RAF Aviation Reserve Fuel Depots

I have a friend who has just published a book called Anglesey & Gwynedd The War Years.
He is aware that aviation fuel was shipped from the refinery at Stanlow to Caernarfon. It was pumped from the ship to dockside storage. It was then transferred by a 4" pipe running alongside the railway line to Parkiau (Griffiths Crossing) where there were four 250,000 gallon tanks installed.He is unable to find any records of this.
Do you have any further info on this?

I wonder where the reserve was in Preston, mind you Im assuming thats Preston Lancashire. And I wonder if by Buxton they mean Harpur Hill?

I doubt that bulk aviation fuels would have been stored in the Harpur Hill RAD (Reserve Ammunition Depot). So maybe Buxton is the location.

As Preston then had a port I wonder if it was stored at the docks?

canberra wrote:

I wonder where the reserve was in Preston, mind you Im assuming thats Preston Lancashire. And I wonder if by Buxton they mean Harpur Hill?

I did a bit more digging on the Buxton installation. The storage site was near Dove Holes in a quarry. Initially 20,00 ton capacity in 100 foot long horseshoe shaped tanks with concrete arches over. Above that was a backfill of crushed quarry waste to provide overhead protection. Later, additional storage was added with eight horizontal cylindrical tanks 179 feet long. Our good friends - The Tees Side Bridge & Engineering Works Ltd (of T1 and T2 hangar fame) - built the tanks with Wimpey doing the civil work. I have yet to find the specific location.

That said, NP's map reference indicates that the site was in Buxton, Norfolk slightly west of Little Hautbois (God! Did the bloody Normans get there too?) I believe this to be an error.

Interesting to note the construction of the Buxton fuel depot was similar to that adopted for the Reserve Ammunition Depots (RADs)and both Llanberis and Harpur Hill. Since the responsibility for the supply of both munitions and fuels rested with 42 Group RAF it is likely they influenced the fuel storage construction.

Of course, Llanberis suffered a catastrophic collapse due to sub standard civil work which caused rapid modifications to the Harpur Hill store for fear the same might happen there.

The Upton site is actually Upton upon Severn, not Upton, Wirral and still survives.