Corsham Quarries Requisitioning

By early December there was intense interest in the Corsham Quarries from all quarters and to safeguard its interest the Admiralty peremptorily requisitioned Monk s Park on Monday, 2 December. Five days later the MOS requisitioned all the remaining quarries, much to the surprise of the Bath Portland Board. TTie following Monday Mark Pictor wrote to inform the company land agent that ... 

The 720,000 square foot Westwood Quarry lies fifteen miles west of Corsham below a precipitous hillside overlooking the incongruous, industrial hamlet of AvonclifF in the Avon Valley. It is the remotest of all the quarries requisitioned under the Corsham scheme, and, once the initial panic to go underground subsided, was the first earmarked for abandonment. 

Regional War Rooms, 246 Reith, Lord, 155 Requisitioning, Corsham quarries, 154... 

The main heading in Brown s Quarry extends for some distance to the north beyond the area occupied by the RAF, and it was suggested that this should be further extended by several hundred yards to a point beneath the surface camp at Rudloe Manor, where a lift shaft would be sunk. Although a little exploratory work was started the scheme was soon abandoned because its cost was calculated to far outweigh the operational benefit. Access to Brown s Quarry is via an electric lift. There is a story (probably apocryphal) that this was requisitioned from Harrods in Knightsbridge when it was found that a new one could not be acquired from the manufacturer at short notice. Unlike all the other surface structures at Corsham, the lift-head building for Brown s Quarry was built... 

---