Farleigh Down Tunnel - Wiltshire

After a long day exploring the nearby Box Mine, we exited with a few hours of daylight left and decided to check this place out, as it was only down the road. Just a couple of days prior, I had seen another explorer arrive here, only to find fresh palisade fencing around the perimeter and an angry worker requesting that they leave immediately.

When we arrived, it was exactly as I had seen—shiny new fencing—apart from one panel that had been pried open, leaving a convenient gap to squeeze through. There were actually two layers of fencing surrounding the tunnel entrance, but the inner layer was placed next to a climbable wall and steel structure.

A small incline, with the trackbed still in situ, turns 45 degrees to the left before opening up into an unloading bay with several small office rooms. The underground area had clearly seen a fire in the past, as the majority of the walls were covered in damage. The incline seems to stretch on forever, with rollers from the former conveyor system still scattered across the floor.

At the top of the incline, where it would once have connected to the underground depot, there now sits a pile of debris, blocking access.

History

“In November 1937 the Great Western Railway were setting in motion plans to construct an underground tunnel approximately 1 mile in length fit with a narrow gauge track beneath a valley to link its current underground ammunition depot to a nearby railway. The purpose of this tunnel was to transport & handle 1000 tons of ammunition daily from the railway to the yard where it would be sorted and then loaded into carts and make the journey up the incline tunnel way via conveyors to the nearby ammunition depot. The depot would now have a secure route that was invisible to aerial reconnaissance allowing for operations to go relatively unnoticed. The tunnel runs from the west side of the depot to the underground loading platform near the railway at a constant gradient of 1:81/2. In the mid 1980's the depot was used as a museum where tourists could go and visit the underground workings and see things such as wagons left behind. This would last until 1990. The underground depot has since been sold to a security company for secure storage and the connection to the tunnel back filled”.