Site Records

SiteName: Ridge Quarry

Neston
Corsham
Wiltshire
ST873680

Sub Brit site visit September 1999

January, 1940, saw a reorganization of No.42 Group, resulting in the recently opened Chilmark reserve depot becoming parent to Ridge Quarry, which was re-designated No.11 MSU. Conditions underground were becoming congested due to the large influx of obsolete material which was accumulating with no immediate prospect of disposal; a problem made more acute by the RAOC insistence that they be allowed to store rather more than the agreed amount of Army TNT in the quarry. The situation eased at the beginning of May when calling forward instructions were received for a shipment of 5000 250 lb GP bombs destined for No.4 Base Ammunition Depot in the Middle East. The whole of this consignment was despatched from Ridge, where labourers were employed on overtime breaking down stacks and placing bombs on end beside the narrow gauge railway ready for loading.

Large issues continued throughout July and the early part of August, the space vacated being filled by huge quantities of imported TNT from the United States and Canada, and eight tons of French manufacture and dubious nature hurriedly recovered from the continent.

The spring of 1941 saw increasing deliveries of munitions from the United States under the terms of the Lend Lease Act of 11 March. Turnover of bombs at Ridge Quarry increased dramatically and a two shift system was introduced in an effort to increase the daily rate to 400 tons.

In preparation for the expected German invasion Ridge received 3,000 hand grenades from Tunnel Quarry on 22 August for issue to airfields and depots in the south west within the next few days. Delivery also began at this time of tens of thousands of rounds for the Smith gun which came into service as a Home Guard and RAF airfield defence weapon by June, 1941.

During the early months of 1944 stock levels increased at Ridge to a peak of 31,563 tons, and in March preparations for the invasion of Europe began. During April and May the RAF dropped more than 200,000 tons of bombs as a direct preliminary to Operation 'Overlord'. The contribution to this effort made by Ridge Quarry amounted to 7,744 tons in April and a massive 14,294 tons in May.

The end of the war in Europe saw vast surpluses of ammunition accumulated by all three services. By May 1945, Maintenance Command estimated that it would have to find storage for 15,000 tons of new bombs every week for the next three months, emanating from existing contracts with the Ordnance Factories. The Command also faced the tasks of de-stocking operational airfields of redundant explosives and absorbing the estimated 100,000 tons of bombs in unprotected roadside storage.

In June Ridge Quarry reported a vacant capacity of 15,000 tons, but 42 Group had reservations about using the Corsham depots due to the fact that they were only really suitable for bombs of 500 lb or less and that the inclined shafts limited turnover to a maximum of 400 tons per day. The limited potential of Ridge Quarry for storage over extended peacetime periods, deficient as it was in ventilation or air-conditioning equipment, had been questioned a year earlier following an inspection by the Air Ministry Director General of Equipment. Noting the poor condition there of a large stock of bulk TNT packed in wooden cases, he commented that:

"Storage conditions at that unit appear to be unsuitable for the prolonged storage of wooden items. Destruction of 2,000 boxes was recently recommended in view of an advanced state of decomposition due to wet-rot peculiar to the storage conditions at Corsham."

In February, 1945, a further inspection revealed that 6000 500 lb bombs of US manufacture stored in the lower section of Ridge were in a very unstable condition and that the wooden dunnage upon which they were stacked was rotting away. It was feared that the dunnage could collapse and initiate an explosion. The most dangerous of these bombs were removed.

The remaining stock of 7,249 tons of High Explosive bombs, together with a small inventory of non-explosive items such as bomb-tails, parachutes and packing cases, was finally struck off charge at Ridge Quarry and transferred to Chilmark on 4 January, 1949. The RAF did, however, maintain an interest in the quarry throughout the early 1950s during the evolution of its future weapons policy. For a while it was thought that an increased storage requirement for conventional ammunition would be needed, and in October 1950, it was suggested that Ridge should be retained temporarily as the best subsidiary underground site until a viable alternative could be found.

By 1955 the centre of gravity of British defence policy had shifted toward the nuclear deterrent and large stocks of conventional weapons were seen as a luxury which the exchequer could not bear. The coming of new 'V' bomber force and the apparent death knell of the conventional High Explosive bomb, occurred on 11 October, 1956, with the successful drop from a Valiant of the first British built atomic bomb. The run down of the large reserve depots paralleled these developments; the tunnels at Harpur Hill were emptied of HE bombs late in 1949, all functional stock was removed from Llanberis by March, 1955, and Fauld ceased holding High Explosives in 1958. Only Chilmark was retained, as a reserve depot for the replenishment of overseas stock. Ridge quarry was finally abandoned by the RAF in 1955.

Further information and pictures about this site continues here

Home Page