During both the first and second world wars Yate and Sodbury were home to both British and American military personnel as well prisoner-of-war camps and the RAF.
First World War
The 5th Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment was based in Chipping Sodbury between August and November 1914 and landed in Le Have, France in February 1915 and were widely photographed by MD.
The British Army was the most mechanised of all in the Great War when it came to using motor vehicles for transport. A large total of ASC Mechanical Transport Companies eventually existed. Each Division of the army had a certain amount of motorised transport allocated to it, although not directly under its own command. The Divisional Supply Column Companies were responsible for the supply of goods, equipment and ammunition from the Divisional railhead to the Divisional Refilling Point and, if conditions allowed, to the dumps and stores of the forward units. Used, of course, where loads were heavy. A Company initially comprised 5 officers and 337 other ranks of the ASC, looking after 45 3-ton lorries, 16 30-cwt lorries, 7 motor cycles, 2 cars and 4 assorted trucks for the workshop and stores of the Supply Column itself. 494 Company was formed in August 1915 for the 39th Division but saw service in France with the 41st Division, then Italy with 23rd Division.
(https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-army-service-corps-in-the-first-world-war/army-service-corps-mechanical-transport-companies/).
12th Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment
Another infantry formation, the 12th (Service) Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment, popularly known as ‘Bristol’s Own’, and which the Bristol Citizens Recruiting Committee had started raising on 30 August 1914, also undertook training in the Chipping Sodbury area before leaving Bristol on 23 June 1915. The new Battalion was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel William Edward Parry Burges, who had already conducted a successful recruiting meeting at Chipping Sodbury on 19 December 1914, and it was through his influential contacts in the area that parts the Duke of Beaufort’s land on nearby Hawkesbury Common were secured for battalion field work. After details had been finalized the Battalion’s four main Companies were ordered to carry out training at Sodbury one at a time.
Each marched the 18 miles from their Bristol headquarters at the ‘White City’ in Bower Ashton with full equipment, after which one week’s hard work was undertaken. This involved setting up camp, the building of fortifications, section competitions, and trench digging, while the method of erecting barbed wire, and of removing the enemy’s, was also an important art to learn.
The men also practiced night operations, as by then much of the fighting, and preparation for it, took place at night. It was therefore essential for the men to be taught to move together in absolute darkness, and often in absolute silence, when commands could sometimes only be made by mute signs from man to man, or by signals passed in whispers down the line from the commanding officers.
‘B’ Company was the first to take advantage of the Sodbury facilities and they went out in the last week of March 1915. It was followed by ‘A’ Company, etc, while ‘B’ Company became the only one to make the trip twice, its final visit being during the last week of April. Fortunately, the men all found the local population of Chipping Sodbury and Yate extremely supportive in offering their homes as billets.
During May 1917 a new aerodrome at Yate was completed on the northern side of what is now the main A432 road. By the autumn of 1918 the site covered 193 acres, of which 40 acres were occupied by station buildings. It possessed a grass airfield measuring some 1100 yards by 800 yards, within which aircraft could use 700 yards in the north- south direction, 600 yards east-west and north-east to south-west, and 750 yards south- east to north-west.
At that time the site was bounded to the west by the Bristol to Gloucester railway line, on the south by Station Road, on the north by the River Frome, and to the east by an irregular border running down from the river to a point approximately half way between the junction of Westerleigh Road and Church Road. Land across Station Road adjacent the Chemical (Ochre) Works at Eggshill Common, was also attached to the aerodrome.
From June 1917 until April 1920 an Aircraft Repair Depot was in residence on the airfield, its job being to undertake the rebuilding of seriously damaged military aeroplanes and aero engines prior to delivering them back for service use. The Yate A.R.D. was a Royal Flying Corps establishment until it passed to the Royal Air Force, which had been formed on 1 April 1918 by the amalgamation of the Army’s Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.
During 1916 and 1917 Robert McAlpine & Sons Government Contracting Company had taken over nearly all the farm land on the left hand side of Station Road from the railway bridge to the fork leading to Westerleigh, and there, to plans prepared by the Air Board, they constructed the aerodrome which was to provide flight test and delivery facilities for the new Western Aircraft Repair Depot. Some £19,500 had been paid for the land the aerodrome occupied, while the buildings were erected at an additional cost of £86,000, some of the unskilled work being carried out by German prisoners from the internment and prisoner of war camp in nearby Westerleigh Road, which had opened in February 1917.
On 21 May 1917 the Central Aircraft Repair Depot at Kennington in London was absorbed by the newly activated Western Aircraft Repair Depot, which officially opened at Yate on 1 June. Re-designated No.3 (Western) Aircraft Repair Depot on 12 October 1917, it consisted of two distinct parts and the first, adjoining the railway line in the south-western corner of the airfield, was the Aircraft Repair Section.
Accommodation for aeroplanes at the A.R.S. consisted of three sheds, all constructed from timber and asbestos sheeting, and each formed into two bays. In addition, the A.R.S. also possessed a 90 feet by 220 feet workshop, another 70 feet by 240 feet, and an engine workshop which measured 100 feet by 330 feet, all of which were built behind the hangars in a line running alongside the railway line. By the summer of 1918 the Aircraft Repair Section, which was then engaged mainly in rebuilding and testing Bristol Fighters, had men employed on rigging, wing and fuselage repairs and engine fitting, who were working alongside the sail makers responsible for the fabric covering of the aeroplanes. The repairs were to be carried out in the buildings on the southern boundary, while repaired or reconstructed machines were to be checked out and flown from those on the western edge. The A.R.S. not only rebuilt damaged aircraft, but also carried out urgently required modifications to new or rebuilt aeroplanes, or to those already in service.
The second part of the Aircraft Repair Depot was the Engine Repair Section (E.R.S.) sited at the top end of Station Road near Poole Court, which was then being used as the R.F.C. Officer’s Mess. The E.R.S. consisted of brick built repair shops and test beds, and it appears to have opened on 30 October 1917.
During World War One women had been employed with units of the R.F.C. and R.N.A.S., so that when the R.A.F. was formed in April 1918 there was a nucleus of female personnel to form the Woman's Royal Air Force, recruiting for which began immediately. Those who joined the W.A.A.F undertook to serve for a year, or the duration of the war, whichever was the longer period. At Yate some women were in the clerical and domestic categories, but the greater number were employed on engineering work in the Engine Repair Depot, taking the place of men wherever possible in skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled work.
From the summer of 1918, of the 400 or so females from the W.R.A.F. who were working at Yate, the majority travelled daily to and from their homes in the Bristol area. The others were accommodated at the W.R.A.F. Hostel situated in Westerleigh Road, opposite the junction with Eggshill Lane.
The male R.F.C/R.A.F. personnel were also accommodated off-site, but at the combined Army and Prisoner of War camp which had been laid out on the Westerleigh Road at the corner of what is now Stanshawes Drive, while the ladies of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps/Women's Royal Air Force, were housed in their own specially built camp, also set up on the same side of Westerleigh Road, but a little closer to the centre of Yate. At their peak the camps were said to have been able to accommodate some 2000 British military personnel and 1000 German prisoners. By mid-1918 personnel serving at the Yate A.R.D. comprised 48 officers, 104 Warrent Officer and Non Commissioned Officers, 116 Corporals, 1028 Other Ranks, 452 Women and 46 Household Women.
Americans at the Yate A.R.D.
On 2 April 1917 U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asked a special joint session of the United States Congress for a declaration of war against the German Empire, but towards the end of the year it had become evident to the aviation powers in America and France that the United States did not have sufficient facilities for the expeditious training of a plentiful supply of man-power, while Britain possessed the facilities but lacked the man-power, a situation quite the converse.
A reciprocal and mutually advantageous agreement for the wholesale training of American mechanical personnel in England was ratified on 5 December 1917, that required the United States to provide 15,000 American mechanics for allocation to British training stations in the U.K. The US 822nd Aero (Repair) Squadron arrived at Yate A.R.D. on 20 April 1918, consisting of about 150 men, remained at Yate until 29 June 1918, until leaving for France on 2 July, from Southampton to Le Harve aboard the former destroyer ‘France’. The next American unit to arrive at Yate was the 840th Aero (Repair) Squadron on 4 May 1918, also consisting of about 150 men, remained at Yate until 13 August 1918 before arriving at Le Havre on the 15th. At least one other American Repair Squadron (designation unknown) served at Yate. Meanwhile, on 4 July 1918 some the 300 or so Americans from the two Aero (Repair) Squadrons then at Yate had travelled by train to Bristol to attend lavish Independence Day celebrations specially arranged by the civic authorities.
On 28 February 1920 the Ministry of Munitions Disposal Board advertised that they were considering the question of disposing of the Aeroplane Repair Depot at Yate, either as a whole, together with the landing ground, or the Engine Repair Section, Aeroplane Repair Section and Camp in separate lots. It noted that buildings of the ARS and ERS were principally of permanent construction, and comprised machine shops, aeroplane sheds, stores, power station, vehicle sheds, offices, and subsidiary buildings which were eminently suitable for engineering works, factory or other commercial purposes. Electric generating plant was installed in ERS, while the Camp consisted of buildings of concrete slab and timber construction comprising mess rooms, regimental institute, storage and living accommodation. The site adjoined Yate railway station with private siding and wharf to the ARS. There was also a mains water supply, an adequate fire service, water borne drainage to a sewage works and permanent tarmac roads.
No.3 (Western) Aircraft Repair Depot at Yate finally closed on 30 April 1920 and as a result it was announced that the aerodrome was no longer open to civilian aeroplanes in an emergency. The site then became Command Supply Depot No.237. (C.S.D. 237). Finally, the old Yate Aircraft Depot was disposed of by the Government, and on 12 December 1925 it was announced that George Parnall & Co. Ltd, the Bristol aeroplane manufacturer, had acquired Yate Aerodrome. Mr Parnall stated that he hoped that in a few weeks the whole of the work at the Bristol Coliseum would be transferred to Yate, and then with the aerodrome and the manufacturing facilities at their disposal, they would be able to cope with any orders that the Air Ministry gave them.
On 8 May 1920 it was advertised that the Disposal Board of the Ministry of Munitions were considering disposing of the Woman’s Hostel and hutment camp, that was then occupied by the Government.
INTERNMENT/PRISONER OF WAR CAMP AT YATE
The first German military prisoners were brought to England in August 1914. In addition, at the beginning of the war there were also about 70,000 German, Austro-Hungarian, and Turkish subjects in the UK, and the Aliens’ Restriction Act of 5 August 1914 gave the British government legislative power to deal with them as they saw fit to protect the home front. Any Germans or Austrians who were deemed by the police to be likely to be dangerous were apprehended, handed over to the military authorities, and detained as prisoners of war. As the military authorities desired it, and subject to certain exceptions, general action was also taken to arrest and hand over to military custody enemy aliens of military age, and by the second week of October 1914 about 9000 Germans and Austrians living in Britain had been arrested and held in detention camps. Among them were those regarded by the police “as likely in any possible event to take part in any outbreak of disorder or incendiarism.” As the war progressed the number of prisoner of war and internment camps increased rapidly. By the end of December 1916 there were 48 in the British Isles and 165 a year later, while in July 1918 the figure stood at 518. So many were needed, as in November 1918 the number of Germans and their allies held in Britain peaked at 115,950, made up of 24,522 civilian internees and 91,428 military prisoners.
Meanwhile, due to the shortage of labour, as well as food, by 1917 extensive use was being made of German prisoners for work outside the camps as under the terms of the Hague Convention it was permissible to use the labour of all prisoners of war, except officers, according to their capacity. However, the work was not to be excessive, or connected with the operation of the war, and by 1918 all German prisoners, barring the officers and the physically unfit, were working.
Prisoners were paid for their work at the same rate as British soldiers. The work was varied, but no prisoners worked underground, although some did in quarries, while others were employed in building work, putting up huts, road repairs, and land reclamation. in fact by the autumn of 1918 some 70,000 prisoners were working, of which 30,000 brought in the harvest under the direction of local Agricultural Committees. Employers were charged for the use of prisoner labour at the customary local rate, and out of this the prisoners were paid, while the remainder was put to the cost of their keep.
During World War One a German Labour Internment Camp, later Prisoner of War Camp, existed in Westerleigh Road, on the corner of Stanshawes Drive, and opposite Westerleigh Common. It was first opened in February 1917 to accommodate civilian internees. On 23 March 1917 several hundred soldiers arrived from the Prisoner of War Camp at Dorchester camp, a number which was subsequently increased. Representatives of the Swiss Legation in London visited the camp on 26 May 1917 and prepared a detailed report in which it was stated that at that time there were 499 German prisoners in the camp.
The fenced in compound measured 150 by 100 yards and was fairly spacious, while the paths in the camp were well arranged and covered with cinders (ashes). Garden beds had also been laid out and were kept in good order by the men. There were twenty wooden huts each measuring 80 by 30 feet, and giving ample room for thirty beds, and also for dining tables and benches. The men had the standard ‘three board’ beds with trestles, good straw mattresses, and, for the summer but three blankets. The Feldwebels' quarters were at one end of the recreation hut, while another hut was used as a barber's shop and a workshop for the camp’s two tailors and shoemakers.
The huts were heated by stoves and latrines, using the pail system, were provided in sufficient quantity, along with forty shower baths with hot and cold water. There was a well arranged ablution room, but the 22 wash bowls appeared too few for the 500 men, though of course they were at liberty to use the many bathing cabins as well, which they did, so that there was really no lack of opportunity for washing. The men did their own laundry in the washing room, and there was a good and sufficiently large drying room.
The water supplied was good and sufficient, from the village water main, but although at the time of the visit there was only street drainage, regular drainage was just being arranged. The sewerage was carted off by contractor, while the garbage was to be destroyed in the camp as a large destroyer had been completed.
The kitchen and storerooms were good, and a Saturday noon meal was observed, which consisted of a thick puree' of bread and meat, which appeared to be present in the quantity prescribed. The nutrition was according to the Government ration for working men, and everybody in the camp received this ration. A canteen was run by a local shop-keeper, and eggs could be bought for 21⁄2d, milk for 1/8d a gallon, some 10 to 12 gallons being sold a day. Figs, dates, canned fish, etc. were also on sale, and 10% of the profits reverted to the ‘Canteen Fund’.
There was one hospital hut, with a consultation room and six beds. Two Royal Army Medical Corps men and two German orderlies helped in the infirmary, under the direction of a visiting doctor from Chipping Sodbury.
The men were employed by three firms, one of which was the McAIpine Government Contracting Company, which undertook hut and shed construction and street making, and it was understood that they were insured under the Workman's Compensation Act. The general pay was 1d per an hour, skilled carpenters and locksmiths getting 11⁄2d, and the men working in camp as tailors and boot-makers 1/- a day, while the two barbers were paid by the prisoners at the rate of 1⁄2d for shaving and 1d for a hair cut.
A gramophone was provided by the Commandant and there was also a small library which was due to be expanded. During the visit no complaints of importance were made, and only a few small matters were brought to the attention of the Commandant. Although being strict, he was a very just and gentlemanly officer who was well liked by the men, while his adjutant was a broad minded man. The report concluded that the prisoners at Yate were very well treated, and that the camp made such an excellent impression in every respect that it might well be taken as a model of what a prisoner of War Camp should be.
NATIONAL CONCRETE SLAB FACTORY AT YATE
During World War One over 8700 companies and factories in the U.K. produced munitions of various sorts, but of these only 218 were the so called National Factories. These were in fact established following the passage of the 1915 Munitions of War Act that led to the creation in June 1915 of the Ministry of Munitions, which was brought into being to organize the supply of munitions and control the supply of materials deemed crucial for war production.
The new Ministry also had the power to create special National Factories to produce vital war material, and although theoretically under direct Ministry control, a number were actually run by private firms. However, this was carried out under an agency scheme whereby the entire construction and running of the plant was funded by the Ministry, while the companies paid on a ‘cost plus percentage’ basis. One such facility was National Factory No.212, the Concrete Slab Factory at Yate, while the other National Concrete Slab Factory, No.211, was built adjacent to J.A. King & Company’s plaster factory at Gotham in Nottinghamshire.
Prior to the outbreak of war McAlpine and Sons, a major civil engineering contractor to the government which had built up much experience in concrete construction, had developed a very hard and durable ‘ferrolithic’ concrete. Made from Portland cement and crushed slag from open hearth steel furnaces, several large industrial contracts had already been carried out using this material. Although the war caused McAlpine’s workforce to decline by about 5000 as men joined the Army, the company was nevertheless awarded contracts to build hutting for the thousands of troops needing accommodation in France, as well as armament factories and aerodromes around Britain.
Their expertise in reinforced concrete was put to use when the National Concrete Slab Factory at Yate was opened in 1917, an establishment which was to be run by McAlpines on behalf of the Government. Wood had become a scarce commodity due to the German U-Boat blockade in the Channel and the company began to produce pre-cast concrete slab huts, fence and telegraph poles, reinforced concrete joists and other items previously made of wood. These were some of the earliest utility items to be made from this material.
Early on the morning of 5 June 1919 Dr. Addison, the President of the Local Government Board, paid a brief visit to the parochial offices Warmley, and addressed the members and officers of Kingswood Urban Council, Warmley District Council, Chipping Sodbury District Council, and representatives of the local Parish Councils. Mr R. Wilson (clerk Chipping Sodbury District Council) referred to the closing of the concrete slab factory at Yate. It was grievance to many workpeople that this factory, opened during the war, was now closed. He had mentioned the matter to the Local Government Board. At that factory could be provided all the windows and doors that would be needed in the district, and it would be giving a great amount of satisfaction to many people if the factory was re-opened.
Then, on 27 June 1919 the ‘Western Daily Press’ reported that Mr Athelstan Rendell, the MP for Thornbury, had asked the President of the Local Government Board whether he was aware that the Ministry of Munitions had set up a large concrete-slab factory close to the railway station at Yate, that at the date of the armistice in November 1918 had employed some 300 to 400 workers. He went on to state that that since then all the employees had been discharged, and that a large number were still in receipt of out-of- work pay to the extent of hundreds of pounds weekly. He continued by explaining that the factory, which covered an area of 1,107,053 cubic feet, had up-to-date machinery driven by electricity and was capable of turning out a quantity of urgently-needed building necessities, woodwork as well as concrete material. As many hundreds of houses were required in the immediate neighbourhood of the factory, he asked if it could be seen whether immediate use could be made of the premises, specially competent to speed the building of houses?
In reply Mr Kellaway, wrote that representatives of the Ministry of Munitions and the Local Government Board were to visit Yate to ascertain whether the factory could in any way be utilized for the production of material in connection with the Government housing programme. However, on 23 August there appeared in various newspapers a ‘Preliminary announcement of sale - Ministry of Munitions by direction of the Disposal Board - National Slab Factory at Yate’.
It was stated that John E. Pritchard & Company would sell by auction at the Bank Auction Mart, Colston Avenue, Bristol, early in October the valuable property at Yate described as covering an area of 18 acres, 3 roods, and 9 perches, or thereabouts including quarry, comprising well designed buildings, offices etc, and the excellent pennant quarry situate some 400 yards to the south-west of the factory. Buildings, casting sheds, lofty and light, floor area 43,200 square feet. Joiners' shop admirably suited for all classes of work, floor area 7200 square feet. Crusher building, three floors, internal construction ferro-concrete, total floor area 10,920 square feet. Other buildings include stores, smithy, reinforcing shop, lavatories, garage, power house and an administrative block with accommodation for twenty clerks. Electric light and power generated at the factory. Heating - exhaust steam and stoves. Water - an abundant supply from main and well upon property.
On 4 February 1920 it was reported that the Clerk to Warmley Rural District Council had written to Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons asking if they would supply number of concrete posts from the National Factory at Yate for their building schemes, and a reply was received saying that they could not get permission from the Minister of Munitions to sell.
The Clerk added that there were thousands of tons of building material lying idle which Housing Committees would glad to get hold of to expedite housing, and yet the Ministry of Supply would not sell it.
Mr Edwards said it was a shame that Building Committees should be insulted in this way. There were hundreds of pounds worth stuff badly wanted, and they would not let them or anyone else have it. He felt they should take steps to let the Ministry know that they wanted these things badly. They urged them to get on with the building scheme and the same time would not sell them available building material. The whole thing was absurd. The Clerk was instructed to write the Ministry of Supply hereon.
However, on 19 May 1920 it was reported that the National Slab Factory at Yate had been sold, and it was probable that it would be occupied during the current year.
Internment and prisoner of war camp at Westerleigh Common in Yate, which had opened in February 1917.
R.F.C. No.3 (Western) Aircraft Repair Depot at Yate
Second World War