IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Bridge Street, NORTHAMPTON, NN7 4PS

In front of the buildings. This Rolling Lift Bridge was designed for Weedon by the Building Works Department of the Royal Ordnance Factories and made at Woolwich Arsenal. For photo of the bridge being installed in 1906 see P.50 of http://www.daventrydc.gov.uk/EasySiteWeb/GatewayLink.aspx?alId=26276

At the former Royal Ordnance Depot.

The Grand Junction Canal reached Weedon in 1796, and the existence of that transport link must have been a major consideration when the Royal Ordnance Depot was sited here in 1803. At a time when the country lived in fear of invasion by Napoleon, south-west Northamptonshire also had the attraction of being remote from any coast-line - whether south, east, or west. The photo shows what might be considered the heart of the site, with eight store-houses flanking a canal spur which formerly connected to the Grand Junction Canal. For much of their history these served as a major storage and distribution centre for small arms. Magazines were built further west (again accessible by canal), also barrack accommodation and stables. Further north-east there were three particularly grand residences, known jointly as the Pavilion, which initially served to accommodate the civilian governor and senior officials. A well-established tradition has it that the Pavilion was intended as a place of refuge for the monarch - George III - in the event of invasion (hence their grand style and scale). This tradition has not gone unchallenged: http://www.weedonbec-village.co.uk/weedon-depot.html However, I have been contacted in this regard by Colonel John Royle MBE, Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Northamptonshire. He knew the Pavilion when it functioned as an officers' mess in 1958, and accepts the account of a royal connection as fact. So - it should be said - did Prof. Pevsner, writing in the Northamptonshire volume of 'The Buildings of England'. The Weedon site was in continuous use by the Army for more than 160 years. The Royal Army Ordnance Corps finally left in 1965, and the site passed into commercial ownership in the 1980s. Here on Geograph, Chris has supplied more history, along with glimpses of the stables at the Army School of Equitation as they were in 1974: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4057794 Elsewhere, Nick Catford's account on Subterranea Britannica is well worth a look, both for text and photographs (recent and historic). http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/w/weedon/index.shtml

Built in the Napoleonic era to supply the army and to act as a royal bolthole if necessary. Originally accessed via canal and later by railway. It is now no longer military and once of its uses is as a store for the national collection of fire engines, with some visible in the distance.

This photograph shows the south elevations of two of the four evenly-numbered storehouses (Nos 2 and 4) of the former Ordnance Depot on the south side of the old canal spur off the Grand Union. They were built during the Napoleonic War between about 1804 and 1810. Please see Image for the north elevations. All eight of the original storehouses are Grade II* Listed Buildings. The storehouse and magazine group at Weedon Bec was planned and built at this time as a unique planned military-industrial complex, complete with its own defensible transport system and surrounding walls. The major Ordnance Depots, which were built for the storage and later the manipulation of guns, their ammunition and propellants, were concentrated around the naval dockyards at Plymouth, Portsmouth and Chatham. Major outliers were located at Purfleet on the Thames and here at Weedon Bec in Northamptonshire, whose location made it the ideal choice in 1802 for a central ammunition depot, served by the Grand Union Canal and close to the small arms factories and workshops of Birmingham, and also far away from the more vulnerable coastal areas and the other ordnance yards that were mainly sited close to the royal naval dockyards. The original plans to build a small arms factory were abandoned, and instead Weedon became the first inland depot of the Board of Ordnance. As early as 1807 it supplied armaments for the expeditionary force bound for the Netherlands. From 1837 the storehouses were used as barracks and as a prison (Nos 5 and 7 being converted for this purpose), and from 1855 as a clothing store. In the 1870s it was converted into one of the Depots created under the army reforms of Edward Cardwell, the Secretary of State for War, and from 1885 as a weapons and equipment store. A large clothing store was built during the Boer War of 1899-1902, from which date the site retained an important role in making small arms and clothes prior to dispatch by rail. After closure in 1965, it was used as a government supply store. The site and buildings are now in use for light industry.

Built in the Napoleonic era as a military depot and royal bolthole of last resort. It is now in private ownership. The branch canal that originally served it is seen between two rows of warehouses. This branched off the Grand Union but has now been built on before reaching the depot.

Former Ordnance Depot at Weedon Bec. The extensive barracks were begun in 1803 during the Napoleonic wars, but most of the buildings (including 12 powder magazines) have been demolished. This is a 180-degree panoramic shot and therefore the straight road appears as two roads. In fact it is parallel to the grass verge and canal in the foreground.

This photograph shows the north elevations of the four evenly-numbered storehouses (Nos 2, 4, 6 and 8) of the former Ordnance Depot on the south side of the old canal spur off the Grand Union. They were built during the Napoleonic War between about 1804 and 1810. Please see Image for the south elevations. All eight of the original storehouses are Grade II* Listed Buildings. The storehouse and magazine group at Weedon Bec was planned and built at this time as a unique planned military-industrial complex, complete with its own defensible transport system and surrounding walls. The major Ordnance Depots, which were built for the storage and later the manipulation of guns, their ammunition and propellants, were concentrated around the naval dockyards at Plymouth, Portsmouth and Chatham. Major outliers were located at Purfleet on the Thames and here at Weedon Bec in Northamptonshire, whose location made it the ideal choice in 1802 for a central ammunition depot, served by the Grand Union Canal and close to the small arms factories and workshops of Birmingham, and also far away from the more vulnerable coastal areas and the other ordnance yards that were mainly sited close to the royal naval dockyards. The original plans to build a small arms factory were abandoned, and instead Weedon became the first inland depot of the Board of Ordnance. As early as 1807 it supplied armaments for the expeditionary force bound for the Netherlands. From 1837 the storehouses were used as barracks and as a prison (Nos 5 and 7 being converted for this purpose), and from 1855 as a clothing store. In the 1870s it was converted into one of the Depots created under the army reforms of Edward Cardwell, the Secretary of State for War, and from 1885 as a weapons and equipment store. A large clothing store was built during the Boer War of 1899-1902, from which date the site retained an important role in making small arms and clothes prior to dispatch by rail. After closure in 1965, it was used as a government supply store. The site and buildings are now in use for light industry. The canal is now isolated from the main Grand Union, primarily by a new housing estate Image, but also by the access under the West Coast Main Line railway possibly now being filled in. One cannot help but think what a tourist attraction this site could be if the link to the main canal was restored.