Naval Ordnance Inspection Establishment (Admiralty)

[little malc]

Yes as the establishment was officially known as HMS Scylla the old figure head from that ship was mounted on a plinth complete with flag pole at the main gate. HMS Scylla was a screw steam corvette launched at Sheerness dockyard in 1886. The figurehead is now preserved at Blue Town Heritage Centre in Sheerness.

As mentioned, precision gauges were made there but the nuclear testing of steel was done in Bragg Laboratory in a separate building.

[Eddie_shef]

Yes it was on Janson St. In the early part of the last century nearly all the major steel firms had orders for the Admiralty, armour plate, guns etc. Before they got paid for finished work it had to be inspected by Admiralty inspectors to make sure it was up to scratch. So much inspection was required that they decided to establish a permanent base where skilled steel workers also made the precision gauges to test gun barrels and the like.

When I worked there it was responsible for all of the north of England and Scotland and inspectors would travel to any firm which was making anything for the MOD. Like all shore based naval establishments it was officially given the name of a ship, in Sheffield's case HMS Scylla. There was method in the strange custom of naming shore based establishments as ship as because it was officially one of her Majesty's ships it meant the local authority had no jurisdiction over it at all. When David Blunkett was leader of Sheffield council he made a remark that Sheffield would always be a nuclear free zone! He didn't know we had a small nuclear research lab there.

When it closed and was retracted to London in the early eighties in one of the cost cutting measures I left and joined STD and became a bus driver (no one had any use for a guy who could make a torpedo run in a straight line!) and eventually left as a senior inspector.

 

I worked near the place and I was always led to believe it was for testing the steel that the navy would use in their armaments.

 

Thank you!! Good info!!

[Fougasse]

Hi. Came across this thread accidentally. My father worked at the Admiralty as a technician from around early 1969 to around 1973/4 (dates are a bit fuzzy in my head atm) eventually retiring from there. A lot of his work was basic cleaning iirc, but he also assisted some of the scientists working there occasionally. Nothing spectacular, just everyday stuff.

 

Took a lot of vetting before he got the job too iirc. He made a couple of friends there too.

 

 

[calibrator]

Hi,  I started work there on 19th August 1968 age 16. The apprenticeship scheme there must have been one of the best around. There were 8 of us apprentices [I can name them all] trained under Don Wheels for the first year and  ? Bine/Byne [I can't recall his first name, we called him Mr, it's an age thing] for the second year then we went on to the shop floor moving from one department to another every 3 months, Turning, milling grinding etc. We made our own tools which gave us an understanding of most aspects of the trade some of which I still use on a daily basis. I still have my indentures which I signed after six months and the pay at that time was £4-19s +6 pence.

The figurehead was not at the Jansen St entrance but down a very short cobbled road with very old brick housing with slate roofs and gas street lighting. On a gable end was the remains of a large mural, put there for an important visitor or to celebrate an important event of some sort, I can't remember whether it was a royal coat of arms or a crown or something else.

These are just a few of my many recollections of my time there [1968-1975]. It would be nice to hear from anyone from that time.

 

Cheers, Pete

[TonySar]

Hi,  my great grandfather Alfred Sarjeant worked there during WW1.  Hopefully, I have managed to include a link to a photo taken at the Admiralty.  He is third from the right in the middle row.

[MillerMike]

Just to put right some points raised above.

 

The Naval Ordnance Services Establishment (NOSE) was situated on Janson Street. The official main entrance being on the corner of Janson Street and Bold Street, however this entrance was rarely used. Staff working there entered the site from the rear entrance situated on Armley Road/ Cardiff Street. It was just through this “back” entrance that the figurehead Scylla was sited complete with flagpole.

 

The Naval Ordnance Services Establishment was effectively a gauge and calibration factory for the navy. As such it had a wide range of engineering equipment.

 

The Bragg Laboratory mentioned in a previous reply was the two story building situated on the junction of Amberley Street and Bold Street. It did link via a corridor to the main “NOSE” building but had a separate function in the MOD, and for reasons of economy some services were shared.

 

The Bragg Laboratory was named after Lawrence Bragg the famous physicist. 

 

In the MOD hierarchy the NOSE part served the Navy which is how it picked up the Admiralty tag. The Bragg Lab though was an MOD establishment that served all 3 of HM Forces. Its name for many years was the Materials Quality Assurance Directorate (MQAD) and was administered from its HQ in Woolwich Arsenal. The staff there were mainly chemists whilst the staff at NOSE were mainly engineers, draughtsmen and support workers. As mentioned in another reply the MOD had quite an extensive scheme for checking up on contractors. Part of this scheme was for metal producers to send samples in for checking against specification. Bragg Lab (amongst other things) analysed these samples.

 

Contrary to popular belief the site didn’t have any form of nuclear reactor, One section within Bragg Lab did however analyse samples taken from the battery packs of HM submarines that were checked for residual radiation levels. The lab also had an X-ray spectrometer. For health and safety requirements both of these areas had the mandatory radiation signs on the doors, this perhaps started off the rumours that “the Admiralty” had a nuclear reactor.

Edited February 22, 2020 by MillerMike

[Bodsy]

Good grief !! Just read this tonight!  I remember that on my first day at Bragg Lab, Mike did my orientation and supervised me!  Sep 1963 - lets 'make a gentle start' with the 'Phossies'! My name was Margaret Bodsworth (now Batty) and I worked first downstairs in the Steel Lab, then upstairs in the Non-Ferrous lab until pregnancy called and I left in mid-1971.  

 

We now have 3 very adult children, 4 grandchildren, and live in Queensland, Australia (since 1983). 

 

What a small world! 

[PeterR]

Here's  a link to pic from 23 Jan 1980 on Picture Sheffield site. https://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?action=zoomWindow&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s38179&prevUrl=

 

Edited March 1, 2020 by PeterR

[MillerMike]

Hi Bodsy,

 

Just to put something right, I’m not the person you think I am.

 

My user name of MillerMike might have mislead you into thinking I was Mike Miller, I’m not him.

 

However like you when I started at MQAD I was “put under the wing” of Mike Miller and started with “phossies”

 

I started in 1972 so just after you left. When I started the ferrous and non-ferrous labs were both on the top floor and the ground floor was dedicated to instrumental analysis.

 

Mr Nichols was Chemist in Charge with Bill Nall as his deputy.

 

other names I remember, Bill Scattergood, Mike Hardy, Jack Butt in the stores, Frank Ashton, Shirley Harrop, Anne and Irene in the office, Anne Dyer, Linda Darlow, Eileen Elliott, Nigel Deakin, Richard Whitham and Frances Lavender

[Bodsy]

Oh - thanks for that MillerMike - yes, you are correct - I was going down the wrong path.  

 

However, many of the names I do remember :

Can't place Mr Nichols, but I do remember the gentle Bill Nall : also good old 'Scatters' who used to sail around like a ship in full sail!.  Mike Hardy and I were colleagues for a good while, so I remember him well. 

 

Frances Lavendar..........Hmmmm.....was she a senior lady?   A Mrs Lavendar is coming out of my memory 'black box' now - I think she used to work on one of the first computers, which took up a whole room in some distant corner somewhere and involved a phone connection to Edinburgh or some-such.  I also used to help her with the newsletter, printed out on an old 'Gestetner' machine. 

The name Shirley Harrop rings a bell.  

 

Will keep straining my memory - thanks for the exercise!