Cordite Milling Section - Shifting (Changing) Rooms
This possible identification of the building illustrated has given some difficulty, mainly because of a lack of
staff cleaning facilities. The rows of marks on the floor would tend to indicate supports for either shelving
or a cloakroom arrangement similar to a school locker room. Against this is the ICI Drungans evidence of changing,
locker, clothing and laundry facilities, beneath and in association with the Canteen. The writer had to downgrade
the interpretation in the light of this information. The snag is, that there are few other possibilities; the
building might just be to store low-risk materials such as vaseline, but its size and layout is more like a storage
area for clothes, where duty staff could have donned special protective equipment rather than the standard official
overalls
Archaeological Evidence for the Presumed Shifting Houses :
These buildings are part of the Cordite Milling sections of both Unit 1 and Unit 2. They are located at thew end of and
between the Incorporation and Press Houses, and aree built of semi-engineering brick with concrete slab roofs that
overlap the walls. They are lit above head height by frosted safety glass and have signs of roof-mounted lighting. No
safety lighting (used in all process and magazine areas) was fitted to this building.
The Unit 1 Shifting Houses have a notice 'Stretcher Here' painted on the ends of the side
walls nearest the other buildings. This indicates that the room did have a personnel function, maybe as an auxiliary First Aid
Post in a crisis. It also explains some wall-lugs inside at that end of the buildings.
