The History of Ruddington Depot
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Wartime Operations
Uncomprehending acceptance
The Depot dominated the landscape as it sprawled beyond the edge of the village, behind an ugly and intimidating fence, but it had surprisingly little impact upon the people who lived in the vicinity during the war years. Not many local residents worked there. The few firefighters and support staff who had lodgings nearby, were far out-numbered by the hundreds of evacuees billeted out in the area. As everyone who worked on the site had to sign the Official Secrets Act, they could not talk about the jobs they did. No doubt friends and families wondered why such secrecy was necessary, and speculated upon the reasons for it.
The yellow skin and hair of those who handled explosives must have aroused curiosity, and calls for an explanation. Older people are likely to have remembered that women who worked in munitions factories in the first world war were popularly known as `Canary Girls` because of the colour of their hair. They are likely to have drawn their own conclusions. Observant residents, like Wesley Scarrott and his friends, saw other evidence of the activities which were taking place in the Depot:
“We used to go down to Fifty Steps Bridge when the Depot was operating. There were always a lot of trains on the move, and the sidings always seemed to be full. We used to stand on the bridge and drop pebbles on the loaded bombs. They were only pebbles because there were no big bricks around. The bomb cases came in on open trucks. I have a vague idea that when they were going out they may have been covered with a tarpaulin; not that we would have known the difference in those days.”
Gradually more and more people must have had some idea of what was going on beyond that menacing fence, but there was apparently no general alarm or unease. The attitude seems to have been, “They’re making ammunition up there. So what? There’s a war on.” People were more anxious about relatives on active service, and busy coping with rationing, the blackout, evacuees and other more immediate effects of the war upon their lives. Few, if any, realised the very great danger posed by the use of large quantities of explosive materials present on the site. Maybe no one appreciated the scale of the devastation which would have ensued had an explosion taken place. The risk was so high that living on the edge of a volcano might have been safer, so perhaps it was just as well.
The Story > Chapter 3 > Section 3.17