# cert octavian underground cellar 09/2009



## tommo (Sep 11, 2009)

First up a big thanks to madrab off darkplaces for the spare ticket, originally I was to busy at work to make it and couldnt get out to get a ticket for the tour today, but at the last minute work let me have time off and madrab sorted me out with a spare ticket, cheers fella

Today I had the pleasure of a guided tour around cert Octavian wine cellar http://www.octavianvaults.co.uk/, this is the only underground wine cellar in the world and its right on my door step so to speak, situated in gastard near corsham, the company stores all kinds of wine and champagne in the cellar, from your local brewery or wholesaler down to your minted celebrity and I mean minted, to store a normal case of wine in there underground air conditioned lap of luxury will cost u around £90 a case per month, as an example Andrew Lloyd Webber has 2000 cases in storage at the moment lol. 
The company normally use to store wine for companies, when the shipments arrive in the country they are bound to normal uk taxes and duties, but if your have it shipped to the cellar it is placed in bond, meaning u don’t pay the taxes or the duty on the bottles until you withdraw them, but u can trade them or sell them straight out the cellar to any one else in the uk and then the new owner will have to pay the duty on the shipment, now they mainly store for rich people where they dont have room at home for there own collection

The quarry originally start of around the 1877-1880 around the time of park lane quarry and ridge quarry, originally called pictor monks quarry I have found some reference to pictor and sons ltd that where a small quarry company that helped start and quarry a lot of other quarries in the area, including box and also a reference to them working in the cathedral at box



> in 1829 Work started at Box Field Quarry which includes The Cathedral. It was worked by Job Pictor.



In 1937 the government took control of a lot of the quarries in the area and turned them in to ammunition/ bomb storage for the war purpose, again like so many in the area this was kitted out with all the relevant air ducts and lighting, all above ground defences where put in place, including a bunker a the entrance to the place, I am not sure when this was decommissioned but it was normally just after the war around 1945 ish 

After that the place was disused for many years until the cold war when property tycoons where trying to sell it off as a secure underground site for protection during a nuclear attack. Which they failed to do as no body was interested in buying it, after that it just sat empty and was being trashed by local lads until the 1980’s then it was bought by a small company called frazzers who with the lack of knowledge and money tried to turn this into a underground wine storage, but failed and the site was then bought by cert Octavian around 1986 I think he said, where they injected a lot of money and turned the place into what it is today, they on average take in around 24 thousand cases a month and ship out around the same amount, so stock levels are all ways around the same below

The place is controlled by a state of the art air condition and monitoring computer that monitors the weather and moisture content out side and makes slight adjustments to the temp down below which is kept at a perfect 13 degrees all year long , they did have some issues with the labels falling of bottles when the moisture was to high down there, so its nice and dry now ,all the hall ways have had fire doors built into them, so in the event of a fire the computer will automatically close and seal of the whole site, to prevent the fire escaping
There are 3 slope shafts in the whole site, one is emergency exit that doesn’t really get used much, one is the main entrance and the other is for a private company to use to get stock in and out 

I have tried to find out as much info for the history as I can, I have googled and read so much as well as crossed referenced everything, please feel free to tap me up on anything u feel doesn’t fit with the history 

Cheers for reading


main slope shaft entrance and office block







second slope shaft building used by private company






every one down underground must clock in and out for fire and safety and like we did, have to carry a self rescuer






looking down the main slope shaft in mint condition (makes a nice change to see one like this)






bottom of slope shaft looking up at the truck stop used for any carts that break away when being lifted up or down






one of the train carts loading up with pop lol






map of the place, we only looked round district 5 and that took just over an hour






ex mod generator fitted in the 40's, we where told that there is a plan to get it going again, they have been told it will need a small amount of work and it will start striaght up




again more mod switch gear in full working condition






there are alot of old bomb proof doors still in place and working that connect through to the diffrent districts






very long passage ways about 400 metres long each way from where i was standing






district 5 entrance where it meets the long passage way, the red hatch looks like where the conveyor belt would of run from the old mod days 






a couple of shots of the stock all nicely stacked up ready to be taken out for a party, each box has a customer label so they can get a box or pallet at a time if they like
























mod air ducting still in place all over the place 






mod pillar this design is well know in other sites around corsham






there where alot of diffrent folklifts and cherry pickers floating around,they just worked around us 






old electrical box fitted in the 40's still used today


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## zimbob (Sep 11, 2009)

Nice 

Good to see one in that nick! 

Wine and military undergroundage, two of my favourite things coming together


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## TK421 (Sep 12, 2009)

Wow, if the bomb ever goes off, I know where I want to be now!! Great report of a place most of us are never likely to poke around


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## klempner69 (Sep 12, 2009)

Yeah what a place to take shelter in..my heaven.Great pics there fella,pencil me for one of these visits in the future.


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## ThenewMendoza (Sep 12, 2009)

Great stuff, really interesting that.

M


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## cogito (Sep 12, 2009)

Wow thats a bit different and certainly impressive, place looks massive!


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## bonecollector (Sep 13, 2009)

Nice one tommo. 
Looks so different from the other quarries in the area.
Loving the slope shaft shot.


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## crickleymal (Sep 13, 2009)

Great report and pictures. It is good to see one of these places being used and in good nick.


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## Exploretime (Sep 13, 2009)

Amazing, this place is massive. Its very impressive to see the scale and use of the place. Great photos and nice one for doing the visit. Brilliant explore.


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## tommo (Sep 13, 2009)

cheers for the positive comments all

i have a couple of links to the old pics of the place in 1982 and also pics of the nuclear brochure for selling the land off, so not sure if its ok to post the links up or not


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## tommo (Sep 15, 2009)

here are some of the old pics of the site in 1982 before it was taken over by cert octavian and also pics of the sales brochure from the cold war period

big thanks to root for letting me use these pics and also to mole for taking them :thumb


slope shaft 1 now the main entrance and office block





slope shaft 2 now the private company entrance





sales broucher for your little peice of underground protection in the cold war, the rooms where on a 99year lease for a capital considiration of £6000 and this would get u a 13ft x 14ft room with 4 bunks, these where a standard unit for 4 persons.but u could have something larger and they would also let u mortgage it


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## Urban-Warrior (Sep 20, 2009)

that place looks massive... some great shots there


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