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.
David Mills
6th December 2012 12:21Bezman
28th November 2011 13:49I used work at Spring till 1994 when i was made redundent which was crap cos it was a great place to work. I was wondering if anyone has been down there since it closed and if so whats it like. I know the place was full of asbestos and it was floating about in the air as myself and others used to run into the walls which were covered in sheets of the stuff but back then you didn't give a stuff if you were on a fork lift. It would be great to hear stories about the place.
Replies
chrissheerin in reply to Bezman
21st October 2012 18:54