I was lucky enough to have a quick sprint around here early January, i kinda wish i took the big camera and not a point and shoot but didnt really want to hang about down there .
So much to see down there really and i feel lucky to have seen the place. I have been told the site is now secured again with a new company taking over the site.
History stolen off Fortnox thread
The leafield underground workings were originally part of the Monks Park Quarry and were used for mining Bath stone from around 1886 with what is now the leafield site becoming known as western monks park. In 1914 the mining operations stopped and the area lay dormant until it was taken over by the MOD in 1937 and used for the storage of high explosives and ammunition. 4 years later the decision was made that it was no longer needed and it was shut down in 1941, but remained in the hands of the MOD. After laying un-used for 13 years, in 1954 the MOD began work turning the old ammo store into a storage depot for the royal navy along with Copenacre and Hawthorn. In total it took them 2 years and the removal of 250,000 tonnes of rubble.
The Navy used the site until 1995 when it was sold off to Leafield Logistics, a government contractor tasked with the supply and disposal of mainly British Naval ships and equipment. A year later Leafield increased their security on the site to gain the highest level "List X" security clearance from the government, allowing them to store on site classified information deemed by the government as "secret or above"!! The next part gets a bit shady! There's no official information available but once in the site I found out the Duke Of York had officially opened the underground site on 31st October 2002 as "Leafield Explosive Handling and Test Facility" and that part of the underground site was used to store "Category 5 radioactive material!!!". The company also had ITAR accreditation (international traffic in arms) for shipping controlled military goods to the United States. In 2010 an 85% majority was bought by Portchester Equity Ltd who re-developed part of the site in 2012. Not long before this there was a fire in the underground complex which apparently started when a fork lift battery shorted out. The underground site was then split into 7 separate sections to help with incident containment., B, C, D, E, F, G and H. |then in 2016 Leafield acquired Tynemout Ltd, a supplier of electronic equipment to the MOD.
Some pics
Cheers
So much to see down there really and i feel lucky to have seen the place. I have been told the site is now secured again with a new company taking over the site.
History stolen off Fortnox thread
The leafield underground workings were originally part of the Monks Park Quarry and were used for mining Bath stone from around 1886 with what is now the leafield site becoming known as western monks park. In 1914 the mining operations stopped and the area lay dormant until it was taken over by the MOD in 1937 and used for the storage of high explosives and ammunition. 4 years later the decision was made that it was no longer needed and it was shut down in 1941, but remained in the hands of the MOD. After laying un-used for 13 years, in 1954 the MOD began work turning the old ammo store into a storage depot for the royal navy along with Copenacre and Hawthorn. In total it took them 2 years and the removal of 250,000 tonnes of rubble.
The Navy used the site until 1995 when it was sold off to Leafield Logistics, a government contractor tasked with the supply and disposal of mainly British Naval ships and equipment. A year later Leafield increased their security on the site to gain the highest level "List X" security clearance from the government, allowing them to store on site classified information deemed by the government as "secret or above"!! The next part gets a bit shady! There's no official information available but once in the site I found out the Duke Of York had officially opened the underground site on 31st October 2002 as "Leafield Explosive Handling and Test Facility" and that part of the underground site was used to store "Category 5 radioactive material!!!". The company also had ITAR accreditation (international traffic in arms) for shipping controlled military goods to the United States. In 2010 an 85% majority was bought by Portchester Equity Ltd who re-developed part of the site in 2012. Not long before this there was a fire in the underground complex which apparently started when a fork lift battery shorted out. The underground site was then split into 7 separate sections to help with incident containment., B, C, D, E, F, G and H. |then in 2016 Leafield acquired Tynemout Ltd, a supplier of electronic equipment to the MOD.
Some pics
Cheers
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