I had wondered what this very large concrete building was for a long time, as I had seen it many times from the train window. Then a couple of days ago I finally looked up Micheldever on 28DL and found my answer, as it had already been visited.
Here is the history: Micheldever Fuel Depot (according to the internet) was built by the RAF in c.1939 for use as an oil terminal during the war. More recently the site was used by Elf /Shell Oil and Minster Fuel. The depot became inactive in the early-mid 90s, and the final clean out of the tanks took place in 1995. Since this date the site has been used only for small scale storage (Source: http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/13303/ld-notice-micheldever.pdf).
I decided to go and have a look for myself, so I stopped off on the way back from work... The site was easy to access: a crawl through some bushes, a squeeze through a small gap in the fence and I was in. I did however then have to climb down a VERY steep slope of exposed chalk by hanging onto the side of a fence, getting my black clothes nice and chalky in the process! I was a bit nervous as I climbed down, a – because I wasn’t sure if there’d be any CCTV, b – because I had to duck down every time a train went past, and c – I was on my own so didn’t want to meet any unfriendly people. However, when I got to the bottom I soon realised there were no cameras or people, so I got on exploring…
The depot building is of an impressive size. It is built into the side of a hill; the ground having been previously removed so that the top of the depot, despite being a tall structure, is still at a lower level than the surrounding land. There are 28 tunnel portals along the length of the building, from which large fuel pipes exit and then run along the outside of the structure. Unfortunately only one of the inside rooms was accessible on my visit, due to large metal sheets securing the other doorways. In this room there were more pipes and pieces of machinery, as well as electrical boxes.
My photos are pretty poor as I only planned this trip while I was at work, so didn’t have a proper camera on me. But as this is an exploring forum, and not a photography one, I’ll stick them up anyway…
Here is the history: Micheldever Fuel Depot (according to the internet) was built by the RAF in c.1939 for use as an oil terminal during the war. More recently the site was used by Elf /Shell Oil and Minster Fuel. The depot became inactive in the early-mid 90s, and the final clean out of the tanks took place in 1995. Since this date the site has been used only for small scale storage (Source: http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/13303/ld-notice-micheldever.pdf).
I decided to go and have a look for myself, so I stopped off on the way back from work... The site was easy to access: a crawl through some bushes, a squeeze through a small gap in the fence and I was in. I did however then have to climb down a VERY steep slope of exposed chalk by hanging onto the side of a fence, getting my black clothes nice and chalky in the process! I was a bit nervous as I climbed down, a – because I wasn’t sure if there’d be any CCTV, b – because I had to duck down every time a train went past, and c – I was on my own so didn’t want to meet any unfriendly people. However, when I got to the bottom I soon realised there were no cameras or people, so I got on exploring…
The depot building is of an impressive size. It is built into the side of a hill; the ground having been previously removed so that the top of the depot, despite being a tall structure, is still at a lower level than the surrounding land. There are 28 tunnel portals along the length of the building, from which large fuel pipes exit and then run along the outside of the structure. Unfortunately only one of the inside rooms was accessible on my visit, due to large metal sheets securing the other doorways. In this room there were more pipes and pieces of machinery, as well as electrical boxes.
My photos are pretty poor as I only planned this trip while I was at work, so didn’t have a proper camera on me. But as this is an exploring forum, and not a photography one, I’ll stick them up anyway…
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and better pics than some on here that should know better 
