What started as a frustrating maintenance issue at Davyhulme Park Golf Club in Manchester has turned into a historic windfall. Last week, a sinkhole collapsed underneath the 13th hole, but instead of just a repair bill, the greens team discovered a subterranean vault frozen in time.
The club announced that the team uncovered “what appears to be an old cellar, believed to date back to the original manor house.”
Early inspections of the site suggest the find is of significant historical value. In an Instagram post, the club shared their excitement:
“Over 100 years old and filled with historic wine and Port bottles – what an incredible piece of our club’s history.”
A video captured by a groundsman who entered the brick tunnel shows rows of earth-encrusted bottles lining the floor. While the bottles lack labels to identify specific brands, the variety of shapes suggests a mix of table wines and fortified spirits, likely Port.
The discovery aligns with the "golden era" of Port in Britain. The land, which dates back to 1154, was once the seat of Davyhulme Hall. However, it was Robert Henry Norreys—known as "Squire Bob"—who likely established the collection. Norreys inherited the estate in 1844 and is credited with introducing golf to the area in the 1860s.
According to Taylor’s Port, the 1860s marked a shift toward:
As a "sporting bachelor" and English aristocrat, Norreys would have been a prime candidate for collecting these now-legendary vintages.
The cellar may also contain significant Bordeaux wines. In 1860, the British government slashed taxes on imported wines by 83%, allowing French wines to flood the English market. This era also saw the introduction of the 1855 Classification, which famously ranked top châteaux like Lafite Rothschild, Latour, and Margaux.
The connection between golf and Bordeaux (Claret) remains legendary to this day. Former Open champion Phil Mickelson famously admitted to drinking a $40,000 bottle of 1990 Romanee-Conti out of the tournament’s Claret Jug, claiming:
“There’s been nothing in there that is sub-par.”
While the club’s local rules already warned players to stay away from the right side of the 13th hole—suggesting they may have suspected the ground was unstable—the scale of the find was a total surprise. Experts are now waiting to see if any of the bottles still contain viable liquid after a century underground.
