Madron Patrol

The OB was on moorland close to Lanyon Quoit, a well known landmark on Burnt Down and on land farmed by Lanyon Thomas.

Permission to excavate was given to Stuart Emmett and Gareth Wearne and the area has been thoroughly metal detected and excavated.

Though open mine shafts make the area dangerous to investigate, the area of the OB can be seen from the safety of a nearby public pathway. Set within an area of heathland and open moorland the area has been mined for tin for hundreds of years. The Patrol made use of one of the pits that had been excavated while the nearby Ding Dong Mine was open many years before.

The entrance shaft and block wall has been excavated and is mostly still intact. The main body of the OB can be seen as a large depression. It is suspected the Nissen structure of the main chamber was removed and used around the farm. At the far end of the main chamber, the escape tunnel can be followed as a curved, deep ditch. This opens out into another smaller depression and runs into the top of a tin mine. There is a cement layer on top of the breeze block shaft and the hitches cut for the trap door and hinges can be seen. 

The main section was 24 foot long by 12 foot wide. At the far end it then drops down and curves around into a second area by the shaft of approximately 12 foot by 8 foot.

The mine shaft adjacent to the base has been capped with large granite slabs, this is thought to have been done by the Auxiliers as no other shaft has been capped in this entire area. This would make sense as it would have been their second egress and if cornered underground it could have been a better place to try and make a fight for survival. This level is only 16 foot below the surface.

It was thought that the Patrol could have used these underground workings as a network for moving around the area and down the valley for escape but extensive exploration has shown this is unlikely due to blockages and being prone to flooding.

Gordon Bolitho stated; “We found a little bit of a pit out in the moors and dug it down and made a concrete living quarters. Access was by a trapdoor and the men climbed down a ladder.

Every Sunday we would go up near Laynton Quiot and build our operational base at a place where there was already a hole. We built a Nissen hut below the ground strengthened with concrete blocks. The entrance was hidden and you had to climb down a ladder... After the war we told Lanyon Thomas that if he dug it up he could have the Nissen hut. He probably used it as a chicken hut on his farm”.