The War Years
The Royal Ordnance Factory was built to supply the British forces with munitions during the World War II. The site was ideal, it had a railway running adjacent to it (the Harrogate to Church Fenton Line), open space and the site was not in a supposedly strategic bombing area. The railways were expanded and sidings built (these are still evident in certain areas of the estate) and buildings constructed around them, many with the flat concrete roofs. The retail park is still set in semi-underground bunkers, with grassy banks running up the sides of the buildings.
Read more about this topic: Thorp Arch Trading Estate
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or years:
“The great war that broke so suddenly upon the world two years ago, and which has swept up within its flame so great a part of the civilized world, has affected us very profoundly.... With its causes and its objects we are not concerned. The obscure fountains from which its stupendous flood has burst we are not interested to search for or explore.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Finishing schools in the fifties were a good place to store girls for a few years before marrying them off, a satisfactory rest stop between college weekends spent husband hunting. It was a haven for those of us adept at styling each other’s hair, playing canasta, and chain smoking Pall Mall extra-long cigarettes.”
—Barbara Howar (b. 1934)