Nesscliffe

The new A5 road Nesscliffe bypass awaits opening, 5 March 2006

Nesscliffe is a village in Shropshire, England, located north of the River Severn. The village comes under the Great Ness parish.

The site of a cave used by the highwayman, Humphrey Kynaston, this now forms part of the Nesscliffe Hill Country Park. One mile south-west are the earthwork remains of Wilcott Castle, a small motte castle. The independent girl's boarding school Adcote is situated in the parish, in the nearby village of Little Ness.

The A5 road runs around the village on a new dual-carriageway by-pass.^[1]

CAD Nesscliffe

During the 1930s, there was a recognition of a need to provide secure storage for munitions within the United Kingdom. The proposal was to create three Central Ammunition Depots (CAD) in easily-hewn and relatively horizontal rocks: one in the south (Monkton Farleigh); one in the north of England (Longtown, Cumbria); and one in the Midlands.

While Monkton Farleigh came into operations in 1939, CAD Nesscliffe was developed by the War Office/Ministry of Defence after the start of World War 2.^[2] In order to service the extensive property, the MoD tookover the virtually defunct Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway from 1941,^[3] and built extensive additional service tracks along the 8.75 miles (14.08 km) of railway line from Maesbrook to the former Ford and Crossgate railway station, south of the River Severn.^[4]

Like a typical ammunition depot, the site was laid out over an extensive area to avoid total destruction should an accidental explosion occur, or the site be attacked by enemy. The site was made up of four sub-sites: Kinnerley; Pentre; Ford; and Argoed. The four sites were capable of storing around 50,000 tonnes (55,000 tons) of shells.^[4]

There was also a sub-site at Loton Park, under the Alberbury medieval deer park, used for storage of both Incendiary ammunition and chemical weapons shells from 1943. This was one of two CW depots operated in co-operation with and guarded by the United States Army Air Force, the second being in Shepton Mallet, Somerset.^[5][6]

Locomotives and train drivers were provided by the Royal Engineers, who also maintained the extensive network. Their main servicing depot for rolling stock was on the stub-junction of the former branchline to Criggion.^[4]

Nesscliffe training area

Part of the Nesscliffe training area

Ammunition storage officially stopped in 1959 on site, and the ammunition depot closed in 1961, when the railway tracks were removed. Operational locomotives were moved to the Longmoor Military Railway, while non-operational were sold-off commercially.

Since this time, the 1,717 acres (695 ha) of flat pastureland have formed the British Army's Nesscliffe training area, capable of accommodation up to 530 personnel.^[2]

References

• Johnson, Peter (2008). The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway. Hersham: Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-86093-619-0. 
• Brooks E. Kleber & Dale Birdsell (4 April 2003). The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat. University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 1-4102-0485-5. 

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nesscliffe

• Nescliffe Training Area @ Ministry of Defence

Coordinates: 52°46′12″N 2°55′05″W / 52.770°N 2.918°W / 52.770; -2.918

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