Westwood Quarry

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. 

In June, 1941, the quarry was allocated to the Royal Enfield Cycle Company for the manufacture of No.3 anti-aircraft predictors. The company started making predictors and hydraulic control apparatus for Bofors anti-aircraft guns at its Rcdditch factory just before the war, but, due to the vulnerability of the site, dispersal to the West Country was proposed in 1940. It was planned at first to convert just 30,000 square feet of Westwood Quarry to provide capacity to build twenty predictors per month. Development was expected to cost 60,000, with a further 50,000 for new machine tools and 10,000 for gauges and hand tools. Later it was decided to also transfer part of the oil-motor capacity, which necessitated an increase of floor space to 41,000 square feet. By the end of the year the cost of quarry development alone had increased to 123,500, exclusive of the cost of site acquisition or of the workmen s hostels which were now required. 

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... 

Quarry Operations Centre, abandonment of, 254 Quartermaine, Alan, 155 Queen Mary, visit to Westwood Quarry, 234... 

Westwood Quarry. Typical view of one of the machine shops in the BSA factory. 

The museum trustees received requests for the safe-keeping of items of outstanding importance from numerous institutions and private individuals, and the quarry soon became a fabulous national treasure-house. Apan from artefacts from Bloomsbury and Kensington, Westwood also held collections from the Bodleian Library, the Imperial War Museum, and the Free French Museum of National Antiquities. Among the individual items to spend the war years in Wiltshire were the Rubens Ceiling from the Whitehall banqueting hall, the Crown Jewels, the Charles I statue from Whitehall and the bronze screen from the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey. 

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. 

Until about 1860 the Bath stone industry was monopolized by three large firms Messrs Randall Saunders who had quarries at Corsham, Monkton Farleigh, Westwood and Combe Down Pictor Sons of Box and Sumsions with quarries at Combe Down and Monks Park. By 1885 there were at least twelve firms in fierce competition, which resulted in... 

Westwood, showing surface canteen on the left and the quarry entrance on the right. 

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