Report - Burlington - the city beneath a town - sept 2010

[tommo]

for me this is where it all start, about 5 years ago i got in to reading all about the corsham works and the underground city with its 70 years history, living local to this it always fascinated me, so after alot of reading and research i decided to get in to the whole underground exploring and this has bought me to the forums i am on now, a couple of years ago i took the plunge and got underground and havent looked back since, only to check on the ones following when i am leading lol,

there is nothing more frustrating than knowing about access to a place but with the logistics of family and work, the timing was always out and holes where to small over the last 9 months, so when a local passed on some info the other week we couldnt pass up the opportunity, calls where made, kit was grabbed and batteries charged, it was a school night so with time ticking we got on

visited with rigsby, vwdirtyboy and petzl and sorry for such a long report but it is a big place

history

Spring come about after isambard kingdom brunel decided to build box tunnel, after the excavations for the tunnel started around the mid 1800’s they ran in to the gold know as bath limestone, this had a spin off effect and lots of local quarry man soon come from all over to quarry the land of its ritches, the stone helped build many buildings over the years and was supplied to all the local towns and citys including bath, By 1885 there were 12 firms operating in the Corsham area, seven of which amalgamated under the Bath and Portland Stone Firms Ltd. which by 1900 were producing 3,000,000 cubic feet of stone a year, quarrying at box started around 1850 and finished around 1910, The advent of the Second World War signalled the most extensive phase of development within Corsham including Tunnel, Spring, Browns, Copenacre and Pickwick quarries. Operationally they functioned as separate entities but were dictated by the change in military threat with the Second World War, in 1930 the war office turned its attention to using the underground to store ammunition and shadow factorys so it was decided to locate the Bristol Aeroplane Company’s development works and the manufacturing of Centaurus engines below-ground at Spring Quarry, as well as the manufacture of undercarriages, gun barrels and turrets
This is where spring quarry sprung to life, the whole area undergorund was cleaned out of dead stone and convered at any expense, which at the time went well over budget and was short lived with the ending of the ww2 a couple of years later, but the whole enginnering side and the short time taken to convert was incredible, large canteens where created and many areas convered to machine shops and large stores, there is alot of evidence still to be found, the canteens with there legendary olga lehmann murals on the wall, alot of the old store’s shelving is still in place and also all the machine beds are still there, lights still hang from the quarry ceiling along with pipe work and all kinds of signs

many areas are sectioned of in to working areas

one of the many motors and fans that did drive the air flow

long passages leading all over the place

Fire points all over the place

Then the emergency exit C door from Burlington

The entrance walkway to the old engine factory

One of the old lifts

Then we move on to one of the old canteens on spring, with the olga lehmann murals on the wall

And the stage

The second canteen

Then it was over to east lung, the old workings


The sub station out side W door

Old tool rack

W door in to Burlington all locked up with cctv looking in on the door

So we moved further in to east lung to the old sewage ejection area and the air shafts

Then we moved around the old air shafts and followed the new Burlington wall


This is where the old venturi tubes for the air flow would of been

Then the old air tunnel connecting with a big air shaft

Bottom of the air shaft

Then we headed over to the west side offspring to the old generator and small stuff



The generator

We spend nearly 6 hours walking round this place and i could of done a good week just in here, there is so much to see, but like i said it was a school night and i need to get up for work in a couple of hours so of home we went, which wasnt easy knowing burlington was just through the door, but that will keep for another day​

 

[tommo]

burlington

well the weekend was here and again the tribe of my self, rigsby, vwdirtyboy and petzl meet at the usual, plan of action this time...........burlington

we made our way through spring and straight in for a full day exploring, first up was

And the gents toilets, not the normal place u would go but for us it was the first port of call, and it was nice to see such mint but stained toilets, i am sure that if war did ever break out there would be a few shitting themselves in here

 

[tommo]

area 22: offices for commonwealth relations

Next up we decided to take a walk along second avenue and into area 22 the offices of commonwealth relations. Mainly a storage area now with a couple of beds made up and some unpacked 1961 rugs, lots of unpacked beds and chairs just sat there, but was nice with lights on and to see it so clean, our first taste of real burly

 

[tommo]

area 14: offices of the war cabinet

next up we headed to area 14 offices of the war cabinet,we checked out all the rooms and had a little sit down in the map room, before looking round the prime ministers office and bedroom room 34 and 35( lost the pics on another memory card grrrrrrrrrrr)

pics form the subbrit mag in march

room 53: war cabinet signal registry

room 44: Map room

room 48: cabinet office conference room and waiting area

room 63: war cabinet secitarial staff had this little box left in it with what looked like a milk jug

room 74: GCHQ communications

strange names on the wall not sure if any one knows what they mean

 

[tommo]

area 12: kitchens, canteen and dining

next up was area 12: kitchens, canteen and dining, now this was the bit i was looking forward to with all the reports form before and pics, its one of the nicest parts of burly, and we spent a good hour just in here looking round, larking about, was tempted to cook some grub up lol

seating for 4 please and make it snappy

[

 

[tommo]

area 21:goverment communications

With the kitchens all rapped up we headed over to area 21: government communications
Its a shame this place is in such a bad state, lots of mess, mould and derelict brand new machinery, chairs in there original rapping never been taking out all jsut sitting there wasting away the amount our government wasted is beyond imagination, but still an interesting area to say the least

​

 

[tommo]

goods lift 1


Swinging past the bad parts with more mould we headed up to area’s 17: offices for minstery of aviation and also area 20: industrial laundry, not much in them to be fair mostly storage areas now for junk, we headed for goods lift 1 (GL1) this is the main entry for most from above ground including the IES how are cleaning the place up of aspestos

Vw playing on the carts lol

​

 

[tommo]

area 19: the power house


Area 19: power house, wicked little place from the old period, 4 big generators, substations the works, this was another favourite and great to see it for my self, was expecting them to be the same as the monkton farligh ones

 

[tommo]

walk up to the north and back down to area 8

We then went up round the top to area 7 the kitchens, past area 1 the old gpo exchange and area 2 board of trade which was locked up, then down to here

The PNCC entrance

On to the public announment system

The key room

Public lifts

 

[tommo]

the hospital


Passing the phone exchange we did the hospital first, luckly for us it was open and a great little explore on its own, laid out more like a museam now but with loads of great stuff left behind, the dark room is full of schematics and maps of the place

 

[tommo]

area 9: stores

after the hospital we walk back to area 9: stores, even though most of what would of be in here has now gone there is a little bit tucked away and u can get the basic idea of what the place would of been like, shelves every where with equipment, supplies and stuff just lined up ready to be used in gthe even of a war

 

[tommo]

area 8: phone exchange

then finally we head to the old phone exchange area 8, luckly for us this was also wide open, i know that in the past this has been locked up, but it was great to see it for ourselves, it has taken some water damage over the years but the whole section of area 8 is amazing, files and books just sat there, cabinets full up of spares and this also had its own generator and battery back up, it was great to see very old stuff with slightly newer stuff all maintained by BT

 

[tommo]

random stuff along the way

then to finish of here are a couple of random pics of other areas we walked round on the way back out

the museam of old quarry stuff

old cart and service areas

electric buggy service station and charging

trucks just littered about, beoken and used for spares

big air tanks

old cement mixer i guess was used to help build the place at some point

and on a shelf near the main working area is a humidity recorder

and thats it, sorry for a large report but its not a small place, till the next time................

 

[CH1LRZ]

woah

 

[pondskater]

Excellent - great explore