Wallsey
Active member
Forward Filling Depot Number 5, Escrick, North Yorkshire
Grid Reference : SE676428
Sometimes referred to as West Cottingwith.
It was proposed in 1941 that 5 of these depots would be built. The Forward Filling Depot serving the Bomber Command Airfields in Yorkshire was at West Cottingwith, eight miles south-east of York.
These FFD’S were designed to charge cases with mustard gas.
The chemical name for mustard gas is dichlorodiethyl sulphide. At normal room temperature it is a liquid.
Contact with the liquid or vapor will cause blisters on the skin similar to third degree burns and if inhaled will cause serious damage to the lungs which will almost inevitable cause death.
Its value in conflict was due to the fact that it does not decompose and will remain active in the ground or on materials it has contaminated for many days, in fact months or even years.
Today only a few buildings remain on the site, these are believed to be the personnel decontamination and changing room, the toxic and non-toxic mess rooms and the guardroom/office.
The layout of the 5 FFD’s were similar in layout. The larger buildings used for storing empty cases. A bonding building and a charging building where the cases were filled.
Underground storage tanks, called POTS, is where the chemical was stored.
West Cottingwith had two tanks, each capable of holding 250 tons of mustard gas.
The depot was served by the Derwent Valley Light Railway.
The Approach
The Guardroom and offices
Miscellaneous Buildings
Grid Reference : SE676428
Sometimes referred to as West Cottingwith.
It was proposed in 1941 that 5 of these depots would be built. The Forward Filling Depot serving the Bomber Command Airfields in Yorkshire was at West Cottingwith, eight miles south-east of York.
These FFD’S were designed to charge cases with mustard gas.
The chemical name for mustard gas is dichlorodiethyl sulphide. At normal room temperature it is a liquid.
Contact with the liquid or vapor will cause blisters on the skin similar to third degree burns and if inhaled will cause serious damage to the lungs which will almost inevitable cause death.
Its value in conflict was due to the fact that it does not decompose and will remain active in the ground or on materials it has contaminated for many days, in fact months or even years.
Today only a few buildings remain on the site, these are believed to be the personnel decontamination and changing room, the toxic and non-toxic mess rooms and the guardroom/office.
The layout of the 5 FFD’s were similar in layout. The larger buildings used for storing empty cases. A bonding building and a charging building where the cases were filled.
Underground storage tanks, called POTS, is where the chemical was stored.
West Cottingwith had two tanks, each capable of holding 250 tons of mustard gas.
The depot was served by the Derwent Valley Light Railway.
The Approach
The Guardroom and offices
Miscellaneous Buildings
