US Army Landfill in cornwall. · AditNow Community

nameduser
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Newbie Topic Starter

12 years ago

Intrigued?

Well the thing is... I can remember reading a couple of years back, that on leaving the cornwall area after ww2, surplus vehicles were driven upto and into a mine shaft in cornwall. Anyone know if this is myth or mirthful rumour-mongering, or did it happen?

BoB

rodel
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12 years ago

#2

Back in the early 1970's I started the North East Military Vehicle Club and stories of this sort started to reach me 🙂 on a regular basis about sites all over the place, not just, local but as far apart as Northumberland and Bristol and the West Country.On the outskirts of Durham, for example, it was rumoured that the surplus armour which had been parked up on the site of the old Browney colliery had been disposed of down the shaft there when it all disappeared, but dropping a sherman tank down a mineshaft didn't seem to be a very sensible thing to do as it would surely become wedged fairly quickly. These stories have continued over the years but I have yet to find anyone who has disinterred anything of note although Motorcycle News had a report back in the 70's of someone who dug up a Harley somewhere in Devon but the story seemed to go cold very quickly. The expression"pinch of salt" needs to be applied here but if anyone knows different I would be pleased to hear !

Dark Prince
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12 years ago

#3

Virtually every area in the UK has these stories. The Forest of Dean is said to be full of old mines full of WW2. Now wheres my metal detector...

DP

RJV
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12 years ago

#4

There is the same story for a whinstone quarry at Yarm. Strange that how in those lean, hard times the best thing they could find to do with all that unneeded scrap was to bury it despite being within walking distance of Teesside's large scale iron & steel industries.

lozz
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12 years ago

#5

Same where I live now in Cornwall, there was a POW camp close by where some Americans were, I have heard these stories at every place I have lived in just like the stories of the exploding seagulls ie: carbide in a butty and feed it to a seagull, and the penguins falling over backwards when the jets flew over them...
There might well indeed be a few bits of WW2 stuff dumped down old mine shafts but I have never seen anything so far or know of anyone who has found anything except for beadsteads, fridges and bits of Robin Reliant.
I think we have to think of the Yanks and the mighty Dollar shrine...Dump thousands of dollars worth of stuff which they probably made and came to us via lend lease and could realise a pile of cash in some black market or other, doubtfull but you never know.

Lozz.

Wormster
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12 years ago

#6

http://www.willys-mb.co.uk/strategic-reserve.htm

Better to regret something you have done - than to regret something you have not done.

rodel
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12 years ago

#7

At the end of WW2 the Americans took their aircraft home with them but the vehicles etc used by their ground forces were nearly all on the continent and were mostly given away to "friendly" nations such as France. What little remained in the UK was sold off at places such as Mount Farm airfield in Oxfordshire so there would have been precious little left to bury.Similarly the British surplus was put up for disposal at Ruddington near Nottingham to try and recoup a little money to ease the burden of debt caused by the war. The vast quantities of surplus ordinance were dumped at sea between N.Ireland and SW Scotland along with captured U boats. To bury saleable equipment just wouldn't make financial sense but the stories continue, the latest being Spitfires in Burma or the legendary Strategic Steam Reserve interred in Corsham Down Quarry the entrance to which is next to the Eastern portal of Box Tunnel........Hmm. 😠

lozz
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12 years ago

#8

"Wormster" wrote:
http://www.willys-mb.co.uk/strategic-reserve.htm

Presumably that was a production/maintainance facility, the average old shaft down here wouldn't take a Jeep without getting hung up although there are exceptions. I think in the main all that was dumped down the shafts during the war was a buckets of sh*te.

Lozz.

" Two blondes walk into a building....You'd think one of them would have seen it"

christwigg
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Newbie

12 years ago

#9

I think most of these stories are probably just that.

The only way most of us are going to get rich from finding stuff dumped into mine shafts is if there's a sudden surge in the price of 'dead sheep in a plastic bag' futures.

lozz
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Newbie

12 years ago

#10

"christwigg" wrote:
I think most of these stories are probably just that.

The only way most of us are going to get rich from finding stuff dumped into mine shafts is if there's a sudden surge in the price of 'dead sheep in a plastic bag' futures.

I like it.

Lozz.

spitfire
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Newbie

12 years ago

#11

I lived at Carharrack in the early fifties when the village had its own garage and filling station.
This garage had its own scrap-yard. In this yard were 4Duques
3 Dodge lorries and 3 jeeps. All of these had the white star on them.
I can only assume that when the Americans left for the D-day landings these vehicles had some fault with them and were left behind.
Two of the duques were repaired and taken to Marazion and used for sight-seeing trips when the "Warspite", ran aground in Prussia Cove.
As for the camp at United, many features remained until the late sixties.
In front of the stamps engine house was the bases of the officers huts. these had the names of these men scratched in the concrete, there were also lots of other things like old tobacco tins and corn-cob pipes to be found.
One thing that still remains is the sump oil dump, hundreds of gallons of oil must have been dumped here as it covers quite a large area
In the late fifties the TA had a large camp here. And I can remember old coal fired camping stoves being thrown down Poldory engine shaft before the camp moved on.
As for vehicles being dumped down shafts, with the exception of Man-engine shaft I doubt if any of them were big enough.
Even if they were, these shafts had protective walls around them that showed no signs of disturbance.

spitfire

stuey
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Newbie

12 years ago

#12

Fascinating recollections of United. You should make a point of emptying your brain onto some sort of a record, as there is very little written anywhere about United/Consols. It's one of my favourite read-abouts.

Back on topic. I've explored a lot of mines and have heard hyperbolic rumours relating to nerve gas making kit being thrown down shafts/stoping at Wheal Sally (this turned out to be a rumour, according to the official report!!!) and spitfire engines/jeeps and all sorts of other stuff.

There was military stuff dumped down shafts/workings at Wheal Busy and I gather some people got some interesting stuff out of there, including some bits of uniform. We only found a huge amount of knackered vintage telephones. Sadly there is very little ventilation, the air is marginal and access is via a very deep and nasty shaft.

No photographs because of 100% humidity. We also found a nice kibble down there.

lozz
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Newbie

12 years ago

#13

"stuey" wrote:
Fascinating recollections of United. You should make a point of emptying your brain onto some sort of a record, as there is very little written anywhere about United/Consols. It's one of my favourite read-abouts.

Back on topic. I've explored a lot of mines and have heard hyperbolic rumours relating to nerve gas making kit being thrown down shafts/stoping at Wheal Sally (this turned out to be a rumour, according to the official report!!!) and spitfire engines/jeeps and all sorts of other stuff.

There was military stuff dumped down shafts/workings at Wheal Busy and I gather some people got some interesting stuff out of there, including some bits of uniform. We only found a huge amount of knackered vintage telephones. Sadly there is very little ventilation, the air is marginal and access is via a very deep and nasty shaft.

No photographs because of 100% humidity. We also found a nice kibble down there.

Ah.. Sally's Bottom, used to be a precarious iron ladder down the cliffs all lashed up with bailer twine, the nudists amongst others were reported to have used it to get down to the small cove.
I think the general consensus is that not a lot of anything of real value was dumped down the old shafts towards or just after WW2 and most of the stories are just bollocks.
Some of the radio equipment was kept and used after the war for use in the various listening/monitoring stations, the bulk was sold off as genuine surplus (remember that) some was also kept for signals/radio training by the forces and some was also kept I suspect because one of the redeaming properties of the old thermionic electron valve was that it had a high immunity to an EMP in the event of a nuke strike, unlike some of the solid state stuff. As recently as the early 80's some Lancaster bomber radios were being sold off, brand new, never used and in mint condition.
Never found any aircraft bits down a mine shaft, however I do have a near mint BC348 receiver off an American B17 but that's another story.
Talking of United Downs Stuey, I have heavy chunk of bronze that I found there many moons ago, about 5" or so square and about 4" deep, the sides are slightly tapered towards the base, the top face has a semi circular recess socket in it as though it was made to take a ball, I found it in an old oak beam at United when I used to scour the place for old mining timbers to burn on the fire (guilty as charged)
It appears to have been cast in situ into the beam, the beam has long since gone. I asked a few in the know and they seemed to think it was a simple bottom socket bearing from a horse whim or something similar, It's buried away somewhere in all my junk so no photo.

Lozz.

royfellows
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Newbie

12 years ago

#14

I have good Int of some ex home guard stuff dumped in Llancynfelin and also in an opencut at Penrhiw.
Mainly small arms ammunition, this makes sese if you think about it.
The rumours still circulate about Croesor as well, again could have some foundation.

My avatar is a poor likeness.

Willy Eckerslyke
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Newbie

12 years ago

#15

"rodel" wrote:
The vast quantities of surplus ordinance were dumped at sea between N.Ireland and SW Scotland

There's a rumour about that too. Supposedly, the ships carrying this stuff didn't wait until they reached the designated area, but started dumping it overboard as soon as they were out or sight of land. I heard this in connection with Caernarfon Airfield where a lot of ordinance from Glyn Rhonwy was supposedly stored/buried in the dunes before some/all of it was dumped at sea.

"The true crimefighter always carries everything he needs in his utility belt, Robin"

Roger the Cat
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Newbie

12 years ago

#16

There was a lot of war surplus stuff around until the 1960s. A lot of the tools I still use have a WD arrow and a 1940s date. When we moved into our house in Loughton in 1954 there was a shedload of gasmasks (both civillian and military pattern) and ARP steel helmets. You saw the odd Diamond T or Scammel Pioneer being used as heavy recovery up until the mid-60s. There was also the Bedford QLD used by contractors and farmers. I expect a lot of quarries used them too.

Vanoord
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Newbie

12 years ago

#17

A lot of ordnance at Glynrhonwy was dumped in the pit behind the munitions store - then the pit had to be drained a couple of decades later so everything could be recovered and safely disposed of.

Anything metal would usually have had some scrap value, so it would usually have been sold on rather than just dumped - unless it was of a nature that made dumping easier, such as the various aforementioned explosives and u-boats etc..

Hello again darkness, my old friend...

tin man
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Newbie

12 years ago

#18

"spitfire" wrote:

One thing that still remains is the sump oil dump, hundreds of gallons of oil must have been dumped here as it covers quite a large area . ah so thats where that pool of tar came from , i always wondered why that was there.

stuey
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12 years ago

#19

I thought it was stuff off the beach from Torrey Canyon.

It smells like crude to me. I made the mistake of going "wow" and jumping over the fence to have a look and realising that parts of the pool have got grass growing on them (the middle is quite deep). It has the sulphurous smell of crude. I also put some on a stick and set fire to it. It is very much flammable.

Dark Prince
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12 years ago

#20

There's supposed to be a field full of buried Harleys and other army stuff near Ashchurch in Gloucestershire. Another field not far from here was being used by 2 local metal detector chaps and within 30 mins of them being there the cops arrived and arrested them for un-specified reasons purtaining to the contents of the field. All of this came from a friend of a friend....

DP