A property in Tilehurst, near Reading, is heading to auction with an unusual feature beneath its workshop and garden: a multilevel network of rooms and passages excavated by its owner over roughly two decades. The site has a guide price of £300,000 to £325,000 and is scheduled for a livestream auction on October 28 and 29.
Civil engineer Tony Deane created the underground complex during the 1980s and 1990s, according to details reported by the Reading Chronicle. The tunnels descend through four levels, reach more than 15 metres below ground and provide over 1,300 square feet of subterranean space. Much of the excavation passed through chalk, with hand-cast structural concrete used where support was required.
The project relied on simple equipment rather than industrial excavation machinery. Deane and his family moved material with buckets and wheelbarrows, while a railway built inside the tunnels carried excavated chalk. A four-level goods lift weighing about one tonne moved loads to the surface. The complex also contains storage areas and concealed entrances, including a sliding concrete wall reported to weigh 1.5 tonnes.
One route connects to an earlier family project beside the swimming pool. Underground changing rooms were built there in the 1960s, with access hidden behind a 23-foot rocket that remains on the property. The later tunnel network was constructed below a workshop and was reportedly little known beyond the family, including among nearby residents.
The above-ground site is reached through a gated driveway and includes gardens, parking, a large pool and a roughly 2,500-square-foot workshop arranged across three floors. The planning position may give a buyer options in addition to preserving the unusual underground works. West Berkshire Council granted consent in December 2024 for a two-storey, five-bedroom home of about 5,000 square feet on the pool site. The workshop also has permission for conversion into a three-bedroom house.
BTG Eddisons auctioneer Richard Worrall described the construction as unlike anything he had encountered in his auction career. The auction listing suggests possible uses ranging from secure storage to a shelter or protected data facility, but those are proposals rather than approved or tested functions. Any buyer would need to assess the tunnels, planning permissions and suitability for a particular use independently.
The property combines a development opportunity with a highly personal engineering project. Its auction will test whether the extraordinary space below ground adds practical value for a buyer or remains primarily a record of one family's long-running construction hobby.
