Royal Ordnance Factory, Bishopton

[Pripyat]

One strange structure



I see the Society For Environmental Geochemistry & Health had a field trip last year.

More info... http://www.paisley.ac.uk/es/segh/bae.asp

Lots of things to see

[Pgcc93]

Spotted that a while back, must have been the facility for mixing something absoloutely volatile.

The walls look like there made from steel that's several feet thick! Is this the Citadel mentioned in the University of Paisley trip?? Looks like a Mayan Temple .

[Pripyat]

Spotted that a while back, must have been the facility for mixing something absoloutely volatile.

The walls look like there made from steel that's several feet thick! Is this the Citadel mentioned in the University of Paisley trip?? Looks like a Mayan Temple .

It's not the Picrite Cathedral building as mentioned on the Uni site Pgcc93.
Do you know what the yellow structure is in the photograph?

[Pgcc93]

It's not the Picrite Cathedral building as mentioned on the Uni site Pgcc93.

10-4 on that

Do you know what the yellow structure is in the photograph?

That'll be the inflatable Emergency Chute to escape down if the potion they were brewing ever went critical!

[Pripyat]

That'll be the inflatable Emergency Chute to escape down if the potion they were brewing ever went critical! ::):

Spot on Pgcc93 Thought at first it might have been storage, but
given the shute, looks more like they brewed crazy stuff in there

It's got one hell of a reinforcement grid. Whatever was going on there
made the nitro section look tame. I've got a theory mind.....

[Jupiter-Returns]

One strange structure



I see the Society For Environmental Geochemistry & Health had a field trip last year.

More info... http://www.paisley.ac.uk/es/segh/bae.asp

Lots of things to see

I want a shot on that chute.

[Fraz13]

WOW!! this is interesting, I live not far from "The Green Fence" and was under the impression it was still MOD, There used to be guards drove round the inside of the perimiter fence and moved anyone even on the outside, They werent to be messed with as they had rifles..... Wonder if they're still employed to do the same job.... Theres hundreds of derelict buildings that can be seen from the roads around the fence...

So is it still top secret in there? Is it worth a wee sneaky peek??? :)

[Fraz13]

Took a few today as this interested me....

[Pgcc93]

Thanks for posting the pics Fraz13

The sites now owned by BAE and a large part of the site is due to be redeveloped for housing. Bit of a hot potato with the locals over contamination issues regarding the demolition process.

I've not been in the place for years when working on munition trains into the site in the late 1980's. The exchange sidings were guarded by armed Military Police in full combat gear... not to be messed with

last time I was in there was when the Royal Train stopped over for a few hours during an HRH visit to Glasgow sometime in 1989?

[Pripyat]

Yes BAE have their enviro test facility located within the complex,
but that is still only a small section of the site. Fraz13, a certain
section of the goverment still owns most of it.

The development into houses in the area, is a very bad idea
given the ground contamination. A massive housing development
would destory the village. Given all the digging involved a lot
of contaminents would enter the environment, thus best left
undisturbed.

From my own knowledge our building was located on the border
of the 3 production sections. I have the building code number
for our square Mayan Temple, but as far as I'm led to have
been informed the numbers -> "production" are still way off limits.

The strange thing is you can see the multiple production stages
for Nitroglycerin, but this building is one of a kind and given the
blast protection, has me puzzled.

If I had to take a stab at what might have been produced there,
would more or less say highly volatile rocket propellant. There
might be a Rolls Royce connection

[Sandpiper]

It seems very odd to have that level of lateral blast protection and nothing of a vertical nature.

There are explosion proof devices where I work and these operate by incorporating a deliberate weak point in the structure (a blast panel) which will direct the force of the blast into a designated safe area.

These systems are generally fully enclosed so that a carbon dioxide suppression system can be deployed to douse the flames.

The enclosed structure in the centre may serve that purpose but the level of outer reinforcement suggests to me that if something kicks off they'e not expecting much left of the inner structure hence my feeling that somewhere in that wall there's a weak spot.

[Sandpiper]

Giving this a bump as I've given a copy of the picture that kicked this thread off to one of my chaps at work who used to work at the ROF.

He's off to speak to a 'man in the know'. He was able to give me some interesting info on the blast protection and also what went on in said structure.

I'll fill in all of the blanks when he gets back to me.

[Cashbackboy]

I came across this website a while ago that may be of interest, it gives the proposed plans. No or costs are quoted, just nice drawings and diagrams.

http://www.bishopton.info/bae/

My dad used to work at Bishopton, I'll need to show him the picture and see if he can shed any light on it.

[scallopboy]

There are similar structures at the secret munitions base at Beith. Already I've said too much and will be watched from now until I die for signs of non conformist thinking. I'm guessing that the thick walls and lack of blow out point were designed to force a blast upwards.

[Pgcc93]

Thanks for the link casshbackboy

That's one huge development proposal, it would make Bishopton into a town.
Interesting to watch this one develop over the years.