy warship. Birmingham also sank two German merchant ships that year and took part in the battle of Heligoland on August 28th and the battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915. In February 1915, she joined the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron, Attacking a U-boat on 18th June 1915 with no success.

 

She also took part in the battle of Jutland as a member of the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron, during which she sustained damage caused by splintering during the night of the battle.

After the First World War, she was flagship for the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron in 1919-1920, after which she was transferred to the Nore from 1920-1922. Considered (with two other two shaft ‘Towns’) for conversion to a mine layer, but the idea was not pursued. She was recommissioned in November 1923 to the Africa Station with the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron as flagship, relieving Lowestoft. She then continued to serve in foreign stations until being sold in 1931. She arrived at the yards of Thos W Ward, of Pembroke dock on 12th March that year to be broken up.

 

If you’re interested in the history of the Second World War, you might find this book from our online shop of interest: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/product/the-solway-military-coast-book

Construction of a sub-station at H M Factory Gretna in 1916. This is an archive photo.

The builders of HM Factory Gretna

By Collections blog

One of the most remarkable things about HM Factory Gretna was the speed with which it was built in World War One.  Construction started in 1915 in response to the Shell Crisis.  There was an urgency about the work done here, the Factory was needed to produce RDB Cordite and to help turn the tide of the War.

Constructing the Ether Plant in 1916.

The construction work was done by 10,000 mainly Irish navvies.  Many of them would have worked on other major construction sites such as railway lines and canals.  They worked hard and lived an itinerant lifestyle.  For example, we know of one family who were all in Eastriggs during World War One (several of them got married while they worked here) and were later all in Middlesborough by 1921.

Navvies became associated with anti-social behaviour and crime due. The actions of a few seems to have tarnished the reputation of the many.  This article from the local newspaper is typical of the sorts of crimes which occurred in the early days of the Factory.

Recently, a family history researcher approached the Museum about their family’s connections with the Factory.  They wanted to know more about the role of navvies and to see if we have any documents relating to their family member.  We were unable to find any specific reference to the individuals involved but the researcher found the other information we provided (including photographs of the Factory construction and information about working conditions and newspaper reports very interesting).

They gave us permission to share their family’s connections with HM Factory Gretna here and we are also keeping a copy in our archive of workers.  We are very grateful to them for sharing this information with us.

The marriage certificate of Christopher Maloney and Catherine Maguire in Carlisle Roman Catholic Church (many navvies were RC and two churches were built for those of this faith) in 1916. He gave his address as No 2 Hut, Mill Hill, Kirkandrews, Gretna and his occupation as General Labourer.

After the War, Christopher and Catherine Maloney moved back to Ireland and they both died very young of Tuberculosis in 1924.  They left two children who were brought up by their grandmother in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.

The navvies not only built the Factory but the two townships of Eastriggs and Gretna which were built for the 30,000 workers.

Over a hundred miles of railway track were laid in HM Factory Gretna and 16 railway stations were constructed.

If you enjoyed this article then the following books (available from our online shop) may be of interest to you:

The Devil’s Porridge Museum Guidebook

Gretna’s Secret War

Illustration of a Breguet plane.

WW1 Plane Postcards Part 2

By Collections blog

Here are some more of the WW1 plane postcards which are being kept in the Museums store. This post will include information about the Royal Aircraft Factory b.e. 2c.

Royal Aircraft Factory B.E. 2c

The B.E. 2c was designed as an inherently stable aeroplane, easy to fly and an ideal answer to the Royal Flying Corps’ fundamental operational requirement for a good reconnaissance aircraft. It first flew on 30th May 1914 powered by a 70hp Renault engine. When it entered service with No.8 Squadron RFC in April 1915, the 90hp RAF engine had been fitted as the standard power plant. The B.E. 2c’s stability was initially well received by service pilots but with the advent of the true fighter Fokker monoplanes and the Albatros biplanes, they became very easy prey, being to stable to avoid attack and too slow to get away. Nonetheless, production of large numbers continued and 14 squadrons of the RFC and one of the RNAS were equiped with this type. It was still in action on the Western Front during ‘Bloody April’, 1917 where it suffered a large number of casulties. It was operated overseas by both the RNAS and the RFC, serving as a bombing and reconsissacne aircraft in Maceedonia and the Middle East, and in the Dardenells and the Aegen.

 

You can see our previous plane postcard here: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/ww1-plane-postcards

 

WW1 Railway Mounted Artillery illustration.

WW1 Postcards

By Collections blog

The postcard above shows some soldiers next to a railway mounted seige gun. These postcards from WW1 show soldiers in many different settings during the war for example some show soldiers using an antiaircraft gun, some show soldiers walking with their regiments and some show soldiers being treated for their injuries. You can see some of the postcards below.

 

This postcard shows some soldiers using an antiaircraft gun.

 

This postcard shows one soldier being treated for his injuries

 

Translate »
BOOK NOW