During World War 2, Winston Churchill ordered that Britain's art treasures be moved from museums and galleries in London to protect them from bombing by the Luftwaffe. They were transported north to Manod Quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales, where six underground chambers were specially prepared with climate control systems to store the paintings. Among the treasures housed in the quarry were works by Rembrandt, Van Dyke, Da Vinci and Gainsborough, as well as the Crown Jewels. The secret storage site helped preserve the country's art heritage until the end of the war.

1. Hidden Treasures
1939 to 1945
By eggies
1940 when London was faced with intensive bombing by the
Luftwaffe every night, Prime Minister Winston Churchill
was very concerned for the safekeeping of Britain's art
treasures and he issued an order for them to be moved from
the museums and art galleries in London.
They must be taken to a safe place elsewhere in Britain and
he was advised to have them sent to Manod Quarry in
Blaenau Ffestiniog, the caves used for the safe storage are
over 200 feet high, as high as a cathedral.

2. The Ministry of Works gave top priority to a nine-month
building programme at Manod to ensure the paintings
would be safe beneath a 300ft thick slate ceiling in the highly
unlikely event of Hitler deciding to bomb a lonely mountain
in north Wales.
Six vast underground chambers were installed for the
treasures. Each had its own air-conditioning system, which
ensured four changes of air an hour, and a constant
atmosphere of 65F and 42% humidity. Five thousand tons of
slate was removed from the mountain entrance increasing it
from a 6ft square hole through which generations of miners
had passed, to one 13ft by 10ft.
The priceless treasures were transported to a mountain
which had been specially heated and ventilated to maintain
the correct temperature.
The secret hiding place was eventually revealed many years
after the end of World War II.
All the royal pictures from the palaces, from the Tate and
the National Gallery were transported to north Wales.
Among the treasures were 19 Rembrandts, Van Dykes,
Leonardo da Vinci’s and Gainsborough’s, together with the
Crown Jewels.
They travelled to north Wales in vehicles disguised as
delivery vehicles for a chocolate company and were put in
the care of the quarry manager, and were only ever seen by
him. It is said that the worry of the responsibility shortened
his life.

3. The caves were leased by the Government for 40 years, but
when the lease expired in 1981, the Government refused to
release the lease.
For 40 years two brothers were employed to maintain the
ventilation system, even though the works of art were
returned to London and the wartime storage place was
empty.
Behind the large steel and timber doors is a tunnel 1,200 feet
long, 1,000 feet below the top of the mountain.
It would be interesting to know if people in Blaenau are
aware of this and knew the two brothers."
When zeppelin raids had threatened London in the First
World War, National Gallery works had been sheltered in
the Aldwych tunnel of the Underground.
It was recognized that more wide-ranging evacuation
arrangements would be needed in the event of another war,
and in 1934, the owners of selected stately homes were
consulted as to whether they might store the paintings in an
emergency.
By the summer of 1940, the outlook seemed bleak for the
allies in mainland Europe. The British army had been forced
into retreat at Dunkirk. France and the Low Countries fell
to Germany. The invasion of Britain looked imminent.
It was decided that the National Gallery collection could not
remain scattered in various locations around Wales.

4. One serious proposal was for the paintings to be evacuated
by ship to Canada. But the vulnerability of the ships to U-
boat attack worried the Gallery’s director, Kenneth Clark.
He went to see Winston Churchill who immediately vetoed
the idea:
‘Hide them in caves and cellars, but not one picture shall
leave this island’.
As the paintings were now going to stay in Britain for the
duration, a new secure location needed to be found. The
conditions in their temporary homes were far from ideal.
The disused slate mine near Blaenau Ffestiniog at
Manod fitted the bill perfectly. High explosives were used to
enlarge the entrance in order to accommodate the largest
paintings.
Several small brick ‘bungalows’ were built within the
caverns to protect the paintings from variations in humidity
and temperature. By the summer of 1941, the whole
collection had been reunited in its new subterranean home.

5. It had long been known that paintings were happiest in
conditions of stable humidity and temperature. But it had
never been possible to monitor a whole collection in such
controlled circumstances before.
Valuable discoveries were made during this time which were
to influence the way the collection was displayed and cared
for once back in London after the war.

7. The railway bridge near Llan Ffestiniog that the road had to
be dug deeper in order to allow some large paintings from
the National gallery that were stored in Manod quarry
during the Second World War to go under the bridge.
"The road was hollowed out to allow the huge triangular
crate (known as the 'Elephant Case') through, and there
were several rehearsals with it empty before the painting
was transported. On the day itself, the masterpiece made it
through the arch only after a tense half-hour of
maneuvering:
Some accounts claim that the tyres of the truck had to be
deflated."
It was also an opportunity for Martin Davies, the Assistant
Keeper in charge of the paintings in Wales, to complete his
research for new editions of the National Gallery’s
permanent collection catalogues.

8. Homecoming
Restoration work began after the war
In May 1945, within days of the cessation of hostilities in
Europe, a selection of masterpieces from the collection in Wales
was sent back to Trafalgar Square. On 17 May, an exhibition of

9. these works was opened in the few relatively undamaged rooms
in the east wing of the Gallery.
After years of dust and rubble, visitors marveled at the intensity
of the colours in the paintings, many of which had been cleaned
during their stay in Wales.
Looking forward
The outlook for the future of the Gallery in the postwar years
was uncertain. In common with other major London institutions,
it had sustained serious damage during the bombing raids.
There was very little in the way of resources and manpower to
remedy the situation. Tarpaulin and corrugated iron remained in
place on the roof for many years. But the scientific advances
made in the underground chambers of Manod quarry changed
the Gallery forever.
Air conditioning was included in the plans for the major
renovations needed for west wing, which had been badly
damaged. And the Scientific Department, which had been
established shortly before the war, was joined by a newly-
formed Conservation Department.
Although all the paintings had left Manod by the end of
1945, the caves were reserved for further use during the
Cold War. They were still available to the government until
the early eighties.