AN UNDERGROUND reservoir has been uncovered for the first time by the National Trust at Dunster Castle, giving visitors the rare chance to head below ground to see a piece of Victorian engineering first hand.

"For decades visitors have been able to peer down into the reservoir via a grille at the entrance, but we’re delighted to now be able to allow people inside to really grasp the scale of this unusual and atmospheric space and to be able to see what only a few members of staff have seen before," said Seamus Rogers, general manager at Dunster Castle.

"We really hope visitors will enjoy this new component to their visit," he added.

Visitors can now venture around four and a half metres below the level of the Keep Garden lawn, which originally was the site of the upper ward of the Norman motte and bailey castle.

Once visitors have descended into the Victorian structure the National Trust team at Dunster Castle have brought the space to life with a new audio and light presentation.

The reservoir was established as part of a range of Victorian improvements made to Dunster Castle in the 1860s and 1870s by George Fownes Luttrell.

At this time the Dunster Estate was at its most prosperous which enabled Luttrell to create an up-to date, modern dwelling within the castle, which had seen little improvement in the preceding century.

The reservoir was constructed in 1870 and it originally helped supply water to the Minehead Waterworks Company and by 1897 it was helping the development of homes with running water in Minehead.

This is not the first recent piece of history uncovered in Dunster, with archaeologists currently undertaking a dig in the garden of the Luttrell Arms Hotel having found remnants of 18th century buildings when excavating the site to put in a new service tunnel.