The History:
Monkton Farleigh Mine is the largest of the three Central Ammunition Depots and consists of 80 acres of tunnels and eight storage 'districts'
connected by five miles of tunnels. The tunnels were designed to handle 1000 tons of ammunition daily.
Built during WW2, it was decommissioned in 1965 and sold off in 1976. After many years of fruitless wrangling between landowners and planners, Monkton Farleigh Mine was almost destroyed by theft and vandalism.
Much of the depot has now been sold to Wansdyke Security for secure storage and they have securely sealed the top end of the tunnel close to it junction with the Main West gallery.
Today it remains accessible to only those with the knowledge and the Maps to do so.
A Quote from The Times, 23 November 1943:
'Somewhere within the boundaries of the Southern Command there are what are described in prosaic official language as 'storage areas'. This does not convey information to the enemy or to anyone else. Aerial reconnaissance would disclose nothing but rolling countryside, with wooded hills, picturesque villages, and peaceful pastoral scenery. Many of the local inhabitants are unaware that deep under the earth a wonderful feat of engineering has created a vast bomb-proof store for munitions of war; those who knew kept the secret inviolate.'
The Explore:
A group of well known Explorers arrived in three cars at a small wooded layby in Wiltshire on Friday morning.
The usual suspects where OT, Raddog, Turkey, Rookinella, Dweeb, Squirrell911, Zerocool and myself.
The plan for the day was Lunch in Browns Mine and the afternoon in Monkton Farleigh.
It would be fair to say that I was the most excited of all the group, because for one reason or another, I'd was the only one who'd never been to this UE Holy Grail site before.
So we headed down into Browns, cooked up a dirty lunch and then most of us headed on in. OT and Squirrell had a side project they were working on
Monkton Farleigh had been been in the top five of my now short UE List for some time. Unsurpringly it was well worth the wait and an awesome afternoon was had by all.
A lot of the time I used the technique of just photographing whatever was going on around me. This created some very nice accidental lighting effects.
We covered both Districts 19 and 20 pretty well in three hours, before heading off for some much needed Fish and Chips
I hope you enjoy the results.
The entrance point to MF was interesting.
Welcome to District 19
What's left of a large Extractor Fan
Close up look at one of the old Conveyors
Down a Tunnel en route to District 20
Time for a Self Portrait
An Ammunition Box
The Tunnels run for miles
Nice to see a Toilet still intact...
...unlike the Sinks
Everyone looking back down one of the endless tunnels
An Air Shaft to the surface
Follow the Arrows
One of the only remaining complete Conveyors
Raddog peaks through the Keyhole into Wansdyke
A Ramp to the surface sealed at the top
Some Signs don't really mean much anymore
Frantic activity at the bottom of District 19
The infamous Tyre-rolling Ramp - It would have been rude not to send a couple down
Monkton Farleigh Mine is the largest of the three Central Ammunition Depots and consists of 80 acres of tunnels and eight storage 'districts'
connected by five miles of tunnels. The tunnels were designed to handle 1000 tons of ammunition daily.
Built during WW2, it was decommissioned in 1965 and sold off in 1976. After many years of fruitless wrangling between landowners and planners, Monkton Farleigh Mine was almost destroyed by theft and vandalism.
Much of the depot has now been sold to Wansdyke Security for secure storage and they have securely sealed the top end of the tunnel close to it junction with the Main West gallery.
Today it remains accessible to only those with the knowledge and the Maps to do so.
A Quote from The Times, 23 November 1943:
'Somewhere within the boundaries of the Southern Command there are what are described in prosaic official language as 'storage areas'. This does not convey information to the enemy or to anyone else. Aerial reconnaissance would disclose nothing but rolling countryside, with wooded hills, picturesque villages, and peaceful pastoral scenery. Many of the local inhabitants are unaware that deep under the earth a wonderful feat of engineering has created a vast bomb-proof store for munitions of war; those who knew kept the secret inviolate.'
The Explore:
A group of well known Explorers arrived in three cars at a small wooded layby in Wiltshire on Friday morning.
The usual suspects where OT, Raddog, Turkey, Rookinella, Dweeb, Squirrell911, Zerocool and myself.
The plan for the day was Lunch in Browns Mine and the afternoon in Monkton Farleigh.
It would be fair to say that I was the most excited of all the group, because for one reason or another, I'd was the only one who'd never been to this UE Holy Grail site before.
So we headed down into Browns, cooked up a dirty lunch and then most of us headed on in. OT and Squirrell had a side project they were working on
Monkton Farleigh had been been in the top five of my now short UE List for some time. Unsurpringly it was well worth the wait and an awesome afternoon was had by all.
A lot of the time I used the technique of just photographing whatever was going on around me. This created some very nice accidental lighting effects.
We covered both Districts 19 and 20 pretty well in three hours, before heading off for some much needed Fish and Chips
I hope you enjoy the results.
The entrance point to MF was interesting.
Welcome to District 19
What's left of a large Extractor Fan
Close up look at one of the old Conveyors
Down a Tunnel en route to District 20
Time for a Self Portrait
An Ammunition Box
The Tunnels run for miles
Nice to see a Toilet still intact...
...unlike the Sinks
Everyone looking back down one of the endless tunnels
An Air Shaft to the surface
Follow the Arrows
One of the only remaining complete Conveyors
Raddog peaks through the Keyhole into Wansdyke
A Ramp to the surface sealed at the top
Some Signs don't really mean much anymore
Frantic activity at the bottom of District 19
The infamous Tyre-rolling Ramp - It would have been rude not to send a couple down
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