British Museum Quarry

Walker, S. and K. Matthews (1988), Recent work in stable isotope analysis of white marble at the British Museum, in Fant, J. C. (ed.), Ancient Marble Quarrying and Trade, B.A.R., International Series, Vol. 453, Oxford, UK, pp. 117-125. 

The British Museum occupied Westwood Quarry from February, 1942, until December, 1946, during which time the museum staff evacuated with the artefacts continued as far as possible with the routine tasks of cataloguing and conservation. Junior members were housed in the... 

The V A remained at Westwood for several years after the departure of the British Museum and, by 1954, concern was expressed that over 2,000,000 worth of artefacts were still stored in the quarry. The repository was finally vacated in 1957, although maintenance was continued well into the 1960s. Considering the incalculable value of the material interred in the quarry, security staff was modest, consisting of a Keeper or Deputy Assistant, with one warder by day, and one warder accompanied by one Wiltshire Police Constable at night. 

Under Prof. Becquerel s tutorship, Gaston mastered the scientific approach to studying natural processes and demonstrated a lively interest in disclosing natural phenomena. As a result of this inborn curiosity of his, in 1855, Gaston discovered an unknown fossil bird in a quarry near Paris. The French Academy of Sciences, in agreement with the British Museum, gave this bird... 

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