Report - hi di hi campers............westwood visit

[tommo]

Wakey wakey campers………….!!

All started when imogen emailed me in the week, “mate I am back in the country after a couple of months away, what u been up to?, I need some underground action lol

So with a couple tins of red bull the emails and texts where send, we had a quick following of fellow explorers for a weekend of underground exploration, the original plan grow and grow and before we know what was going, we had seven and where camping out under the stars :crazy

So Saturday morning imogen turns up at my house….8.00am (these weekends are way to early). With way to much kit packed in the rover we where off, first stop tesco for food and drink oh and a full on breakfast to keep us going for the day, its becoming a regualer thing now, off up the motor way we where a little early for the next explorer pick up so we headed over to the camp site to find it for later………well an hour later we had found it, you would of thought that having sat nav helped but at least we saw a nice side of bathford. Next up we drove back over to chippenham to pick petzl up from the train station. Now this guys knows how to travel in style, Bristol to chippenham in about 20 mins and it never costs him a penny, good lad

With the range rover now full to the brim with all the kit we headed back to the camp site, only stopping of at the cider farm for some much loved browns apple for the evening

the camp site with the log cabins

tents set up, well mine was spot on, £10 tesco tent up in 5 mins and watch every one else struggle lol.

logs for the fire we decided to check out ridge quarry for a couple of hours before meeting up with the others………

 

[tommo]

ridge quarry

Ridge


This was imogens first trip to ridge, so after descending to the darkness we had a nice little walk round and a good 4 hours to have a little play with our cameras, not that having over a 1000 pics of ridge already was to put me off
So here are a couple from the day,

Back up the slope shaft with the usual tire under my arm for a bit of tyre rolling back down we headed out and headed to the car and just as we got there……perfect timing as spungletrumpet came round the corner to meet up with us……….

 

[tommo]

evening entertainment

The evening entertainment

After meeting up with spungletrumpet and some how managed to stash his kit in the back also, we headed back to the camp site plus a quick stop of for some more booze.
With the Camp fire blazing

Urban junky, tucker and urbansurgeon turned up just in time for the bbq of all bbq’s, imogen had sorted out a right feast, including half a cow in ribs, a shed load of burgers and sausages,
So we drank and ate, ate and drank oh and drank some more till nearly 1 in the morning

6.00am I was woken by an alarm going off,10 seconds later I was out of it again, finally I was up at 7, tent down breakfast cooked, I was ready for a top day

The plan was to do some more bath quarries to show imogen what they are like as he had only done browns before so was eager for something new…….and so where we!!

So Westwood quarry was bought up………….Mmmmmm silence fell among us

 

[tommo]

mushrooms at westwood

Mushrooms at Westwood
The east section of Westwood quarry was taken over by the agaric company for mushroom cultivation, and half of that was taken over by the government during the war for the storage of all the national treasures during bomb raids in the capital

This is one of the nicest, driest, cleanest quarry I have ever seen, its in mint condition, and was a wicked explore, some of the best examples of dry wall building I have ever seen built, but the support pillars where strengthen with chains placed around them to stop them from breaking up……but a couple have splintered and have broke with only the chain to keep them together and I guess from the look and fell of it the floor was also covered in asphalt just like the other mines in the area and painted white

Now lets go for a little wonder to see what other gems we can find…………..!

 

[tommo]

hanson at westwood

Hanson at Westwood


Hanson was using west wood middle section as a base for there quarrying operation, they hard wired the electrics in, set up lights, cleaned up the passages and marked a lot of areas as out of bounds, then they went to work on cutting new stone from the south east and south west parts of the mine, again they have just left everything where it was

massive inlet fan

Lush cuttings in the roof and long clean passages

"Radiation supervised area", may be this is where Burlington keeps the reactors!! loll

Power is on

Nice strong door into the office/canteen/porn room

Work shop area

This is where mastermind was originally filmed!! loll

Sponsored by Castrol

These things are becoming a bit common now; no quarry is complete with out a Hanson forklift: thumb

Now let’s go for a little wonder to see what other gems we can find………..!

 

[tommo]

royal enfield at westwood

Royal Enfield at Westwood

Royal Enfield where originally up in Redditch, but due to risk of a bomb falling on them they moved part of there production in to Westwood in 40’s, production was focused on building parts for the bofos anti aircraft guns, building work inside the quarry was to be undertaken by George wimpy & co, we now no them for the quality shit they turn out the some of us live in but back then it was there first underground contract and they finished it of to a very high standard, if only a little over budget.
Production of hydraulic units and other gun control units including towards the end of the war, the development of the radar controlled equipment where a whole battery of AA gun could be controlled by just one radar, and also had a dealing in the bloodhound surface to air missile, but royal Enfield also built 10’s of thousands of motor cycles and with built quality not at its best the warranty returns where sent to Westwood for repair but where stored in the mushroom farm side of the quarry, being dark and wet the motor bikes suffered badly so they where moved to other parts of Wiltshire, but the factory closed in the 70,s
But a small part of the factory including plant room and workshops was taken over by an engineering firm which was run by some ex employees from Enfield. And carried on with the motorcycle side of the business for a further 25 years

Electrical substation

The main work shop areas

Spray booths

Large air con plant

Hanson emergency exit through royal Enfield

Engineering office

Boiler plant room

More boiler pipes

Some old artefacts

Large circulation fan

Lights are on but no one at home

Cheers all I had a top weekend, cant wait for another

 

[spungletrumpet]

Me and Imogen took a slightly different route through the Enfield section and found a few more bits and pieces..

Here's a couple more photos -

A big engineering shop, with concrete plinths where the machines would have been:

A brick pillar, gradually crumbling away:

A toilet block, not suitable for use apparently:

Hand washing facilities:

​

I think Imogen has more photos of these areas.

Also, from earlier in the trip -

Tommo trying to do a remake of the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' video

 

[tommo]

a couple from imogen, a couple of us didnt get to this part so worth the viewing and a revisit

cheers

 

[petzl]

Here is a few of my photos, They are not brill but I'm getting better.
Enjoy

The pole dancing welly

A slope shaft, Well muddy and collapsed

The mouldy room