# Monks Park Quarry, Wiltshire - October 2010



## Urban-Warrior (Oct 6, 2010)

*Attending:* Urban-Warrior, Toad & Lindsay

Opened in 1886 by Sumsions to quarry the famous Bath stone Monks Park was known as Monks Noth until the mine was acquired by the Bath and Portland Stone Co otherwise known today as ARC Stone. 

Covering 38 acres the mine is accessed by a 100' slope shaft with 212 steps leading down to the workings.
The quarry was taken over by the War Dept in 1937 and part was used to store ammunition and explosives during WWII, Becoming surplus to requirements in 1941 the site sat empty until 1954 when 10 acre's of the quarry was converted by the Royal Navy as an extension to the stores at Copenacre Quarry and 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 and 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.

When Copenacre Quarry closed in 1995 the Navy’s part of Monks Park was sold off to a Leafield Engineering, a defence contractor who now use the quarry to make components for the defence industry and commercial users, Hansons also took over the un-converted part of the quarry and the remaining stone was quarried until closure in 2008.

On with the pics....








































































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## Urban-Warrior (Oct 6, 2010)

...

Some of the doors into Leafield Engineering..




















































And back onto the surface after 4 hours underound 





















Thanks for looking ​


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## KooK. (Oct 6, 2010)

very cool, nice report


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## godzilla73 (Oct 8, 2010)

Nice pics - a good addition to the recent Wiltshire coverage!


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## oldscrote (Oct 9, 2010)

Good stuff mate I'm loving all this Wiltshire mine stuff.
the last photo shows a stripped Samson coal cutter which is a different one from the one in vwdirtboys recent post on Minks Park.I guess they must have been cannibalising them to keep others going.


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## oldscrote (Dec 3, 2010)

Found this footage on U tube it shows the Westwood Samson working worth a watch

[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INSoaRmYCwY&feature=related[/nomedia]


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## Foxylady (Dec 3, 2010)

Cracking mine (no pun intended...honest!  ) and set of pics, Urb-W. Some great remains.

Loved the footage, Oldscrote. Amazing when you think of how long it used to take the quarrymen with their hand saws back along.


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