Chudleigh Knighton US Fuel dump

Hi all,

Just north of where I live is the site of a US fuel dump constructed in about '43 and used up to and just after D-Day. There are numerous hut bases and hardstandings remaining though they're getting rather overgrown. It looks from some remnants that there were Nissen type curved/corrugated types plus talking to a couple of original residents there were some other types too.

Close to this site and for it's protection were a searchlight company - again with several concrete bases left as well as what was possibly the searchlight mount. This was a British unit according to the locals. There was also an AA post but the only evidence here is a large amount of sand from the sandbags which were left behind after the war. It's now home to some badgers!

I've got a few photos and marked on a large scale map the positions of the bases that I've found - there must be lots more. If anyones interested I'll post them here and if anyone knows anymore about it I'd very much like to hear please.

Cheers,

Clive

The location is just to the left the crossroads to the west of the the village - sorry I don't know how to make the link point to the right place, will sort something better out!

maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q...um=1&ved=0CA0Q8gEwAA

I regret that I cannot locate it.

Sorry Peter, here's a screendump from google earth. Some of the site has sadly been erradicated by china clay workings. I have found some odd bits of chain and shackles (from lifting gear I imagine) and some local metal detector chaps unearthed some caterpillar track links recently.

Two of the old boys I was talking to told tales of buried stores from this site in the old village tip (including 30lb tins of meat!), nightime excavations in nearby Heathfield - another rumoured locataion of unwanted jeeps etc. after the war, and the hospital trains that passed through bringing the dead and wounded back from D-Day. They were unloaded here for the local military hospital at Liverton.

On the searchlight site one of the buildings was said to have been corrugated, very tall and oddly shaped (the base remains) - could that have housed the light for maintenance?

Yep, the fuel cans were brought in by train to specially laid sidings put down just west of the Village on the Teign Valley line (sadly long gone) and trucked to the site.

Thanks Pat, I was in the right area.

Here's a sketch map of the site with the approx positions of the hut bases and hardstandings I've found so far. There's no doubt a lot more but the area is pretty overgrown.

Nice work Pat.

A little bit more info - Came across this site today, apparently there were 6 dumps across Southern England - if indeed Chudleigh Knighton was one of them.

From a book on the Teign Valley Railway that I have this dump was called a 'POL depot'
Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants. Sidings were laid in 1943 to supply the depot with three trains a day loading/unloading.

www.qmfound.com/fueling_up_for_d-day.htm

That there should be a rail connection to a 'tinned' depot surprises me.

You will see from the 1940s OS map that there was a branch line running just south of Chudleigh (obviously, the map wouldn't show any depot or rail connections for security reasons although I doubt they existed in 1940!) that line is now extinct.

wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm?lat=5...4805&gz=14&oz=8>=6

It is more likely that the POL in your reference was a different site with tank storage.