Property with 'extensive tunnels' goes to auction

A hand-built underground railway and an "extensive" network of tunnels and underground rooms are among the features hidden for decades beneath a property going to auction this month.

The subterranean network below the site on Long Lane in Tilehurst, Berkshire, descends through four levels, reaching more than 15m (49ft) below ground.

It was created during two decades by the property's previous owner, the late Tony Deane, who was a civil engineer with a passion for tunnelling.

Richard Worrall, auctioneer and consultant at BTG Eddisons Property Auctions, said the site "represents a really unique opportunity for somebody to either develop it or to live there and enjoy it".

The site comprises garden land, a swimming pool and a workshop at the back of the garden.

Worrall said: "To say it's a workshop is doing it down a little bit, it's constructed better than 95% of houses, to be honest."

Planning consent was granted by West Berkshire Council in December 2024 for a 5,000 sq ft (464.5 sq m) five-bedroom, two-storey house to be built on the site of the swimming pool, while conversion of the workshop has consent for conversion to a three-bedroom house.

The site is accessed via a secure gated driveway and includes a 2,500 sq ft (232.2 sq m) workshop arranged over three floors, parking, gardens, a swimming pool and changing rooms.

The complex hidden beneath the workshop contains more than 1,300 sq ft (120.7 sq m) of underground space, including tunnels and storage rooms, as well as two secret doors, one formed by a 1.5-tonne sliding concrete wall.

"It was, I think, a marvellous piece of vision and passion and great British eccentricity really - he had the skill set to do it," said Worrall.

Construction of the tunnels took place during the 1980s and '90s, with Deane carrying out the work himself, assisted by his family.

But it wasn't the family's first subterranean project, with construction of underground changing rooms next to the property's swimming pool taking place in the 60s.

The entrance was hidden behind a 23ft (7m) high rocket, which remains in place.

Despite the scale of the project, its existence is understood to have remained largely unknown outside the family, including to neighbours in the surrounding residential area.

Speaking on the tunnel network, Worrall, who has been doing his job for more than four decades, said he has "never seen anything like that before".

The property will go to auction over two days on 28 October with a guide price of £300,000 - £325,000.

Worrall said: "I think by its very nature it is going to attract a lot of interest from people who have got an idea of what they might want to use the tunnelling network for.

"Whether they be preppers [survivalists], or people who've got sensitive material they want to keep below ground, it keeps a constant temperature down there and would make a fantastic wine cellar.

"The options are kind of endless."