'I have a manhole in my back garden – what lies underneath leaves people horrified'

A man has lifted the lid – literally – on an extraordinary underground lair beneath his garden, all hidden by a manhole cover.

Dave Billings, who shares his work on and , lives on what was once the site of a army camp. After spending years constructing off-road race cars and Motorsport Roll cages, Dave embarked on an ambitious new venture – carving out a 40-foot tunnel connecting a network of bunkers to his house. Now, it's nearly finished.

In a recent video, he is seen descending through the manhole, landing on a wooden pallet with wheels. As Dave films his journey, viewers are shown a mix of old and newly built bunkers as Dave glides along the track deep under the earth.

READ MORE:

The path opens up to a vast brick chamber, which he says will soon be finished, before returning to the original bunker and ascending a stone staircase, emerging from a well. The project has left some of Dave's followers feeling uneasy, with one commenting: "You are brave, I'm having a panic attack just watching you."

Another shared their dread: "This encases all my worst fears." A third remarked on the increasing anxiety they felt as Dave descended: "As you started going down my fear level went up, then even further when you laid down. Only peace was seeing the larger rooms on the end, but these tunnels are not for me."

Dave kicked off the unique project in December 2023, transforming a shipping container into a structure reinforced with timber and concrete to prevent collapse. He said: "It's one thing building yourself a bunker, but there's one more thing you've got to think about," before revealing his solution: an illustrative book that he claims "tells you how everything is made."

"Penicillin, surgery tools – it basically goes through how civilisation was made," he said. "But my favourite bit is how to make alcohol – because I think if you're going to survive a nuclear blast, you're going to need severe amounts of alcohol."

Critics have weighed in, however, with one sceptic retorting: "If a nuclear bomb was to be dropped, none of the natural things in that book would be any good for consumption," adding dryly, "I suppose you could eat the book."

And another pointed out a flaw in Dave's survival strategy: "Unless you have all of the supplies listed in the book stored away in your bunker you're still not gonna survive. Eventually you'll run out of food and supplies and everything above will be radioactive."