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Some History
Butser Hill Lime Works is a quarry site near Buriton in Hapmshire with old diggers, tractors, trucks and half crushed cars dotted about, a shed that looks like it was used as a garage and an old house that has been gutted and is ready to fall down. The only history I could find on the actual lime works was that it was incorporated in 1948 and is still operating as Butser Hill Lime Works. But I found some info that suggests that the site was used in the 1940's as part of HMS Mirtle, a Mine Investigation Range.
...more history
The earliest known maps of Buriton from 1840 show a field that is labelled 'kiln field' and would have been a small lime works for use by the village. Lime was used on the farm to condition the soil and in making mortar for building. In 1859 the railway from London To Portsmouth was built and although no passenger stop was built, a siding and halt were. Maps from 1870 onwards show the lime works and chalk pits and many men moved to the village to work, some from another lime workings at Burghclere (near Basingstoke). But by 1939, having been a successful industry, lime for use in construction was being replaced by harder, faster drying mortars based on Portland cement. Lime in agriculture was still being used but not in quantities large enough to ensure a viable business. The site was bought by British Portland Cement when the Manor Farm was sold and by the time WW2 started they had gone and the site was closed.
The lime workings at Buriton were used by the Royal Navy bomb disposal unit during WW2. The site was chosen as it was away from any large population, had rail and road access and the quarry walls would stop any explosions spreading out. It was given the name HMS Mirtle based on the acronym MIR - Mine Intelligence Research.
"Unexploded mines, were brought to Buriton to be X-rayed. Each mine would be brought in on a trolley. It would be X-rayed all the way down and if there was a secret booby-trap that hadn’t already been spotted, the operators would see it. Once a mine was known to be safe it would be taken further back into the chalk pits and the explosives would be steamed out. The steam was produced by a wonderful old thing called a Merryweather fire engine which was stoked up to produce boiling water. Steam would be directed into the mines through one of the holes and the explosives would bubble out and dribble onto the ground underneath to solidify. This could then be burned off quite safely afterwards. If the X-ray tube had showed a booby trap then the mine was taken further back into the chalk pits to be dealt with. Sometimes blowing a little piece off was designed to provide access to the ‘nasty bit’. This small charge could be quite safely detonated once all the explosives had been steamed out.”
Commander Bird
After the war the site was filled in and abandoned. The council used one quarry as a landfill site and it is now grassed over and the rest have become a nature reserve.
Butser Hill Lime Works is a quarry site near Buriton in Hapmshire with old diggers, tractors, trucks and half crushed cars dotted about, a shed that looks like it was used as a garage and an old house that has been gutted and is ready to fall down. The only history I could find on the actual lime works was that it was incorporated in 1948 and is still operating as Butser Hill Lime Works. But I found some info that suggests that the site was used in the 1940's as part of HMS Mirtle, a Mine Investigation Range.
...more history
The earliest known maps of Buriton from 1840 show a field that is labelled 'kiln field' and would have been a small lime works for use by the village. Lime was used on the farm to condition the soil and in making mortar for building. In 1859 the railway from London To Portsmouth was built and although no passenger stop was built, a siding and halt were. Maps from 1870 onwards show the lime works and chalk pits and many men moved to the village to work, some from another lime workings at Burghclere (near Basingstoke). But by 1939, having been a successful industry, lime for use in construction was being replaced by harder, faster drying mortars based on Portland cement. Lime in agriculture was still being used but not in quantities large enough to ensure a viable business. The site was bought by British Portland Cement when the Manor Farm was sold and by the time WW2 started they had gone and the site was closed.
The lime workings at Buriton were used by the Royal Navy bomb disposal unit during WW2. The site was chosen as it was away from any large population, had rail and road access and the quarry walls would stop any explosions spreading out. It was given the name HMS Mirtle based on the acronym MIR - Mine Intelligence Research.
"Unexploded mines, were brought to Buriton to be X-rayed. Each mine would be brought in on a trolley. It would be X-rayed all the way down and if there was a secret booby-trap that hadn’t already been spotted, the operators would see it. Once a mine was known to be safe it would be taken further back into the chalk pits and the explosives would be steamed out. The steam was produced by a wonderful old thing called a Merryweather fire engine which was stoked up to produce boiling water. Steam would be directed into the mines through one of the holes and the explosives would bubble out and dribble onto the ground underneath to solidify. This could then be burned off quite safely afterwards. If the X-ray tube had showed a booby trap then the mine was taken further back into the chalk pits to be dealt with. Sometimes blowing a little piece off was designed to provide access to the ‘nasty bit’. This small charge could be quite safely detonated once all the explosives had been steamed out.”
Commander Bird
After the war the site was filled in and abandoned. The council used one quarry as a landfill site and it is now grassed over and the rest have become a nature reserve.
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