Summary
A series of semi worked-out chambers in a disused Bath Stone quarry. C19 quarrying equipment, including timber cranes with cast-iron driving mechanisms and chains with shears, saws and other tools, and narrow-gauge tracks, remain in situ. The quarried faces of the Bath Stone walls, and the working areas littered with rubble, display some of the last areas where stone was cut before the abandonment of the quarry in December 1940, at the time that it was requisitioned. There is graffiti on some stone faces, which includes calculations related to quarrying, and personal messages, one of which relates to the outbreak of the Second World War.
Reasons for Designation
The Quarry Working Areas in West Lung, in CGWHQ, below MoD Corsham are designated as a Scheduled Monument for the following principal reasons:
* Rarity: very few quarries are known to survive intact, this one Bath Stone and with pre-war equipment in situ.
* Survival: the area retains cranes, tracks and tools in place, as left by quarrymen, in areas with spoil and stone at various stages of being quarried and removed from the mine.
* Group value: as part of the extensive group of Bath Stone quarries, including the 75 acres of workings at Spring Quarry, which is evidence of an historic industry that was crucial to the character and appearance of a large proportion of historic assets in this country, most notably those associated with polite architecture of the C18 and C19.
* Period: not only is the industrial archaeology evocative of the continued use of C19 quarrying methods, but extant graffiti notes the era of the redundancy of the site following the outbreak of World War Two.
* Representative: as a remarkably preserved quarry, and one of the best preserved working areas within West Lung itself.
History
The Corsham Mines are a multi-layered historic site near Bath, beneath the southern end of the Cotswold Hills in Wiltshire. Quarrying of Bath Stone in the wider area took place from Roman times, and by the C18 Bath Stone had become a highly sought after building material. The opening of the Kennet and Avon canal in 1810, and the subsequent construction of the Great Western Railway in the 1840s, made the transportation of the stone to farther locations easier and cheaper, thereby increasing its popularity. Brunel's cutting of the Box Railway Tunnel, beside the village of Corsham, revealed a rich seam of high quality stone beneath the hills. Intense quarrying followed, leaving a network of quarries with worked-out chambers and air shafts, Spring Quarry being one of the largest. Eventually there would be over 60 miles of tunnels across 3,000 acres, located at depths between 80 and 100 feet below ground. However, the 1930s saw a marked decline in the fortunes of the quarrying trade, as a result of recession, rising costs, the introduction of cheaper building materials, and the exhaustion of the more easily-reached deposits of high-quality stone. Despite this slump, in the mid-1930s over one hundred men, using about 30 cranes, were employed at Spring Quarry, the most profitable of the Bath and Portland Stone Company's quarries.
The Bristol Aeroplane Company (BAC) at Filton, near Bristol was bombed in September 1940. In response, Lord Beaverbrook, the Minister of Aircraft Production, issued an urgent plan to relocate all production below ground, which was endorsed by Churchill. The limitations of time, suitable sites, and wartime resources quickly saw the scheme scaled back to the relocation of Filton's engine plant. In December 1940 four quarries in the Corsham area, including Spring Quarry, were requisitioned by the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP). On the day of requisition, the quarriers were informed that they were no longer required and the quarry workings were abandoned. Part of Spring Quarry was converted for aircraft production, and the area that became known as West Lung was allocated for use by Dowty Aviation of Cheltenham. However, the Dowty Works in West Lung were never developed.
In the late 1950s part of the BAC factory was converted to provide the Central Government War Headquarters (CGWHQ) in the event of nuclear attack. The perimeter of the citadel did not encompass West Lung, which was retained as an undeveloped area that helped air circulation in the underground areas.
Spring Quarry was de-commissioned in the early 1990s. It was de-classified in 2004.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the Quarry Working Areas under consideration are located at the west end of West Lung (the north-west section of Spring Quarry), and cover an area of 2,115 metres square. The areas comprise tunnels and chambers quarried into the Bath Stone with supporting pillars of stone and loose rubble covering the floor and working pits. There are eight standing quarry cranes, various tools, narrow-gauge tracks for stone-removal trucks, and some historic graffiti in the area.
DESCRIPTION: the tunnels are of varying height and width across an uneven floor, and turn through a number of orientations. The floors have been partly levelled in the main access route for the placement of narrow-gauge, cast-iron rails to transport stone. In many sections, loose rubble is stacked to the side of the tracks. The tunnels open out into chambers, inside which are standing timber cranes constructed using a standard method, but in a variety of configurations, with cast-iron driving mechanisms including gears, cranks, shafts and pulleys attached to chains.
Cranes are located: next to the north faces of pillars A7, A8 and A12; two by the east face pillar A8A; and three stand in the open working area at the north end. All the cranes are constructed with a vertical, heavy timber, support column secured with iron pins to the floor and ceiling. The top pin acts as the crane's upper pivot, and engages in a timber bearing, or 'chog', set in a square hole in the quarry ceiling. The base of the support column is generally shouldered. A timber arm, or jib, constructed of two thick planks bolted together, projects at roughly 45 degrees, bolted to the base of the support column. The jib carries a hoist chain with hook, in some cases still attached to scissor-shaped shears. The planks of the jib are bolted, with a gap between them, to create a shaft through which the chain is wound and unwound. The chain is wound around a timber reel located towards the bottom of the jib. All cranes have cast-iron cogged driving gear, of varying dimensions, with a crank for winding the chain and hoisting the stone. Cranes were often fitted with a cast-iron brake band. A cast-iron tie is fixed between the top of the support column and the top of the jib, for strength via triangulation. In most cases, the cranes have horizontal timbers fixed around the support column, supporting the jib and driving gear, with further iron ties. One of the cranes at the north end has an iron plate marked "156". There is at least one fallen crane in the area. Quarrying tools and remains of other equipment are scattered throughout the area, including frigbobs and razzers (quarrying saws), and shovels.
At the north end is an open working area with a sheer face showing the incisions caused by the removal of large stone blocks. There are some iron pulley fixings embedded in the quarry walls. There is a deep pit with large pieces of cut stone that have not been removed. A number of stone walls across the Quarry Working Areas have graffiti showing numeric calculations inscribed to note down quantities of stone being quarried. There are also examples of quarrymen's signatures, and a graffito that states: "War commenced on Sept 3rd 1939".
The designated area extends to 1m around the designated boundary, and 1m above and below. All above ground structures are excluded from the designation.
