# Farleigh Down Sidings - our take on a much covered site!



## TeeJF (Apr 2, 2011)

I'm reliably informed that this is actually Farleigh Down so apologies to anyone I have mislead with the incorrect title! I've wanted to visit this site for so many years and it wasn't until I came on to this forum a few weeks ago that I realised it was actually possible. Anyway after years of waiting we finally got down the mine. For what it's worth here are a selection of the photos we took this week. It amazed me how having just visited the place we then find another posting in this site and immediately see an area we managed to miss! Duh... anyhow I know it's all been done before and most people are probably fed up of seeing this location but for what it's worth here they are! 

This is the first glimpse you get of the entrance. Oddly I managed to find this via Google Earth where it can be seen very clearly. 







One for the wartime pillbox collectors...






and another...






The Bristol to London train line runs past the old sidings on its way to the famous Brunel Box Tunnel. This shows clearly how the tunnel was used when it was originally built...






Small guage railway lines are set into the end of what was once a quarter mile long platform area for moving munitions...






The first view of the tunnel proper... these two tracks had machinery located beneath them which moved the ammunition trucks up or down the slope.






Some of the inevitable graffitti here is stunning but rather disturbing!






Looking back up the slope...






The entrance was once sealed by two large steel doors only one of which remains now. the other is on the floor.






The area just beyond the entrance curves around quite sharply and alters the direction of the tunnel from parallel with the rail line across towards the direction of the nearby hill ridge. Contrary to what you might expect the shaft proper runs uphill from a little way beyond this point. We paced the tunnel at 1733 yards from the this point to where it is finally walled off.






There are several rooms opening off the underground sidings including machine spaces, offices and ablutions. On the floor there is a broken stained glass window though the Lord alone knows what that is doing in a disused military installation!






The stained glass window in question...






Dry wit?






TJ was surprised to find a rather crudely painted but none the less rather disturbing graffitti in this room! 






The far end of the underground sidings leads off into the tunnel proper. It's not possible with our camera to get a true appreciation of just how large this area actually is but I paced it at 65 yards from one end to the other.






Within the tunnel proper a lot of the ammunition conyevor belt system is still in place and this machinery presumably drove the belt...






Instructions painted on the tunnel wall for the belt operators...






Another view of the belt drive system. the noise down here must have been appalling when the belt was running.






The belt running off into the distance.






After walking uphill for an age we finally came to this blockage. Someone has partially tunnelled through it however and if you get up close there is a howling gale blowing which probably accounts for why the tunnel is still very dry and in such a good state. Beyond this point the storage districts proper begin but they are used today by a company for storing other items. If my memory serves me correctly I think I read that there are in excess of 32 acres of storage down here in the old Bath stone mines.


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## King Al (Apr 2, 2011)

Nice one TeeJF, like the conveyor


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## FLEXX (Apr 2, 2011)

nice photos mate did you notice a lot of the ww2 graffiti has been painted over


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## TeeJF (Apr 2, 2011)

FLEXX said:


> nice photos mate did you notice a lot of the ww2 graffiti has been painted over



No... I'm betting there's a lot of things I didn't notice! It wasn't helped by the fact that our all singing, all dancing 1 billion candle power CPC torch faded to about 1 LED power before we had even got half way IN, let alone back! Good job we had a spare. I did notice someone had been down there with a similar taste in music judging by the number of times I saw "T.Rex" painted on the walls.


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## FLEXX (Apr 2, 2011)

haha if you go again you will see alot more i did the second time around


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## krela (Apr 2, 2011)

Technically this is Farleigh Down Sidings rather than the mine itself, but nice photos and write up.


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## godzilla73 (Apr 2, 2011)

Yep - good photos. You really do need to do this at least twice because by the time you get to the end of the tunnel you are invariably knackered and have missed a lot of the good stuff (e.g. WW2 signage) at the far end.
GDZ


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## TeeJF (Apr 3, 2011)

krela said:


> Technically this is Farleigh Down Sidings rather than the mine itself, but nice photos and write up.



Yeah, you're right. Someone pointed that out to me I can't change the title of our posting for some reason. But I added a comment to that effect in our write up. Cheers.


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## smileysal (Apr 3, 2011)

Excellent write up mate, and good to see the WW2 signs. I missed the signage when we visited. We were shattered by the time we got up to the top.

Excellent pics too. 

Cheers,

 Sal


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