CAD Longtown | Solway Military Trail

DMC (CAD) Longtown

In the 1930’s, with the increasing likelihood of an impending war with Germany, Britain finally began to re-arm herself. As part of this process, new Central Ammunition Depots were required to keep all of the bombs and bullets safe and away from possible attack.

Longtown was chosen as the site for the most northern of these stores, with Nesscliffe in Shropshire and Monkton Farleigh in Wiltshire covering the midlands and south. The site at Longtown was ideal as it had been part of HM factory Gretna during the First World War producing cordite (The Devil’s Porridge Museum tells you the story of this amazing area).

The old factory site was huge, and had its own narrow gauge railway system. Munitions storage requires lots of small, heavily protected buildings. This meant if there was an accident, only one small shed was lost, and not a vast warehouse. Longtown and its sub-sites had dozens of smaller buildings spread over a huge area, and enormous amount of munitions and other stores were held here throughout World War Two.

The site remains active to this day, and although not the size it once was it remains an important part of the MOD armoury.

All that can be seen of this site is the guardroom and main gate, so due to the nature of the site please only view from your car when driving past.

Image credit – Devil’s Porridge Museum collection

DMC (CAD) Longtown

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