Former Supply Reserves Depot Gatehouse and Gatepiers

Cadw's description

Location

Opposite Rock n Critters. Southeast of Barry Dock no.2 across the Cadoxton river, the former entrance to the reserves depot is now the north exit of the north roundabout on the Atlantic Trading Estate, between Wimborne Road and Hayes Road. The Gatehouse is on the east side of the road.

History

Royal Army Supply Corps (RASC) gatehouse and associated gate piers built circa 1938 at entrance to no.2 Supply Reserve Depot (SRD).

The first SRD was at Deptford in London’s docklands and dated back to 1914. It was the largest RASC site and served as a centralised hub for storing military supplies such as food, vehicle fuels and other provisions (but not ammunition) and delivering them to troops fighting overseas. Deptford had been bombed by German Airships during the First World War and in the mid-1930s was recognised as vulnerable to air raids and so RASC drew up plans for a new SRD further west. The engineering of Barry Docks as an all tides port closely integrated with a new railway network occurred in the late nineteenth century, with Dock no.2 opening in 1898. The Docks had been developed by rival coal magnates to circumvent the Bute estate controlled docks at Cardiff, and by the 1930s remained one of Britain’s most technologically advanced and largest capacity ports. Plans for SRD no.2 at Barry were drawn up in 1936 and construction began in 1938. A third SRD at Taunton on the other side of the Bristol Channel was built in 1940 by which time Britain had entered the Second World War.

The buildings of SRD no.2 were generally in brick and concrete with some corrugated iron huts. The headquarters and laboratory building was a Modernist flat roofed building with a Streamline Moderne influenced semi-circular entrance block. This design was echoed in the several gatehouses controlling access to different parts of the depot, of which only this one at the north east gateway now survives. The gatehouses were used by military police to control access to the depot and to carry out searches of vehicles and persons to prevent theft of supplies.

In September 1942 the Barry SRD was transferred to US control as part the build-up of American troops in the UK and was temporarily renamed Quartermaster General Depot G40. In November 1942 G40 supplied Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of Vichy France’s North African colonies. G40 was expanded to the east with rows of Nissen huts and in May 1943 a Depot for medical supplies was established. In January 1944 G40 in Barry and G35 in Bristol were ordered to stockpile supplies in water-proofed packaging for an invasion of the continent. Operation Overlord went ahead on 6 June 1944 or ‘D-Day’ with Allied troops establishing a beach head in Normandy. In the first 30 days of the counter invasion US troops were supplied with over 28,000 tons of materials from G40 and G35.

The depot was returned to RASC control by the end of the war and continued in military use until it was closed in 1963. The whole site then became the Atlantic Trading Estate with the northeast gatehouse later reused as an office for the Windmill Industrial Estate. In the twenty first century the gatehouse has been used by the neighbouring Rock’n’Critters aquarium shop as office space and for filming nature documentaries.

Exterior

Modernist single storey two room gatehouse in red brick. Flat roof is a concrete slab expressed as a string course with brick parapet above. Symmetrical façade with projecting central entrance with curved sides. Central doorway framed with raised bricks with soldier course lintel. Curved window openings to either side of this with thick concrete lintels and sills. Side doors in façade have been partly infilled with modern materials to repurpose them as windows retaining concrete lintels. Corresponding doorways in the rear have been completely infilled. Two further central lights in rear elevation with unbroken shared concrete lintel and sill, six pane steel frames separated by brick. Two steel frame windows in each side elevation. Exterior roof access ladder in the south elevation has been removed. Front door is modern replacement. Secondary mono-pitch roof constructed circa 2009.

Immediately southwest of the gatehouse stand four original gatepiers, with a taller inner pair flanking the road each with a shorter one beside each of these demarcating pedestrian access. These are brick laid in a rat trap bond with squat pyramidal concrete capstones. The original gates and railings have been replaced.

Interior

Entrance into lobby with main rooms either side. The central passageway linking the two rooms behind the lobby rear wall has been subdivided. Two central WCs set against rear wall. Refurbished for office use with north facing windows blocked off internally. Front lobby curved window opening niches with retained steel bars to the northwest facing window.

Reason for designation

Listed at Grade II principally for close historical association with Barry No.2 Supply Reserves Depot and its important logistical role in the success of Operation Overlord. It is a characterful example of the architecture of the UK military build-up of the 1930s, symmetrically arranged with its flat roof and curved central entrance reflecting Modernist influences, with its parapet emphasising its defensive character.