Also known as Eastley’s, Pictor’s Monks, Eastern Monks Park or originally Monks Quarry is located to the west of the Gastard to Whitley road due south of Boyd’s Farm.
Eastlays originally had one steep slope shaft in the centre of the workings and the quarried stone was transported by tramway to Ridge Quarry and then downhill to the GWR sidings at Corsham. A heading was driven from here under the Corsham – Melksham road to meet the Goodes Hill Quarry working, but flooding made it impractical to complete the heading to the East. The quarry has a total area of 871,000 sq. ft.
Quarrying here ceased in 1936 and the land compulsary purchased from the Monks Park Estate in 1937 shortly before most of the Corsham quarries were requistioned by the War Office.
This quarry was converted into a sub depot of the Central Ammunition Depot along with Tunnel Quarry and Monkton Farleigh just before WW2, the total storage area being approximately 24 acres underground when completed. After the war, this quarry was retained for use as munitions storage until 1962 when it was mothballed and finally sold in the 1976 to EMF Farming Associates for use as secure warehousing and mushroom cultivation. This wasn’t granted planning permission due to anticipated excessive traffic on the local roads, so a new use was proposed as a nuclear fallout shelter – both ventures failed before they started – the shelter due to the developer Rusepalm Developments becoming bankrupt in 1981. During this time the site was used by the BBC for filming some television and film scenes such as ‘The Fourth Arm’ and an episode of ‘Blake’s Seven’. Some props still remain in situ today.
In 1985 a company called Cert PLC – later Octavian Ltd. purchased the site and it is now used for the secure cellarage of wines worth over £2bn. On average 800,000 cases of wine are stored underground at Eastlays with up to 4,000,000 cases handled each year.
