description: a large stone quarry which was converted by the air ministry during the Second World War, the quarry housed the world's largest underground factory. Later in it's life it became Royal Navy stores and part of the factory was converted in the government's emergency relocation site in the event of nuclear attack. Spring Quarry joins the south edge Tunnel Quarry, it also joins a smaller abandonned Bath stone quarry known as Sands Quarry, this was used as the MOD's emergency exit from the factory.
photos: thanks to the MOD for allowing the use of this photo
history:
Located South-East of Bath, Spring Quarry forms part of the area beneath JSU Corsham (formerly known as RAF Rudloe).
The Ministry of Aircraft production first acquired Spring Quarry in 1940 from the Bath and Portland Stone Company who had been extracting building stone from the quarry for the last century.
In 1941 worked started in the old stone quarry converting it in to what was at the time the largest underground factory in the world.
The Beaverbrook underground aircraft factory within Spring Quarry housed the Bristol Aerospace Company and a BSA's gun barrel factory . The vast caverns had some 2,250,000ftsq of space, divided into many smaller chambers for different companies operating underground.
A year later conversion work continued underground but by this stage the threat from German bombing had decreased so parts of the quarry were never used, the main area being the Dowty section in the North-West of the quarry which was intended for Dowty Engineering, the conversion of the Dowty section was never completed.
The factory finally closed and the companies moved out in 1945 after the Second World War had finished leaving a bill of over £20,000,000 after having very little use.
Spring Quarry was then passed over to the Ministry of Supplies who used most of the site for Admiralty stores until the early 90s.
Spring Quarry joins to other quarries, the MOD's Tunnel Quarry and an old stone quarry called Sands Quarry which was used as an emergency exit during the factories opporational days.
In the build up to Cold War the British government began a programme to strengthen and secure their facilities within Spring Quarry to try to ensure the safety of the government. The northern area of Spring Quarry was chosen as the wartime seat of power in case of nuclear war, this area became known as the Hawthorn Central Government War Headquarters. Hawthorn was later known by such names as 'Burlington' and more recently 'Site 3', for more details on this area of Spring Quarry please click here.
The future of Spring Quarry is at the moment uncertain, it is still secured and owned by MOD, most of the underground area is now abandoned. One area in the western side of the quarry is still in use today, it now forms part of Corsham Media Park's underground studio complex.
site 3:
Many people in the UK will know about and even have visited the Cabinet War Room and Paddock in London, the government emergency war headquarters up until the end of World War II but very few people will know anything about the secret bunker which took over from these sites in the early 60s.
Nettleden has all the fact and all the myths about the Burlington bunker plus maps and timelines.
Take a look at Nettleden.com's exclusive map revealing what is really underneath JSU Corsham. This map is map show they layout of Spring Quarry but excludes there area which was converted as the Burlington area.
web links: Quarry Map - a map of Spring Quarry. RAF Rudloe - sit's on top of the quarry. Sands Quarry - Spring's emergency exit. Box Quarry - an ajoining quarry. Tunnel Quarry - an ajoining quarry. Burlington - read more about Burlington. christiedigital.co.uk - installed a new Command & Control Room for the MOD in Corsham (external link) Truth Seekers - in the late 90s the bunker busters busted Spring (external link) Secret Underground Cities - great photos of Spring Quarry (external link) Corsham Media Park - part of the quarry is now an underground studio complex (external link) Corsham Town.co.uk - Burlington the Government hideway under Corsham (external link) Corsham Town.co.uk - A little about Corsham studios (external link) UK-UFO-NW IRC #UFO - an online chat with Truth Seeker Matthew Williams (external link)
