Barrage Balloon Mooring Site, East of 57 Oak Tree Avenue, Pucklechurch, South Gloucestershire

Description

PUCKLECHURCH

1096/0/10011 Barrage Balloon Mooring Site, east of
25-OCT-10 57 Oak Tree Avenue

GV II
A WW2 barrage balloon mooring site, dating from c.1938-40.

DESCRIPTION: the site is formed from pre-cast concrete blocks, each with a cast-iron ring set into its upper surface, set in a circular pattern flush with the ground surface. Outside the central anchorage, a second circle of mooring blocks circa 11m in diameter describes the circle to which guy ropes would be fixed when the balloon was fully bedded-down. Beyond the site is a shallow circular ditch circa 27m in diameter outside the central anchorage, around which the trailer winch which wound the tethering ropes up and down would have run.

HISTORY: The use of hydrogen-filled barrage balloons as anti-aircraft devices had been developed towards the end of World War I, in order to provide some protection for London from low-level air attack. After some unsuccessful experiments, barrages of groups of three balloons were suspended above London; the first was operational by October 1917, and a second was in place by the end of hostilities. A request was made to retain the balloon barrage during peacetime, but this was turned down, and the scheme was abandoned. However, in 1926-8, further experiments in the design of barrage balloons were made, at the Royal Airships Works at Cardington in Bedfordshire. The developments were so successful that the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defence of Great Britain, Air Vice-Marshall Sir Edward Ellington, made the recommendation that part of the air defence of London should be made in the form of a balloon barrage, and that it should be in an advanced state of readiness in order to provide protection rapidly if needed. The Air Ministry agreed, and approval was given in 1932 for the establishment of a low-altitude barrage balloon section; it was formed in 1935, at RAF Cardington, Beds.,under the control of RAF Fighter Command. By the end of 1938, it was evident that barrage balloons would form an important part of any future defence of Britain, and thus a separate Balloon Command was formed on 1 November 1938. Training was carried out at Balloon Training Units (BTU) at Cardington and Larkhill; by the time of their closure in November 1943, the BTUs had trained around 5,000 RAF balloon operators, the same number of WAAFs, and around 12,000 operators and drivers.

18 balloon depots were established around the country, between 1938 and 1940. Each serviced between one and four balloon squadrons, which were based in areas which would be vulnerable to attack from the air, such as naval bases, large cities, ports and industrial plants. As the depots were established, experiments were carried out to devise the most efficient and destructive methods of using the balloon barrages. By 1939, a new type of cable-cutting device had been put into production. Balloons were tethered by a single cable containing cutting links to either a winch or an anchorage point. Parachute packs were attached to either end of the cable, below the balloon and above the winch or tethering point; when an aircraft flew into the cable, it would be severed, leaving the aeroplane trailing two empty parachutes, which would greatly increase drag and cause the plane to crash. A ripcord would at the same time pull open a patch on the side of the balloon, ensuring that it would float to earth, and allow its recovery.

Built around 1938 as No.11 Balloon Centre, Pucklechurch covered the defence of the city of Bristol, aeronautical manufacturing at Filton, and the important docks at Avonmouth. Barrage balloons were brought to the site for repair when they were damaged, either in combat or if they had been damaged after breaking loose of their moorings. The Pucklechurch site consisted of four balloon workshops, of which two survive largely unaltered and were listed at Grade II in 2003. The balloon mooring site is situated approximately 390m south-east of the listed balloon repair workshops. The Pucklechurch Balloon Centre continued to function until RAF Balloon Command was disbanded in January 1945, by which time the balloon barrages had served their purpose. The site, which was to become RAF Pucklechurch, became the responsibility of its parent unit at RAF Filton, and its administration was passed to the Maintenance Unit at Quedgeley near Gloucester. The station was set aside for use in demobilisation of troops, and later as a post-war balloon storage site. RAF Pucklechurch was used for a variety of functions through the rest of the 1940s and the 1950s, and was closed at the end of 1959; despite a brief halt when Cold War tensions began to rise, the disposal of the site was begun in 1962, when the western part of the site was transferred to HM Prison Service, which built Pucklechurch Remand Centre, now HMP and YOI Ashfield. The rest of the site became a trading estate, including the wartime balloon repair workshops, which remain in light industrial use. The balloon mooring site is now situated in a green space within an area of post-war housing development.

SOURCES:
Francis, Paul: British Military Airfield Architecture (1996), 75-80
Penny, John: a short history of No. 11 Balloon Centre at Pucklechurch (1939-1945) and RAF Pucklechurch 1945-1959 (undated), available on the website of the Fishponds Local History Society, at www.fishponds.org.uk/pucklechurch.pdf (accessed 03.08.10)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The World War II barrage balloon mooring site west of 57 Oak Tree Avenue in Pucklechurch is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* Historic interest: the mooring site was part of the Air Ministry's Pucklechurch No.11 Barrage Balloon Centre from 1939 to 1945; barrage balloons formed an important part of the country's anti-aircraft defences in the period, guarding strategic military and manufacturing sites, such as the nearby Bristol Aeroplane Company factory
* Group value: with the two Grade II-listed World War II barrage balloon repair workshops nearby, which survive from the wartime Barrage Balloon Centre

Reasons for Listing

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External Links

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