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Monkton Farleigh in World War 2
Monkton Farleigh, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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A vast network of disused underground Bath Stone quarries at Monkton Farleigh was developed into one of the largest ammunition stores in the country. Development began before the inevitable outbreak of war in 1939 with the construction of sidings and a station on the Great Western Railway in the By Brook valley. From there a mile-long tunnel contained a narrow-gauge track to convey up to 1000 tons of ammunition to the quarries on the hill above. Considerable work was done inside the quarries to adapt them to their new use. The D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944 and subsequent action across Europe saw the ammunition depot and some others in nearby quarries at their busiest, supplying the forces.
Bottom of 20 District slope shaft in Monkton Farleigh ammunition depot. Photograph by Derek Hawkins geograph.org.uk CC BY-SA 2.0
See the Subterranea Britannica website and books by Nick McCamley and Derek Hawkins for more details and images.
After the war the depot closed, was vandalised, opened as a museum in the 1980s. Some of the tunnels, with their constant humidity, are currently used for secure storage for documents and digital material.
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A crater in Inwood that was made by a German 500-pound bomb, one of six bombs that were dropped around there on 27th April 1942.
Part of Monkton Farleigh Manor House was requisitioned to house 73 Army Pioneers and later 30 to 40 RAF personnel, leaving Sir Charles and Lady Hobhouse restricted to the west wing, but he died in 1941
A surviving pillbox which guarded an entrance to the wartime ammunition depot, now of Restore Document Management
In the fields on the eastern border of Monkton Farleigh decoy sites, known under the codename of Temporary Starfish decoys, were set up in an attempt to fool enemy bomber crew into thinking they had reached Bath. Fires that showed up brightly in the black-out were lit to pretend that pathfinder planes had found the intended target and dropped incendiary bombs.