File:Limestone Quarry near Chilmark - geograph.org.uk - 906068.jpg

English: Limestone Quarry near Chilmark. This view is near the entrance and cutting yard of one of two limestone quarries in the area known as Chilmark Ravine that is 1.5km south of the village of Chilmark. This is the quarry on the western side of the unclassified road that runs between Chilmark and Ham Cross, and is operated by Western Dimensional Stone Ltd, see http://wessexdlstone.com/index.htm. Chilmark Stone is easy to work and long-lived, and as well as new building, it has been used extensively in restoration work on Kingston Lacy House, Salisbury Cathedral, Wilton House, and the Tower of London.

Limestone has been worked here from the 9th century (and reputedly from Roman times), and the quarries provided stone for the Salisbury Cathedral. Stone extraction changed from open quarries to underground working in the Middles Ages. The quarries closed in 1935 when demand for limestone fell due to the increased use of concrete for building purposes,

The quarries and the surrounding land were bought by the Air Ministry in 1936 and an ammunition and bomb depot was established here as RAF Chilmark, see 905805. During WWII, the larger of the two mines become one of the most important munitions storage sites in the country. When required for deployment to strategic airfields the bombs would be taken from the mine on the depot's narrow gauge railway which ran south along the valley to a rail transfer station at Ham Cross and then onto the main line at Dinton. RAF Chilmark closed in 1995 and after the site was cleared of explosives, the quarries re-opened. For more history on the quarries see http://wessexdlstone.com/history1.htm.

Much of the land on either side of the two quarry sites remains in Ministry of Defence ownership, and includes two Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Nature and wildlife groups have been striving, so far unsuccessfully, to acquire part of the land for wildlife protection, including the unused parts of the mines which have rare colonies of the greater horseshoe bat Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Bechstein's bat Myotis bechsteinii and small numbers of Barbastella barbastellus, see http://www.jncc.gov.uk/ProtectedSites/SACselection/sac.asp?EUcode=UK0016373. Light pollution and flight path disturbance are potential threats to the bats if the amount of level nearby development were to increase substantially.