Folly Books

07/11/2024

04/11/2024

FOLLY BOOKS, based in Monkton Farleigh, publish a number of beautifully illustrated books about the secret subterranian world of Corsham.... and here's the first: 'SECRET UNDERGROUND CORSHAM' . This book tells the entire story of what lies 100-feet below the fields and buildings of Corsham, from the early Victorian stone quarries, through their adaptation during the Second World War into the largest underground ammunition depot and the largest underground factory in the world, through to the Cold War when one of the quarries was home to the Central Government Emergency War Headquarters, which would have been the alternative seat of government in the event of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

We've sold over 3,000 copies of this book, so virtually everyone in Corsham probably has a copy... but if you haven't, it will make a great Christmas present!.... it is an absorbing read and terrific value, and you can buy it here: https://www.bradford-on-avon.org.uk/Corsham.html

22/10/2024

Went for a short walk with Geoff Holstead on Monday afternoon, from the East Portal of Bruce Tunnel at Savernake to Crofton pumping station. This picture is of the abutments of the two adjacent bridges that carried the Midland & South Western Junction line from Savernake Upper, and the loop to the Berks & Hants line to Grafton Junction, across the Kennet & Avon canal.

04/09/2024

Can't fault BT; thunderstorm fried our broadband hub, reported it 4pm Monday, replacement arrived by Special Delivery 9:30 Tuesday morning, up and running again before 10am.

09/07/2024

A few random photos of Monkton Farleigh Mine, taken over a period of about 50 years (plus a smallnumber of wartime archive shots). I started arranging the album in chronological order but it soon became too unweildy, so in the comments for each image I've put the date of the photo.

Basically, they cover six periods:

First group of visits-1967
Second Group of visits -1973/4
Third visit -1984
Under our ownership 1985-1990
After it was abandoned - 1991
Operated by RESTORE 2010

09/07/2024

Lovely new arrival today... MSWJR enamel running-in board from Marlborough. Not sure whether to give it a permanent home in the Big Shed, or put it on posts in the garden... if I can find a vacant 12-foot space.....

14/06/2024

A pair of Scottish heavyweights..... Caledonian Rly on the left, Glasgow & South Western on the right. The Caly design appears in the Tyers catalogue as pattern B2003, but the GSWR is a rebuild of an earlier Tyers type that consisted of searate block, bell and plunger mounted on a backboard. I think the original rebuilds were done by Tyers, but later ones (and there were loads of different variations) were done in the S&T dept at Irvine....

02/06/2024

Multi-level pillbox at Bond's Mill Bridge, Stonehouse. Found this on a walk along the Stroudwater Canal with Geoff Holstead this afternoon. Its a two-level pillbox (well, three including the anti-aircraft post on top). It (together with several other conventional pillboxes a few hundred yards away) protected the bridge across the canal which gave access to Bond's Mill, which in WW2 was a shadow-factory for Sperry Gyroscopes. A second shadow factory for the Hoffman bearing company was nearby on the opposite bank of the canal.

28/05/2024

Original Tyer's No.6 tablet machine cabinet from Corfe Mullen signalbox - was pretty rotten and little more than firewood when it arrived here, so quite a major restoration job. Quite pleased with the end result though......

02/04/2024

WARSHIP AT BATH JUNCTION SIGNALBOX - on an enthusiast's special. 22 January 1966

06/01/2024

I just signed the petition calling on Paula Vennells, the former CEO of the Post Office to be stripped of her CBE. Will you sign too?

15/12/2023

Although fairly extensive, the underground stone quarries in the town area of Bradford-on-Avon were not on the same scale as those in the Box & Corsham areas. This small scale of operation, and the relative difficulty of transportation to wider markets, meant that they ceased operation earlier than the Corsham quarries, most being abandoned by around 1900-ish. The larger quarries in Westwood and, particularly, Monkton Farleigh, were much more extensive, with fascinating histories, and I'll deal with those in a separate post....
Another problem was that the extensive beds of workable oolite that extended south from the Bath-Box-Corsham axis dipped quickly downwards as they reached Bradford and became fractured and difficult to work. In quarries like Paulton, on the Frome Road, the stone is at around thirty degrees to the horizon.
The Bradford quarries get good coverage in Derek Hawkins' excellent book 'Bath Stone Quarries' and I've included a couple of photo's and a few random page spreads from the book here.https://www.bradford-on-avon.org.uk/bathstonequarries.html
The book will make an excellent Christmas present for anyone interested in the lesser-known aspect of Bradford's history, and can be bought post-free from our website here:
We've only about 30 or 40 copies left in stock at the moment, but will be reprinting sometime towards the middle of 2021 if all goes well.....

15/12/2023

Still got a very small number of these left, which can be bought here: https://www.bradford-on-avon.org.uk/pipelines.html

I'd like to clear these before Christmas if possible so that we can restock with a new paperback edition in the new year....

14/12/2023