GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Bordesley Station: gwrbg2268

A 1931 GWR publicity aerial view of Bordesley warehouse showing its juxtaposition to the ex-MR Camp Hill line. The following article appeared in the Great Western Magazine of December 1931 (page 510).

The New Goods Warehouse at Bordesley – Our frontispiece this month is a reproduction of an aerial view of the Great Western Railway Company's new goods warehouse at Bordesley, which building was briefly described in the October issue of the Magazine. The warehouse has four floors, and a flat roof surrounded by a parapet; the ground floor is served by a siding connected with the Company's main line from London to the north. The warehouse is eminently suitable for the storage of almost every class of merchandise.

The height of the building, ground to the parapet, is 60 feet, the length 295 feet, and the width 85 feet. There is a clearance of 19 feet, 8 inches from platform to ceiling on the ground floor, of 11 feet on the first and second floors, and of 8 feet on the top floor. The total floor space available for warehousing exceeds 6,000 square yards, an area of 1,500 square yards being on rail-platform level. The ground floor is equipped with electric overhead runways, by which heavy articles can be expeditiously transferred between truck, platform, and road vehicle. This installation consists of a moveable section of runway which is suspended from, and works on, bearers that run the full length of the building. The main floor, including the cart bays, is served also by fixed sections of runway, to which the moveable section can be connected as required. The travelling and lifting movements are electrically operated.

There is a large cart bay, 25 feet wide and 20 feet deep, in the centre of the building, with three other covered cartage berths at convenient points. The berths have granolithic paving. One of Messrs Pooley’s latest type of 20 ton cart weighbridge, suitable for weighing self-propelled vehicles, has been installed in the cart roadway near the entrance to the depot. The large area of the lower floor that extends beyond the main structure carrying the upper floors, has a steel cantilever roof with patent metal glazing, to afford the maximum natural lighting and to make the accommodation particularly suitable for the storage of non-ferrous metals which require good natural lighting for examination purposes. The ground floor is connected with the three floors above by electric lifts and hoists. The building is of substantial ferro-concrete construction and practically fire-proof.

Robert Ferris

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