Defences
2025
Sands Quarry
2025
This black and white photography project explores the layers of history embedded in the rural landscape around Wadswick Green, Wiltshire. Now a retirement village, the site has a deep and complex past that reaches back to Roman times, when Bath stone was first quarried here. The Victorians took the quarries underground, creating vast stone chambers that were later repurposed during World War II as ammunition stores and underground factories—and later still, as Cold War government facilities. To support these operations, a network of temporary camps was built in the surrounding countryside. One of these evolved into HMS Royal Arthur, a Royal Navy training establishment that remained in use until 1993. This project documents the physical traces that remain—from mine entrances to military infrastructure—revealing how human endeavour has shaped and reshaped this landscape over centuries, long before it became a place of retirement and reflection.