Elmore Can Factory – World War 2 Factory

Searching through the Imperial War Museum catalogue, during a search about the defence of Brockworth in the Second World War, I came across a photo with a subject title “CAN FACTORY NEAR GLOUCESTER” with an additional comment “Original wartime caption: Machinery in the factory.” In total there 33 images all dated 2 February 1943 taken by Bert Hardy(1913-1995), who had been a freelance photographer from the mid 1930’s and joined the Picture Post in 1941 and became an army photographer in 1942.¹

Google Map of Elmore Can Factory Site

My original supposition was that this was food canning factory. However the back of photo H2600 provides the following detail:-

“Sg Satellite Can Factory (Shell Mex and BP) nr Brook Street Farm, Elmore, Gloucester”

Therefore this would have been some form of petrol or oil canning. Therefore this would have been some form of petrol or oil canning. Bert Phelphstead, a former canal foreman for the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, in a 1998 interview with Hugh Conway Jones stated there was a an underground pipeline across the fields from Hempstead Bridge and that the Elmore site was intended to put the petrol into lightweight disposable cans, but the cans could be easily damaged and believed it was ever used. Shell-Mex BP had a depot, recorded as being at Hempstead Bridge, on the canal, this is likely to have been the site of the Standard Match Company Factory, now the site of the BT Openreach depot.² This depot may have been supplied from the Monk Meadow oil storage depot, where Shell-Mex BP also had a base. The second phase of Monk Meadow was constructed as part of the 1000 miles of underground oil pipelines and storage built in the early part of the World War 2, and extended to 1500 miles when the United States Forces arrived in the UK. ³Hugh also obtained a sketch plan of the site from one of the tenants.⁴ The factory can also be seen on a USAF aerial reconnaissance photograph.

Site Layout Sketch Plan undated

The main prefabricated corrugated iron buildings are of a design known as the Nissen Hut , named after its designer, Peter Norman, who was a Royal Engineers officer during the First World War and production was revived during World War 2. Although, a second design known as the Romney also entered production.⁵

All of the photographs are internal shots of the factory machinery and in one photograph the maker of one machine can be seen as E W Bliss of Brooklyn. This company originally dates back to 1867 and originally specialised in the machine press and die business. They had a British subsidiary based in Derby in the interwar years.⁶ Electric power for the factory was provided by a diesel generator which can be seen in one of the photographs. At the time Elmore, like many small Gloucestershire villages, did not have a mains electric supply.

The land on which the site had been located was shown as a field in the 1923 25″ to the mile Ordnance Survey map over the road from Brook Street Farm. In the Llloyd George Survey it is shown as part of the Weir Street Farm (which included the farm building of Brook Street Farm) tenanted from the Sir William Guise at Elmore Court.⁷

The site was used after the war by the Ministry of Supply for the cleaning and storage of surplus clothes and an advert for an auction sale conducted by Bruton Knowles in 1950 is produced below. The Princes Hall, George Street, which is shown as the main offices of the Ministry of Supply in Gloucester had been a dance hall and also hosted other events, including auction sales., After the war events continued until the late 1950’s but most of the market side of George Street disappeared in the development of Bruton Way.

Following a post on a Quedgeley Facebook site Mandy Bingham Smith wrote to say that her uncle Jack Barrow had been in charge of the clothing depot She sent photos of the Laundry equipment at Elmore. This includes photos of two trailers of what transpires was a mobile laundry and bath unit, which were designed to operate a short distance behind the front line and are similar to equipment included in Imperial War Museum photographs.⁸ A New Zealand Military History website includes a history of Mobile Laundry and Bathhouse equipment and includes examples from World War 1 using Foden Steam Wagons. In World War 2 New Zealand acquired equipment from the British Military and this account details that the the laundry unit contained four washing trailers, two different drying trailers, two trailers providing hot water and hot air and finally a generator trailer.⁹ There is also a Canadian News reel in which it was claimed men could have their clothes washed and used the bathhouse within an hour!¹⁰

Mandy Bingham Smith also supplied a photograph of the workers at sub-depot which shows the large size of the team employed at the site. Jack Barrow can be seen in the middle of the back row wearing a trilby hat.

Planning controls were relaxed during the war but The Building Restrictions (War-Time Contraventions) Act 1946 provided a process to regularise matters after the war with an Application being mde in 1958. under this legislation.¹¹ The County Council, as the planning authority, at their Newent and Gloucester Planning Sub-Committee decided to refuse use for storage but to limit use for the purposes of agriculture only.¹² The Rural District Council responsible for the building byelaws approved that application on the grounds that the buildings complied with the byelaws.. Plans for the application are in Gloucestershire Archives.¹³

For some time it was It’s a Pig Farm run by the Davidson family, who used the site for a long time.¹⁴ In the Stroud District Council planning records (site reference S.11014) it is referred to as the “O.S. Depot, Elmore, Gloucester” and as “The Old OS Depot. Haywicks Lane, Elmore”, suggesting it may also have been used by the Ordnance Survey but no further information on this use can be found.¹⁵ It also appears that in the 1990’s it was also used as operating centre for seven HGVs. ¹⁶

The site is currently used by a number of local businesses for storage, construction and the yard of a building contractor. Five of the original seven wartime buildings fronting the main road have been retained and are in apparent good repair, as shown in the photograph shown above. Two of the buildings suffered fire damage some years ago and have subsequently been rebuilt. From the footpath running at the rear of the property a brick building likely to part of the wartime development can also be seen. How much longer this site will remain as an industrial estate is not known, and reportedly the Elmore Court estate have explored the use of the site for housing.¹⁷

Identifying this factory through photographs discovered during my research into the defence of the Brockworth Aerodrome was a fortunate and unexpected development. It has brought to light an unusual but apparently unsuccessful aspect of Gloucestershire’s contribution to the 1939-1945 war effort. Further insight for this article were enriched by contributions from various individuals via a post on a Facebook group and via the Elmore Parish newsletter – “The Bridge”, showing the benefits of social media in undertaking research. I grateful for the contributions and suggestions of others and I need to particularly thank Hugh Conway-Jones and Mandy Bingham Smith for permission to include their information in this this article.

33 Photographs of Can Factory Elmore Nr Gloucester IWM References H26900 – H26932

The link in the reference number below each photo links the image and details on the Imperial War Museum photograph catalogue. Details of IWM Copyright and reuse applying to these images can be found here

1. Bert Hardy, Anon, accessed on-line 16 Jan 2026,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Hardy” ↩︎
2. Post Office Telephone Directory, Gloucester District, 1942. ↩︎
3. The Government Pipelines and Storage System”, Ben Johnson, 2014 Accessed 15 Jan 2025, https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-Government-Pipelines-Storage-System-GPSS/; “Hempsted GPSS Oil Depot – Gloucester – October 2020”, Accessed 15 Jan 2025 https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/hempsted-gpss-oil-depot-gloucester-october-2020.125444/ ;Exolum Pipeline System accessed 15 January 2025 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exolum_Pipeline_System ↩︎
4. Hugh Conway Jones Research Note, plan obtained from E J Taylor a tenant of part of the site. ↩︎
5. Peter Norman Nissen, accessed on line 16 Jan 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Norman_Nissen; Romney Hut accessed on line 16 Jan 2025, Romney hut – Wikipedia ↩︎
6. “E. W. Bliss Company”, Anon, accessed on 16 January 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._W._Bliss_Company; “EW Bliss and Co”, Accessed on-line on 16 January 2026; https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/E._W._Bliss_Co. ↩︎
7. Finance Act 1910, Land Values Survey, Elmore Parish, Hereditament Number 63, accessed on-line 16 Jan 2026, https://www.glos1909survey.org.uk/code/data.php?id=15702 ↩︎
8. Examples of Mobile Laundry unit equipment is included in the IWM Photo archive. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=THE%20SOLDIERS%20MOBILE%20LAUNDRY&pageSize=&media-records=records-with-media&page=0 ↩︎
9. Mobile Laundry and Bath Equipment 1914-1990, Robert McKie, undated, accessed on 16 January 2026https://rnzaoc.com/2017/03/14/mobile-laundry-and-bath-equipment-1941-1990s/ ↩︎
10. Canadian Army Newsreel No.3, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70VUeaaF9vU&list=PLAETLHdwfwSMA7mZ2S_2tWf_Fb9vKdV3N ↩︎
11. Advert Gloucester Citizen Wednesday 11 June 1958 ↩︎
12. Page 118, Newent and Gloucester Planning Sub-Committee16 January 1957 – 15 July 1959, Gloucestershire Archives GCC/ENV/2/2/4/6 ↩︎
13. Minutes of Proceedings 1958, Rural District Council of Gloucester, p68, Gloucester Archives DA27 100/31; Gloucester RDC Maps and plans, outside schemes submitted for approval, Conversion of War Department Storage Depot, Elmore, 1958, Gloucestershire Archives, DA27/710/1/435. ↩︎
14. Joe Birt in a Facebook response August 2025 https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1E9kGo2Pdd/? ↩︎
15. Stroud DC Planning Records for Site 11014 (pages 18-22) accessed on line at https://www2.stroud.gov.uk/apps/dcr/11001-12000/11011-11020.pdf#search=%2211014%22 ↩︎
16. Advert for Goods Vehicle Operators Licence Renewal, Gloucestershire Echo 22 June 1994. ↩︎
17. Reply to Chas Townley post 25 August 2025 on Our History Quedgeley and Hardwicke ↩︎