# Monks Park Quarry, Wiltshire. Oct 2010



## vwdirtboy (Oct 3, 2010)

Monks park quarry started it's life under the name of Sumsions Monks or Monks North as it was started in 1886 by Sumsions as a Bath stone quarry, the mine then changed hands to The Bath and Portland Stone Co. who's name has since changed to ARC Stone. The mine now covers 38 acres and has 212 steps leading down, the stone being about 100’ below the ground.

In 1937 the quarry was taken over by the War Department and used as an ammunition and explosives store, although the whole area was not converted. The site became surplus in 1941 and sat empty until 1954 when a 10 acre area of the quarry was converted by the Royal Navy as an extension to the stores at Copenacre Quarry as well as Spring Quarry. The conversion took two years and during this time , 250,000 tons of waste was removed, floors laid, ceilings and pillars strengthened where necessary and engineering services installed. To make the quarry suitable for storage a new reinforced lift shaft was constructed.

The rest of the quarry which was never converted remained in it’s original stone quarry state, this half became a quarry museum for a short time before being moved to Pickwick Quarry as it was decided that the quarry would once again be put in to use for stone extraction. Hanson's then took over the lease and carried on quarrying till closure in 2008.

Since being closed 'Der pikey's' have been in and looted whatever they could carry out..








































































































































































































































Thanks for looking!


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## bonecollector (Oct 3, 2010)

Awesome as always vdub.
It seems to have changed again since last time we were there.


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## tommo (Oct 3, 2010)

good lad, some great pics there fella, was a great end to a good day 

do u mind if i post that one of u up


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## bonecollector (Oct 3, 2010)

tommo said:


> good lad, some great pics there fella, was a great end to a good day
> 
> do u mind if i post that one of u up



Its not a nekid one of him is it?


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## krela (Oct 3, 2010)

Yeah it was a good visit, shame it's been so pikeyfied recently.


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## vwdirtboy (Oct 3, 2010)

tommo said:


> good lad, some great pics there fella, was a great end to a good day
> 
> do u mind if i post that one of u up



post what ya like mate.. just keep the ones of matt & ben secret


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## krela (Oct 3, 2010)

vwdirtboy said:


> post what ya like mate.. just keep the ones of matt & ben secret



OI! How many times do I have to tell you I DONT DO STUDENTS!!


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## tommo (Oct 3, 2010)

bonecollector said:


> Its not a nekid one of him is it?



lol na but we have got one of him with his trousers down 

*vdub the mine explorer*


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## hydealfred (Oct 3, 2010)

Great photography as per usual VW


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## nij4829 (Oct 3, 2010)

Machine porn.

Great pics mate.


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## King Al (Oct 3, 2010)

The pics look great VW, twas a great way to spend a Saturday


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## Foxylady (Oct 3, 2010)

Fab pics of a great site. Particularly loving the machinery. Good stuff.


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## muppet1992 (Oct 3, 2010)

dude that is actually amazing, best post i've seen to date!! props to you guys for that find, its something else! nice one.


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## crickleymal (Oct 3, 2010)

Nice pictures. I didn't realise they'd stopped working. I'll have to go and have a look myself.


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## lost (Oct 4, 2010)

Some of the machinery there is screaming 'drive me!'


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## oldscrote (Oct 4, 2010)

A grand set of pics thanks for sharing.Is the museum still in existence it was near the bottom of the slope shaft and had a fine collection of quarryman's tools in it?


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## krela (Oct 4, 2010)

No mate the place has been utterly stripped and pikeyfied.


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## DubbedNavigator (Oct 4, 2010)

Nice one Vdub, ive only ever visited mines when you have been about but it was pretty cool.

Me being an asylum man, i find it very interesting that all of the mines seem physically different in their own way. whereas with asylums, they all look the same but have their own "feel" to them


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## oldscrote (Oct 4, 2010)

Shame, there was some good stuff there.


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## crickleymal (Oct 4, 2010)

oldscrote said:


> Shame, there was some good stuff there.



The museum's been gone for years. Probably at least 10 if not longer.


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## professor frink (Oct 4, 2010)

Nice one Harv, looks like a grand day out.


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## klempner69 (Oct 5, 2010)

Great stuff Dub,I see the fork-lift beast is now in the garage topside!


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## chaoticreason (Oct 5, 2010)

Amazing shots of a place I will never go.Not keen on the down under,but it's like a good horror movie,you don't wanna be there but you can't get away from the scary fact its; there!
I crawled twenty yards up a tunnel the other day and was sh.....g it.
Hats of! or rather hats on,cheers for the explore.


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## Urban-Warrior (Oct 6, 2010)

Great shots there fella, This place is amazing.. I really must get my report done tonite


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## klempner69 (Oct 6, 2010)

chaoticreason said:


> Amazing shots of a place I will never go.Not keen on the down under,but it's like a good horror movie,you don't wanna be there but you can't get away from the scary fact its; there!
> I crawled twenty yards up a tunnel the other day and was sh.....g it.
> Hats of! or rather hats on,cheers for the explore.



It really isnt that bad honestly..before I first went under i was thinking it would be lacking in air,and I would feel claustraphobic,but I have never felt any of these in all the mines/quarries I have had the good fortune to have been shown.If you get the chance try a visit and I reckon you will love it after.


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## tommo (Oct 6, 2010)

thats so true, u can never tell if u like it till u try it and its far from small inside, if u can do a ROC post then u can go underground,

take bones as an example, he wasnt feeling to confident about going underground last year- with small spaces and crawls but i tell u what, he has done everything wiltshire has to offer and done it very well and got over any issues he has even down to the smalliest of holes, but i am sure he will tell u its worth it for some of the places he has been and got to see


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## crickleymal (Oct 7, 2010)

chaoticreason said:


> Amazing shots of a place I will never go.Not keen on the down under,but it's like a good horror movie,you don't wanna be there but you can't get away from the scary fact its; there!
> I crawled twenty yards up a tunnel the other day and was sh.....g it.
> Hats of! or rather hats on,cheers for the explore.




Try the Wiltshire quarries if you get a chance. There's plenty of space there, you could ride a mountain bike around some of the places.


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## krela (Oct 7, 2010)

crickleymal said:


> Try the Wiltshire quarries if you get a chance. There's plenty of space there, you could ride a mountain bike around some of the places.



Ppl HAVE ridden a mountain bike around some of them! haha


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## oldscrote (Oct 7, 2010)

Looking at the photos again the second one is a very sad Samson arc shearer or coal cutter the poor thing is minus it's tracks and is a very rare bird indeed.Bath and Portland started to use them in about 1948 to speed up stone extraction and were a great improvement on the old hand sawing method tho they wasted a lot of stone as the cut is about 7inches wide.As far as I know they are still in use in the working quarries 60 years later.They run on compressed air and I last saw one working in Westwood quarry about 10 years ago.


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## tommo (Oct 7, 2010)

oldscrote said:


> Looking at the photos again the second one is a very sad Samson arc shearer or coal cutter the poor thing is minus it's tracks and is a very rare bird indeed.Bath and Portland started to use them in about 1948 to speed up stone extraction and were a great improvement on the old hand sawing method tho they wasted a lot of stone as the cut is about 7inches wide.As far as I know they are still in use in the working quarries 60 years later.They run on compressed air and I last saw one working in Westwood quarry about 10 years ago.









this one did come out of westwood, so it may be the same one, originally it was in the service shed at monks park, this has since been knocked down and the coal cutter put in to the big shed, last year we had a look through the logs in the service shed, it mentioned all about the servicing of stuff like this including there dates and times and whar machine come from where and also all the parts stores that where there the also had all the bits to keep them running up stairs in the shed

these are a couple of pucs taken back then, not great but was getting use to my camera then lol, i do have more but cant find them at the moment, u can just make out that cutter in the first pic on the left


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## oldscrote (Oct 8, 2010)

The Samson coming from Westwood quarry would make sense as they stopped stone extraction there a few years ago.


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## klempner69 (Oct 8, 2010)

This is another angle of the cutter on the operating table


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