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A sinkhole that opened up on a Manchester golf course has exposed a wine cellar abandoned for more than a century.
The cellar, along with dozens of empty wine and port bottles, was discovered by a groundsman who assumed the hole was nothing more than a collapsed drain.
The subterranean brick vault he stumbled across would once have been part of a country house that was demolished in the 19th century. Steve Hopkins, the deputy head green keeper at Davyhulme Park golf club in Trafford, Greater Manchester, made the discovery.
“I am the first person to go in that room for over 100 years,” he said. “I was walking back to the green-keeping facilities when I noticed a small sinkhole on the 13th tee, which is not unusual. At the time we just thought it was a collapsed drain.
“So we’re thinking it’s just a drain that needs digging out and clearing and repairing but as we dug deeper and deeper it just opened underneath us.”
After using a small digger, Hopkins found a doorway, which he was able to get through by crouching. He then turned on his torch and saw an arch-ceilinged brick cellar with dozens of empty, blackened glass bottles sitting among debris.
He found another entrance in the cellar but it was blocked by rubble.
An exciting discovery on the course today⛳
Following the appearance of a sinkhole on the 13th hole, our greens team uncovered what appears to be an old cellar, believed to date back to the original manor house.
Over 100 years old and filled with historic wine and port bottles pic.twitter.com/0uBdyrW1Vp
The cellar would have been part of Davyhulme Hall, which was demolished two decades before the golf club arrived. The hall dated from the 12th century and the reign of Henry II. It was the seat of a medieval English knight called John de Hulme.
The hall and its surrounding estates were inherited in 1844 by Robert Henry Norreys, known locally as Squire Bob.
According to Davyhulme golf club, Norreys was a keen sportsman and created a nine-hole golf course on the east side of the hall. He created his own private golfing society along with a gentlemen’s clubhouse and a ladies clubhouse, which is said to have been the second oldest such building in the world, after St Andrews.
After Norreys’ death in 1887, Davyhulme Hall was put up for sale but no buyer came forward, leading to the entire property being demolished. The Davyhulme golf club was formed in 1911 and it bought land from the Davyhulme estate on which the golf course that exists today was laid.
The 13th hole is known as “the Cellars”, suggesting that its existence was known about when the course was being laid. Hopkins said there had been a lot of interest and suggestions about what should be done now with the cellar, with some saying it should be opened as a feature of the course.
On Facebook, the club said the cellar had been sealed while it was decided what to do next. “The bottles have been removed for safekeeping while we work out their next chapter. Perhaps they’ll make a lovely display in the clubhouse – we’ll keep you posted!”
