An Unexpected Find

[johnobirches]

Our old house has been much modified over the years/centuries.
I'm digging up the middle room's concrete floor at the moment (underfloor heating to go in) and there was one patch near the internal crosswall which had a rectangular shape to it.
I thought it might be a nice flagstone just beneath the surface so didn't drill it.

Now it's left as an island I can see that the 'cap' is sitting on some stones and bricks unlike the surrounding layer of sand and at one end between the bricks there is a noticeable gap and void.

I wonder what it will turn out to be? Maybe a well but in the centre of the sitting room in the middle of the house? Entrance to a cellar? - bit tight, only about 1 foot by eighteen inches. A priest hole? - likewise a bit tight but I suppose that would be an advantage.

Any more suggestions? I'm not going to remove it until I get the rest of the floor lifted just in case: a)there's a nasty smell; b) I get a fright (financial or spiritual); c) I have to get the police in.
If it turns out to be c I'll kick myself as they could have dug the floor up for me!
Maybe it's where a previous structural engineer is buried.
John

 

[Alex]

John wrote

Maybe it's where a previous structural engineer is buried.

Or a UPVC window salesman, artex salesman, cement salesman, damp specialist ........................ the list could be endless. :roll:

 

[CliffordPope]

as they could have dug the floor up for me!
Maybe it's where a previous structural engineer is buried.
John

There's a rather good Roald Dahl story on those lines. A man's wife disappears, and he is reported by neighbours working in his cellar, and orderinga lot of sand and cement.
The police swoop, see the suspicious new concrete floor, and dig it up. After excavating tons of material they admit there is no body there, and they apologise profusely.
In the final scene, the man carries something down to the cellar ..... !

 

[middi]

I know !!!!!, a long gone previous owner was a deadly robber. All his silver and golld is buried in there. ( no boubt you will let us know if this is true by 6 pm tonight :wink: )

Middi

 

[johnobirches]

All his silver and golld is buried in there. ( no boubt you will let us know if this is true by 6 pm tonight )

I wish! The blokes that laid the concrete floor will have had that away.

On the other hand... if my next post comes from The Seychelles...

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I must admit I wouldn't be able to resist lifting it.. or just that one brick and peering in with a torch.

Mind you, patience is not my forte. I'd always eaten my packed lunch before we got out of the school car park when we went of outings. 8)

 

[MdB]

I must admit I wouldn't be able to resist lifting it.. or just that one brick and peering in with a torch.

Me too..

 

[LadyArowana]

I must admit I wouldn't be able to resist lifting it.. or just that one brick and peering in with a torch.

8)

It's only three weeks till Halloween, that would be the perfect day for exploration.

 

[johnobirches]

Just as well I didn't wait Lady Arowana - would have disappointed the trick or treaters.

Now it's only me who's disappointed - and puzzled.
So... there was a definite rectangular shape in the concrete floor. I left that patch in place and could see bricks under it with a void.
I prodded and poked and even tried to lift the cap off the bricks with an SDS drill - seemed solid.
I decided to break it up...

It wasn't set on a course of bricks but had been poured onto a hardcore mix of stone.brick,wood splinters,string and an old wooden clothespeg. Very strange - why different from the surrounding subfloor which was sand.

I shovelled away this rubble only to find a further surprise - a flagstone lower down...

This had a hollowish sound but couldn't be sure I wasn't just kidding myself. The old plaster at the foot of the wall originally painted brown was set down on top of this stone so it didn't look as if it had been disturbed. I cleaned the whole thing up and as light was fading I thought I'd leave it until tomorrow - for the 3 reasons in my original post.
Then I thought sod it and went for the pickaxe to lever it up...[3 attachment limit reached - see next post]

 

[MdB]

Then I thought sod it and went for the pickaxe to lever it up...[3 attachment limit reached - see next post]

and? and?

Come on and post damn you, I want to know!

(not that I'm impatient and demanding of course...)

 

[MdB]

I'm going to be disappointed aren't I?

 

[johnobirches]

So here it was...

I didn't need the pickaxe as the stone moved easily by hand out away from the wall and from under the lip of the old plaster.
The left hand edge had some jagged chips so it may have been moved more than once in the past - maybe to put more treasure in there as it was acquired...
I lifted the flagstone and TA DAAA!!!








NOTHING!!!
It was sitting on clay the consistency of marzipan. I cut a wedge out just in case there was a further layer - nope.
The marks on the left were a series of shallow chambers made by mice or insects(ants?).
So it looks like this was just a flagstone from the original floor level of this room.
The other two flagged rooms are a good 6 inches higher which is strange.
Biggest mystery of all is why that stone was left in place and covered by that odd hardcore - not sand - then concreted over in a separate pour to the rest of the floor.
A previous renovator having a huge joke at my expense methinks.
Sorry to let you all down.
John

 

[MdB]

Oh well.. Interesting feature none the less.

The wall plaster appears to come down into the pit so that suggests the pit was there first. The flagstone is likely there to support something heavy and might still have been place when the first lot of concrete was poured. At a later date, the object that was kept on the flagstone was removed and the remaining hole filled and then capped. What the object was, I have no idea but it is located near the door so may have had some relationship with that.

 

[johnobirches]

That makes sense MdB - wonder what it was.

This small room has a few oddities, it has five doors including the main front entrance. It has a rather nice but out of scale (bling) fireplace.


A nice beam which is supported at one end by the bricks above the mantlepiece; and the window opening was once much bigger or maybe it had a window seat.

Upstairs there's a bit of a treat but that's for another topic.
John

 

[LadyArowana]

:lol: Such fun reading the story, I was hoping there was going to be something really exciting underneath, but on the bright side at least it wasn't some huge expensive to fix problem. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jellyfire]

I'm thinking grandfather clock! Position, shape and size look about right from the photos? There would be good reason not to move it, apart from the weight, moving it would mean having it recalibrated!

Sounds plausible, maybe?

 

[johnobirches]

That crossed my mind too. I love the idea of concreting around the clock. [rock around the clock! Ha Ha]
John

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Oh dear Johnobirches.

That joke is a contender for this years Penners.... They're like the Oscars but awarded for disservice to comedy.