The Wellington Quarry - la Carrière Wellington was opened in 2008. It is an underground museum which has been carefully and sensitively created in a section of the many kilometres of tunnels dug by the British Army in the 1914-1918 war. The First World War tunnels connect with original tunnels and quarries dating back to the middle ages and Roman times underneath the city of Arras. Entrance to the Wellington Quarry. The museum is founded to the memory of thousands of men of the British Army and Dominion Forces who lived under the city during the Great War of 1914-1918. In particular work of the tunnelers of the New Zealand Division is commemorated. The New Zealand Tunneling Company was based in this part of the underground tunnel system during the build-up to the Allied offensive, the Battle of Arras 1917, which was launched in the early hours of 9th April 1917. Miner's truck in the Wellington Quarry. From the arrival of the British in the Arras sector in March 1916 New Zealand Tunneling Companies dug a network of tunnels in the ground underneath the Ronville and Saint-Saveur districts of Arras. They dug new tunnels and rooms and joined them up with the existing ancient tunnels and quarries or pits already under the city, quarried out hundreds of years before. The tunnels were fitted with running water and electricity supplies. Accommodation in the underground city was available for the soldiers to live and sleep in, and there was a large hospital for treating the wounded in a labyrinth of rooms with enough space to fit 700 beds and operating theatres. Displays in the entrance foyer at the Wellington Quarry. The name for this particular quarry and tunnel system came about because names were needed to help the people underground find where they were. Signposted names and numbers were given to the tunnels and rooms underground. The New Zealanders based in this particular system named the place "Wellington", after the capital city of New Zealand.


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