1.
GV: The town of Buxton in Derbyshire.
0.07

2.
SV PAN FROM: People in street PAN TO shop window full of varieties of cheeses.
0.23

3.
LV: Small electric truck enters tunnel.
0.31

4.
TRACKING SHOT: Through tunnel.
0.39

5.
SV PAN: Loader arrives with boxes of cheese into storage area.
0.51

6.
CU: Boxes.
0.54

7.
SV: Another loader with cheese.
1.05

8.
CU: David Birt, manager/owner, speaking over shots of boxes of cheese stored an man tasting cheese. (4 shots)
2.02


BIRT: "It was in November last year we stumbled upon this ex-RAF bomb store hidden in the Derbyshire hillsides just above Buxton. This store is a tremendous place in so much as it has natural temperature inside it, very, very suitable for the storage and conditioning of cheese. The natural temperature here is 48 degrees Farenheit winter and summer. And to store cheese very successfully one only needs 40 degrees Farenheit. And quite apart form that the floor area of about 200,000 square feet provides an immense storage capacity and at the moment we are storing 5,000 tons of cheese underground here in Derbyshiru."




Initials JS/2245



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: In the English town of Buxton, in the North Midlands, has a hidden asset that has recently been put to good use. It is an underground network of limestone caves and they are being used to store cheese.

SYNOPSIS: Buxton, a small market town in Derbyshire, is renowned for its health spa - not its cheeses.

But now, thanks to a series of caverns nearby cheese is becoming big business in the town. The underground storage chambers provide ideal, natural conditions fro cheese. Humidity and temperature in the caves vary only fractionally.

Years ago the caves were used by the Air Ministry to store bombs and ammunition. Then, when the Air Ministry moved out, businessmen moved into convert the caves into Europes largest mushroom farm.

The mushroom farm closed two years ago and two local cheese dealers decided to buy the caves. Now about 5,000 tons of cheese from all over Europe is stored there. The caves could hold up to 30,000 tons.

The cheese is kept until needed for distribution on the British market. One of the owners, David Birt, explains why the caves are so useful.