Page 11 - Oundle Life March 2022

decontamination centre. With its trademark reinforced concrete slab roof, and solid brick walls, it is unlike all other historic buildings in Oundle that were constructed with local limestone walls beneath steeply pitched and often gabled roofs.
So why does Oundle have a gas decontamination building? Well, as the threat of war grew, our nation feared that Germany might use mustard gas in air attacks – just as it had done in the WWI trenches. Famously, Stanley
Taking a closer look at its
construction, we immediately see a tell-
tale for buildings and structures of this
type – the bricks have been laid using
the formidably strong ‘English Cross
Bond’ – an arrangement intended to
withstand greater forces such as bomb
blast, and / or to bear substantial
weight as seen in bridges and viaducts.
In this case it may also have helped to withstand additional forces imposed on the structure by positively pressurising the interior to keep all external airborne gas outside. Strong by name, strong by nature!
Brickwork uses formidably strong ‘English Cross Bond’
Baldwin had warned in 1932 that ‘The bomber will always get through.’ And despite the Geneva Gas Protocol of 1925 being signed by Britain and Germany to outlaw chemical weapon usage, Britain feared that Germany would not honour this agreement.
Accordingly, new legislation
(‘Air Raid Precaution Act of 1937’) demanded that local authorities provide
civil defence facilities for their community. So, in the time ‘bought’ by Neville Chamberlain when he declared ‘Peace in our time’ after returning from Munich in September 1938
– effectively delaying WWII by a very handy
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