Definitely didn't expect this!

Hi there folks.
Our house revealed it's biggest surprise to date yesterday evening and to be honest, I am still trying to process it all.

Now, we all know that old houses have their share of idiosyncrasies. Odd little areas, hidden away nooks and crannies (as discovered in the previous post)

 So I'll be honest, having this little section of wood flooring in the kitchen was just one of those quirks that we didn't really think was too odd. After all it was a logical passage piece from the living area through to the back of the house.
Until last night, that is. While I was chatting to Mark, who was there to discuss the windows, we had a moment of curiosity. Knowing that the flooring had to come out soon anyway when the dampcourse was going to be done we decided to lift a floorboard to check.

Of course, I managed to choose a floorboard that was actually a part of a trapdoor! And what was underneath?

 Yep, stone steps.... we discovered the original cellar.

 At this stage I was like, oh gosh this is freaky but now we have to go down. I wasn't sure what to expect, a small, low, dank and musty unusable space that would just need to be filled in......
Nope, we got a bit more that that!

 A room big enough for me to stand in  comfortably, A stone alcove under the stairs.

 Another stone shelf next to that, with a selection of very cool bottles.

And this absolutely stunning original stone shelving "unit"

 This very unusual space which looks like it could have originally housed a stove as the structure above is actually a chimney.

There is a channel running through the floor with what seems to be a "stream" so we'll have to see what happens when it rains.

 The flooring is original flagstone too. It is an absolutely fascinating space to discover.

 There are also a few rusty hooks around the place too. I would imagine this space would have been a food preparation space.

 I made a start by just clearing some of the debris from the stairs to reveal the stone.

It is funny, we had  joked about finding a cellar but assumed that if there had been one it would have been filled in as the kitchen floor was concreted and though the outside signs were there they had been bricked up and concreted over. Just goes to show, you shouldn't assume!

It's all very exciting but also at the same time it creates it's own set of issues for us to deal with as it needs to be made structurally safe which means the kitchen floor will need to be taken out and new beams put in place. Looking at the "ceiling" of the cellar there appears to be metal sheeting above the joists and possible flags so who knows, we may discover that the concrete kitchen floor may well be covering an original flagstone floor too.

Going back to stripping wallpaper seems rather tame in comparison......