The 'Introduce yourself' Thread

Hi, I'm new to this site.

I'm a volunteer at the library in Selby (North Yorkshire) researching the First World War. A local resident told me about her mother who, as a girl in the First World War, worked in the offices of "The Magazine" on Barlby Road. The lady who spoke to me knew nothing else about the place except that it was some sort of war factory and this is what everyone knew it as locally On your site I found reference to the following which is probably the same place?

27. NTWFF Selby (Barlby Road)
Opened: nationalised in June 1916.
Management: Ardol Ltd.
Munitions: hydrogen and hydrogenated oils and charging chemical shell.

I would be interested if anyone had any more information about this factory eg. what exactly was being made there etc.

Thanks

I have it recorded as a TWFF (Trench Warfare Filling Factory). The 'N' prefix in your post implies 'National' which title applied only to factories under direct Ministry control.

Since it was a commercial factory contracted to the Ministry it is not listed as a NFF (National Filling Factory).

I opine that it produced hydrogen and hydrogenated oils in it's commercial role (typically used in margarines) . Hydrogenated oils, unsuprisingly, requires hydrogen gas which is why the factory also had a gas plant. To assist the war effort it was coopted to fill shell - probably for the Livens Mortar used to bombard the enemy trenches with chemicals such as Chlorine gas, Phosgene gas and Mustard Gas.

The shells would have been produced in an engineering factory and shipped to the filling factory where the filling machines used to fill hydrogenated oils into drums for the commercial operation had been modified to dispense one of the chemicals almost certainly chlorine or phosgene but not mustard.

Both chlorine and phosgene are liquid when cool and slightly pressurised in storage containers. One of my resrvations is that, once filled, shell would have to be stored under cover for a period to determine that there were no 'leakers'. Not something desirable in a built up arwa of a town. That said, I need to look at the geography of the factory as it was in WW1 when it was probably more rural.

Thanks Paul, I was responding from a 'tablet' PC yesterday but today looking at my PC records now see that I have a copy of part of your 1996 report which, I regret, I have not got around to reading reading thoroughly. The OP would probably be enlightened by your report which should answer his interests.

Livens Projector (Mortar) with account of operational use - courtesy of Imperial War Museum:

www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30025460

Looking at such old maps as are available on-line the factory would have been one of those on a west to east strip with the river Ouse on the north side and the railway on the southside with no adjacent domestic housing so it was semi rural with no local population to be affected in case of a leak.

Thanks for this information. The details about the Livens Mortar are very interesting.

If the factory is where I have been told it was then it was on the outskirts of the town, in a rural area.

Is there anywhere I could find out anything more about the factory eg. its exact location, how many people worked there etc?

PETERTHEEATER;143143 wrote:

Thanks Paul, I was responding from a 'tablet' PC yesterday but today looking at my PC records now see that I have a copy of part of your 1996 report which, I regret, I have not got around to reading reading thoroughly. The OP would probably be enlightened by your report which should answer his interests.

Livens Projector (Mortar) with account of operational use - courtesy of Imperial War Museum:

www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30025460

Just got the rest of your reply about the location - for some reason it did not all appear when I first looked.

Thanks

dbusfield;143165 wrote:

Thanks for this information. The details about the Livens Mortar are very interesting.

If the factory is where I have been told it was then it was on the outskirts of the town, in a rural area.

Is there anywhere I could find out anything more about the factory eg. its exact location, how many people worked there etc?

I must have edited my post as you posted so please see my added comment about the location.

I shall see if I can find additional details

Hello everyone,

My name is Miriam Sanderson and I am currently trying to trace my blood family on my fathers side.

My g grandfather, Victor Raddich was Austrian and I have been told that he was interned in WW1 at Brampton, Cumbria. I have traced him to living in Jarrow in 1915 just prior to the Zeppelin raid on the shipyards. After the raid there was an increase in internments and the next time I find Victor is his death in 1925 at Waterhead near Brampton.

The problem arises in I don't think there was a camp in Brampton. I noticed on your forums that there were working camps in Rowrah and Riding Mill.

I was hoping someone could tell me if there is any documentation of these camps to confirm if he was indeed interned.

Thank you in advance.

The Ardol Clock Tower is HERE