Type

Monument

Title / Name

Chilmark Quarries

Summary

A stone quarry worked from the Saxon period and still in operation today. Chilmark stone, a fine limestone, was used for the building of Old Sarum and Salisbury cathedrals. The R.A.F. took over the site from 1938 for the underground storage of ammunition.

QUARRY; AMMUNITION STORE, Saxon to Mid 20th Century (410 to 1966)

Source Detail: Lancaster University Archaeological Unit, 1999

Title: MPP - Quarrying Industry Sites 2 & 3

Summary: Desktop assessment Source ID: SWI21617

Description: Surface and underground stone quarries, worked from the Saxon period to the 20th century. Working took place as early as the 9th century, and during the later medieval period the quarries provided stone for Salisbury Cathedral and Clarendon Palace. From the end of the 17th century, stone from the same horizon as Portland Stone was quarried here. The Ordnance Survey 25" map of 1901 shows three areas of surface working, including shafts, a level and an engine house. In 1938 the underground quarries were taken over for ammunition storage. Working is still taking place for Salisbury Cathedral. The shafts shown on the 25" map have small brick buildings over the top. The Medieval workings apparently survive as wooded mounds.

Source Detail: Cocroft, W., Holborow, W., Lake, J. + Thomas, R.J.C., 2011

Title: National Heritage Protection Plan, Ministry of Defence Disposals, Wiltshire. Pilot Study

Summary: Pilot study Source ID: SWI25814

Additional Information: English Heritage

Source Detail: No Originator information., 2014

Title: Subterranea Britannica - http://www.subbrit.org.uk/

Summary: http://www.subbrit.org.uk/ Source ID: SWI26520

Description: Chilmark was the site of a major underground ammunition store since before World War II, built in a bathstone quarry site. By 1941 it seems to have evolved into an RAF bomb store. The Home Office bunker known as RGHQ 7.1 was built on an adjoining site in the mid-1980s, to replace the former SRHQ at Ullenwood (near Cheltenham).

Source Detail: Slocombe, P., 2008

Title: A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Wiltshire

Summary: Gazetteer Source ID: SWI28692

Additional Information: Association for Industrial Archaeology

Description: Chilmark stone is a fine-grained sandy limestone, creamy white when fresh but grey when weathered. Used for the cathedrals of Old Sarum and Salisbury and, further afield, Rochester. Chilmark Quarry Co. worked there 1933-1936. In 1938, the R.A.F. took over the quarries for underground storage of ammunition and this use continued long after 1945. In the 1980s quarrying resumed for repair of Salisbury Cathedral.