Butter Hill MOD site

Marked on maps as an MOD site this area had a military guard during WW2. It is understood to have been a fuel storage site fed from Shell Stanlow and during WW2 supplied RAF Sealand.

Wartime residents of Upton recall a bombing raid during the war which resulted in a line of three bombs hitting fields in the vacinity. It has been suggested that a fourth bomb could well have been a direct hit. Nancy Turton whose parents farmed the surrounding land recalls the mud splattered cows following the raid.

North of the canal in the parishes of Chorlton & Backford are other underground depots. The large Backford site known as CRD (Civil Reserve depot) was built during WW2. Fuel from Shell's Stanlow refinery was pumped to Europe as part of PLUTO - Pipe Line Under The Ocean. The pipeline was based on electrical cable technology. Visit the PLUTO website for more information. A local resident was an operator based at CRD initially for 18 months but this turned out be to for 20 years. Possibly due to the era of the Cold war.