CHIPPENHAM NEWS: THE secret wartime life of MOD workers at Corsham's underground Spring Quarry site has been unveiled in a new book.

Pensioner and first-time author Dennis Williams was a telephone engineer at the site, code-named Hawthorn, 150 feet below the surface during the Second World War. His book, Gwendolin, recounts how he met his late wife working in the bunker and lifts the lid on a world, which at its peak, housed 10,000 employees.

Mr Williams, 78, had to obtain written permission from the MOD to write the book as until recently the bunker's location remained secret.

He said: "To be quite honest the local people didn't know what was going on, we were in our own world. There was a risk that if we mingled with the people outside we might say something we weren't supposed to."

Mr Williams, who now lives in Bath, was commandeered to work at Spring Quarry in 1943, but told very little about what went on in the bunker.

His book describes how the workers lived in what was an underground city, keeping up Britain's munitions supplies.

He said: "I lost Gwendolin in September 2002. When she passed away I decided that I was going to write a memorial to her. I wanted to let people know how she used to be in those days she was very glamorous."

Copies of Gwendolin, priced £7.99, are available from www.lifestorycompany.co.uk or by calling the order line on 0845 644 3403.