Report - National Machine Gun Factory aka The Branston Depot, Burton-on-Trent - December 2017

[clebby]

The National Machine Gun Factory aka The Branston Depot - Burton-on-Trent.

Visited a couple of weeks back with a non-member.

The office block in its heyday

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It's fair to say that calling it 'the National Machine Gun Factory' is perhaps being a bit generous, as by the time construction was completed WW1 was over and not a single machine gun was ever produced on site. However anything with machine gun in the name is automatically epic, and if shitty clickbait titles are good enough for the braindead inbred cretins masquerading as explorers on YouTube then they're good enough for me.

A brief history - for a more comprehensive breakdown click here.

The National Factories Scheme was initiated after the creation of the Ministry of Munitions in 1915. The unprecedented scale and continual high demand placed on British industry had exposed the weaknesses of the existing system of explosives manufacture and arms production. This called for the imposition of stronger government control over the production of materiel destined for the battlefields of WW1. There were 215 National Factories by November 1918, ranging from shell, explosives and aircraft manufacture to the first site firmly associated with the nascent biotechnology industry. The purpose-built factories, which constituted half of the total of 215, invariably occupied greenfield sites: exemplified an important step in modern factory design, through the relationship of planning to process flow, and a holistic attitude to welfare and the work place as seen in the provision of leisure, canteen and health facilities on site. 169,700 of the 305,900 employees on these sites in November 1918 were women, a factor which influenced the layout of canteen and other buildings: the canteen block at Branston, which included segregated areas for male and female workers in addition to a surgery and amenity provision, faced onto a bowling green which still survives.

The idea of constructing a national factory for the production of machine guns, the weapon responsible for considerable developments in military tactics from the late-19th century and for so much of the carnage on the Western Front, was first suggested in September 1917. The project received Treasury sanction in October, and a site was purchased at Burton-on-Trent outside the area threatened by daytime air raids. The factory was intended to produce 400 guns per week, but was still being built when the Armistice was signed in November 1918, and no machine guns were ever produced on site. In May 1919 the factory was closed as a working unit and converted into a store for guns and machinery.

The factory was built by Thomas Lowe and Sons, an established building firm in Burton. It was provided with a short rail connection to the Branston Sidings on the Birmingham and Derby Railway. Although the factory was designed for rapid construction, being built of brick and steel-framed with slate roofs, it was calculated in August 1918 that it would not be complete for a further 18 months. The present factory now consists of one (of a projected four) vast North Light sheds and a number of small ancillary buildings, not completed until after the First World War and never used for their intended purpose. After the war, it was suggested that the National Machine Gun Factory should be kept as a working unit for production and use of machine guns in order that a permanent centre of trained machine workers and running machines might be provided in case of emergency: the lack of skilled workers had been a major problem in 1914. The decision was eventually taken, however, that the workshops at Enfield and Woolwich could be adapted should the need arise. Crosse and Blackwell, the preserved food manufacturers based at Soho in London, bought the site from the government in 1920 and commenced production the following year, the most famous product being the iconic 'Branston Pickle'. Despite their considerable investment in the site, which included the completion of some of the factory buildings and houses for employees in Burton Road, they left in 1925, followed by a silk company (responsible for the now-demolished chimney that towered over the site) which ceased production in 1930. The War Office took over the site in 1937, and the factory became an Ordnance Depot for the storage of clothing and equipment. In 1962 the War Office moved most of its ordnance supplies to Bicester in Oxfordshire.

Shitty iPhone photato.. looks much older than 1918 though amirite??

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I first heard of the Branston Depot when, like most of you I imagine, I spent my evening browsing Google Images for pictures of derelict canteens. Once again the superb geograph.org.uk has delivered the goods - there was only one picture of the office block posted there but that was all I needed. A quick message to Judas Speed later and plans begun to form. I urge people to regularly check geograph - I have found at least 4 new sites simply through cursory browses over the years, and that's just in my local area.

Today the site has been largely taken over by B&Q as a distribution centre, as well as by the MoJ for storage. However the simply stunning office block that sits rotting by the main entrance is more than enough to keep you occupied for a day, with a few other buildings (canteen, social club etc.) thrown in for good measure. I've no doubt there's some more odds and sods scattered around the site just waiting to be found, but unfortunately just as we were preparing to leave the canteen some fat bastard secca and his gommo mate appeared as if from nowhere and threatened to perform a citizens arrest. We of course skipped away through the open front gate, but be warned - the CCTV seems to work!

Some pictures, seemingly shot at ISO 7 billion

The above picture pretty much sums up the inside - largely stripped but extremely dated. The ground floor is a bit meh, but the top two floors are real time capsules - in fact I'd go as far as to say this is the best office block I've seen. It never fails to amaze me that stuff this dated is still out there.

The real highlights were the bathrooms, however; those on the top floor in particular felt like they hadn't been decorated since the war.

On the top floor, each wing had a large skylight - no doubt some sort of epic drawing office was originally envisaged

Love the original half-glazed partitioning

Loved the colour scheme in general tbh

Cont.​

 

[clebby]

Unfortunately the canteen block hadn't escaped modernisation in the same way the office block had. It was by no means modern, but other than a few serving hatches and a lino floor there wasn't much to hint at its original purpose. I don't think the boards on the windows helped - there was a social club which was probably the most interesting bit but unfortunately it was pitch black and by the time I'd set my tripod up tweedle-dum and tweedle-twat had arrived!

Note the serving hatches:

However the highlight for both of us was the clock tower that adorns the main office block, complete with original mechanism that runs just as smoothly as it did 100 years ago, despite not having being oiled for at least 30 years. Magic!

Merry Christmas bitches​

 

[Camera Shy]

That clock tower really is a cracker.

 

[Exploring with Andy]

Needs more useless junk

 

[Lenston]

Nice that

 

[host]

Cracking report..

 

[The Man In Black]

nice report

 

[stranton]

very nice, i'd head across for the clock tower alone.

 

[Derphouse]

Beautiful clock tower that!

 

[mookster]

This one does look rather nice, great work.

 

[mockney reject]

Nicely done Clebby

 

[DubbedNavigator]

Oh that clock! Nice one. Only a stones throw from me too.

 

[clebby]

Thanks yo. Being dicked over Facebook as I type by all accounts so be extra careful if you go.

 

[Baggy trousers]

That clock tower is gorgeous, excellent report that chap.

 

[Will Knot]

Like the look of that, very interesting, nice report and pics