1 hour ago
2
Aged to perfection!
A small sinkhole opened up at a golf course in England — revealing a breathtaking, long-lost 19th century wine cellar with dozens of historic bottles.
Groundskeeper Steve Hopkins uncorked the hidden treasure near the 13th hole at the Davyhulme Park golf club in Trafford, he said Wednesday.
“I am the first person to go in that room for over 100 years,” he told the UK Guardian. “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.”
Hopkins then spotted a mysterious underground door, crouched through it and saw an arch-ceilinged brick cellar with dozens of empty, blackened glass bottles of wine and port.
The former wine-lovers dream stash was part of Davyhulme Hall, a historic 12th-century manor house that was once home to the medieval English knight John de Hulme.
The Hall was demolished in 1888 before and the golf club was built on the property in 1911.
“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!” the golf club wrote on Facebook.
The hall and its surrounding estates were inherited in 1844 by Robert Henry Norreys, locally known as Squire Bob, who was an avid athlete and created a nine-hole golf course on the east side of the hall.
The 13th hole is known as “the Cellars,” hinting that the wine storage was known back when the course was being built.
English (US)