Farleigh Down endless tunnel, Dec 2013

[PaulPowers]

I had to work in Wiltshire but wanted to be home by a reasonable time so wasn't going to go for one of the quarries.

So I went to Subway in Trowbridge on the way past for a footlong spicy italian and a bottle of fanta and headed down Farleigh down tunnel.

It's basically a long box tunnel so once I finished my sub and got a few pics CBA set in and I decided to head home.

Monkton Farleigh ammunition depot utilised an old stone quarry below a plateau some 450 feet above the valley floor in which ran the main line railway that was its principal source of supply. Before the depot could be commissioned, an efficient means was need to bring in ammunition from the railway at Farleigh Down Sidings. The sidings were just over a mile from the depot as the crow flies but more than four miles by road along steep and tortuous country lanes.

In November 1937 the Great Western Railway were contracted to lay the sidings and build a 1000 foot long raised loading platform complete with a narrow gauge track to carry the ammunition wagons. Outline plans had already been prepared to drive a mile long tunnel from the heart of the workings terminating in an underground sorting yard built beneath the sidings in the valley below.

How the hell do people get shopping trolleys to these far out places?

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[muppet]

tis a killer on the legs did you get to the end

 

[PaulPowers]

nah I just gave up

Might go back with a bike

 

[Catmandoo]

Top banana!!! nice one..

 

[Deranged09]

Looks nice this

 

[smiler]

How the hell do people get shopping trolleys to these far out places?

That is a question that has baffled many of us,
Nice pics, I enjoyed them, Thanks

 

[The Wombat]

Very good Mr P

 

[King Al]

Great pic's Paul, like the old pics with the new

 

[daftoldgit]

I wouldn't bother going back if I were you, there's just a brick wall at the end

 

[PaulPowers]

I wouldn't bother going back if I were you, there's just a brick wall at the end

It's what lies beyond the wall that really has my interest

 

[krela]

Underground storage facilities for Wansdyke Security (now called "Restore" I believe) is beyond the wall.

 

[ojay]

Underground storage facilities for Wansdyke Security (now called "Restore" I believe) is beyond the wall.

facilities behind the wall you say

 

[krela]

I said beyond the wall not behind the wall, directly behind the wall is the rest of the tunnel where it becomes a brick lined arch which leads to a whole load of very damp old quarry workings (owned by Wansdyke, which they keep threatening to develop along with 19 and 20 districts, god knows how), and further on where it meets the Main West Haulageway is their active site.

Once upon a time there were 4 different ways to get into the area, they've successfully backfilled two of them and two are open intermittently; this one and the crawl to 19/20 districts which are much more interesting.

 

[ojay]

Yeah had a few trips in those bits last year a few times, not sure what the state of play is now like, no doubt still sealed

 

[oldscrote]

I've put this link up before but it bears repeating to give some idea of the scale of what's behind that wall

http://www.monkton-farleigh.co.uk/sc_monktonfarleigh2.htm

 

[PaulPowers]

I've put this link up before but it bears repeating to give some idea of the scale of what's behind that wall

http://www.monkton-farleigh.co.uk/sc_monktonfarleigh2.htm

Yeah I have a similar map