[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by disco

Yes thanks for that Rentlaw. I suppose the bullets could have come from the riffle range at Hapton, but there really are thousands of them up there.

You seem to be very knowledgeable about the area around Greater Hameldon Hill. I was wondering if you could shed any light on a tail I was told about the Gamblers Caves.

About five years ago I had sold something to two guys (farther and son) on the internet, these guys lived in Burnley. As they came to collect the item they had bought the older of the two asked me if there was a road near my area that went up onto Hameldon Hill and to some caves he had been told about. I told him of The Kings Highway and Sandy Lane, but none of these road names rang a bell with him. Then he mentioned a chap that lived on the road he was thinking of that owned a factory in Burnley. I then realized he was talking about Plantation Road, and I was correct.
So now for the interesting bit.
The chap lived in the Arden Hall Coach House on Plantation Road.
Now I am not sure how this chap was connected with the MOD but I guess he must have been in some way.
As this chap said that during the Second World War the gamblers Caves was used as an ammunition dump for the allies. This chap witnessed with his own eyes this dump being stocked with arms and ammunition. Apparently these ammunition dumps were dotted all over the North of England and Scotland and obviously their positions were kept top secret. They were there to aid the allies if retreating from a German invasion.
At first I thought no it can’t be true. But then I thought why would someone quarrying for sand stone drift an hole into the rock face to extract stone, surely it would be far easier for them to just open quarry the sand stone.
It would also explain the armed military guards all around the southern side of Greater Hameldon keeping people away from the site.
The chap also said that after the war the entrance to the cave was blown up sealing it for ever with the ammunition still in it. That would explain the pile of rocks just inside the cave that looked like a natural cave in.
Also about 10 years ago some guy got permission once again to extract stone from the quarry but was told under no circumstances has he to remove stone from the cave.
I hope you can understand all this as my English is not the best in the world

There is no truth to that story, that place which was known as the Gamling caves is actually a place wher stone was quarried from a rock face it went in no more than 10 yards, and there was practically no vehicular access except for horses, ( its not far from the place you mentioned in the last thread) As for storing Ammo in a cave Blooming Eck why would the do that in such an inaccesable place, the idea is laughable. That place called the Gambling caves not used by the gamblers but the flat area in front of it was, I watched them many a Sunday tossing 1/2 pennies from a little wooden block that fit over the first two fingers of the right hand, a couple of years back I got my daughter to take me up there in her car, the nearest access was via Rising Bridge then a trudge of about a 1/4 mile, when I found it, it had changed quite a lot, and some one had been quarrying there and in other places, there were sevaral new spoil dumps all over the area, they didn't seem to have got much useable stone why they bothered in the first place beats me, there are plenty of other places to quarry wth better access. Another reason for why there would be no ammo dumped there, ammo containing Cordite deteriorates very rapidly in damp conditions and the nitro glycerine in the Cordite leaches out and the slightest bump or spark and youve got one ell of a bang, most un-needed ammo is dumped at sea for tht very reason, the bottom of the Irish Sea & the Channel is littered with the stuff. One last tthng that shows hes blowing hot air, that all that area was part of a decoy site, which jerry was expected to bomb instead of Salford and Manchester, storage area for arms and ammo gior mon.