| Summary : Rudloe No.2 Site, also known as Hostel No.2 Site, was built in the early 1940s to house the workforce for the underground Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP) factory at Corsham. The hostel housed 1,000 men and was one of nine similar sites constructed in the area. By 1943 ownership of the site had transferred to the RAF. The site lies on land adjoining Westwells Road and contains a number of offices, accommodation blocks and parking areas. A large number of the original hostel buildings have survived. About a dozen are on the southern side of the site and others have survived to the north of the site. Other surviving buildings include accommodation blocks, a laundry block, stores and the 'canteen and welfare' building. Opposite the present guard room, one of the hostel blocks houses St Peter's Church. This has recently fallen out of use but it still retains its fixtures and fittings, including painted RAF badges in the window glass.Below ground level, there is a complex of stone mines which were developed following the construction of the Box Tunnel in the 1840s. These were requisitioned by the War Office in the 1930s and form part of the Corsham tunnel system which was used as ammunition depots, an aircraft engine factory and Cold War Central Government War Headquarters (see record 1394896). Above ground, there are a number of structures which provide access and ventilation to the underground. These include outlet and inlet air shafts, two personnel lifts and a goods lift. The most prominent of these is the air inlet shaft located immediately south of the main guard house. Some of these are clearly protected concrete structures and their design may reflect the use of Spring Quarry as the Central Government War Headquarters during the Cold War. In 2011 the land is believed to be under consideration for disposal by the Ministry of Defence. |
More information : Landscape and Settlement Context:
The ground slopes from north to south. Nineteenth-century maps show the site as an undeveloped area of large fields, with two areas of woodland towards the upper end of the site described as 'The Tips Coverts' and an area of mixed woodland at the lower end of the site described as Thorney Pits. This latter woodland appears little altered in present-day mapping.
'Rudloe No.2 Site', which is approached via a guardhouse on Westwells Road, is developed with offices, accommodation blocks and parking areas. During the 1940s, the open areas on this site were developed as a hostel site (Hostel No.2 Site). A large number of the original hostel buildings remain. The wooded covert shown on historical mapping has been substantially eroded through modern post-war development associated with the military use of the site.
Below ground level, there are a complex of stone mines which were developed following the construction of the Box Tunnel in the 1840s. The mines below Gorse Farm were requisitioned by the War Office in the 1930s (McCamley, 2007). They comprise the following areas: West Lung (an undeveloped area used for ventilation); part of Groundstone Quarry (an undeveloped area used for ventilation); the western part of Spring Quarry (developed as a aircraft engine factory during the Second World War and adapted to house the central Government War Headquarters in the Cold War); and Thorney Pits. The exact locations of these mines are shown in Figure 3 of the characterisation study by Oxford Archaeology (2008).
History and description of the site:
'Hostel Site No.2' at Gorse Farm was constructed in the early 1940s to house 1,000 men and was one of nine similar sites constructed in the area to house the workforce for the underground Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP) factory. It was transferred to RAF by 1943 (McCamley 2007, see source 4). The Values Study by Oxford Archaeology (2010) describes the development of the Gorse Farm hostel site and other local hostels at p.45, and includes an undated map extract (Figure 7, page 32), showing the survival of about a dozen of the hostel buildings on the southern side of the site. Other hostel buildings survive to the north of the site. Surviving buildings include accommodation blocks, a laundry block, stores and the 'canteen and welfare' building (see Plate 9 of OA Vales Study, 2010). Opposite the present guard room, one of the hostel blocks houses St Peter's Church. This had recently fallen out of use prior to the site visit in February 2011, but retained its fixtures and fittings, including painted RAF badges in the window glass.
There are a number of structures which provide access and ventilation to the underground. These are marked in OA's Characterisation Study (Figure 12) as outlet and inlet air shafts, two personnel lifts and a goods lift. The most prominent of these is the air inlet shaft located immediately south of the main guard house. Some of these are clearly protected concrete structures and their design presumably reflects the use of Spring Quarry as the Central Government War HQ during the Cold War (see Oxford Archaeology's reports sources 2-3).
Assessment of significance:
Unlike the below-ground quarry workings, the development of the structures at the surface of this site has been little-documented. In the absence of a detailed site history and survey, it is difficult to be precise about its significance. However, it includes several unusual structures providing ventilation and access to the underground site, which itself is of national importance (as confirmed by Oxford Archaeology's Values Study, source 3). The site's development as a hostel site in the 1940s is evidence of the massive social changes brought about by the immigration of labour to supply the underground MAP factory. The post-war history of the site has not yet been investigated and may well reveal significance which is not presently recognised. (1)
These two sources by Oxford Archaeology cover extensively all the sites (above ground and below the surface) associated with the Corsham tunnels and quarries. They have been referenced extensively in source 1. See the online versions for further information. (2-3)
This publication contains information on the site. (4)
Aerial Photographs taken as part of the Wiltshire Military Disposals project. For more information contact the NMR Archives. (5)
Air photos taken in 1946 show this hostel site. This hostel was part of a much larger complex of buildings and it is not clear from the air pohtos where the exact boundaries of the hostel site were.(6-7)
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