Found a hole in my kitchen, what might it be?

[skier-hughes]

Well I now know that the gypsum plaster was done in October 1951, unless they had some old copies of the Daily Express to hand at a later date as I've just found a page or two filling a gap above the door frame!!

Now that all the plaster is off the walls I'm going to support the bricks above my "hole" and open it up, so you may get more pictures later today or tomorrow.

 

[Penners]

some old copies of the Daily Express

So what was going on in 1951? Korean War?

Looking forward to the pictures.

 

[skier-hughes]

The Daily Express is from Wednesday October 17th 1951.
It consists of 8 pages in total.
Front page is about Moslems attacking British women in Suez.
A Moslem Holy-War man killed the Pakistan Premier.
The Daily Express election manifesto was about purchase tax and that it was attacking The Housewife, and asked why the socialists thought it was to take money from the well to do when Woolworths which is a "working class institution" collected over £12m for Mr Gaitskell.
An advert for the New Austion 7, at £325 plus £18.1.2 purchase tax.

Inside various stories, a couple being;
It appeared that the majority of Apples for Xmas would not be English.
Birmingham New Street station was to lose 16 trains a day.

The back page is sport, mostly racing and boxing with a little football.

My favourite from the front page....

A man was summoned for being drunk and incapable - His name - Mr Binge

All in all could be from today really :roll:

Graham

 

[Penners]

All in all could be from today really

Except for the tax on the Austin 7. Less than 5%! Aaaah, those were the days.

 

[skier-hughes]

Having removed the rest of the plaster from the wall below the "hole" I have found a new "hole" at floor level. Now to me this looks like some sort of draught maker (what is the proper term) to make the fire above burn hotter/light better etc.

Am I barking up the wrong tree?

I haven't got round to opening it up yet as we have had planning with the electricians all morning.

I aim to do it tomorrow, but will this have any impact on your ideas of what my "hole" may be?

Would a salt store have an opening drectly underneath it?

Extra picture added on underneath the others and the link is still the same... Hope you can see it, but my camera is with my son and I had to use my phone.

Pictures Here

 

[biffvernon]

Pictures Here

What that stone doing labelled after a coal mine?

 

[Nemesis]

Looking very like an oven - with place to rake out ashes.

 

[Paul Hopper]

Graham

1) Wood.

couple of options, stir it up a bit to find depth and extent of loose wood, also its nature (frass etc., ) and any indication of dampness.

if it isn't very deep then leave it alone, if however you feel that there is a question of how much wood there is to take a bearing weight then support and install a concrete or stone pad (use structural engineer for advice here!)

2) vented fruit or food drier.
Either is possible, I doubt there has ever been a fire there unless you can find evidence of soot, (it won't go away!)
It is like so many things in old buildings especially one like yours where it dates back to the dark ages (literally) It is possible that the "range" as such has been added to or subtracted from over the years.. Historically the concept of a 'hot' oven was quite common they were used for all kinds of things from drying meat, fruit, wet clothes, etc.,There is one here which had iron gates on it and metal grids. It was bricked up many years ago as it sat at the edge of an ingle and my engineer told me that the brickwork
was not strong enough for what had been done above it. (long story)

look forward to visiting the elephants on their new island..

Paul

 

[Penners]

Historically the concept of a 'hot' oven was quite common.

They're still quite popular today! :wink:

 

[Nemesis]

I'm rather puzzled by the concept. Ovens and cooking hearths are something I'm interested in, have carried out research on, and I've never come across one which wasn't heated in some way!

This seems very shallow, but the presence of the void under suggests some means of either a darught or a place to rake ashes.

A remote possibility is a charcoal cooker. It would require further opening up.

 

[Penners]

Could it have been a smoker?

Graham - have you found any evidence of any flue out of the top of the cavity? Presumably a system for supplying a fire with draught at the bottom must imply some way of getting rid of smoke at the top.

 

[Nemesis]

If a charcoal burner - not necessarily (very unhealthy!) and if an oven no flue either.

The hole may not be for a draught but for ashes removal.

More pics and a closer inspection required.

 

[skier-hughes]

I'm working on it, but with the electricians in the kitchen as well, progress is slow. I don't want H&S down on me for making them work in a room filled with dust :roll:

Fortunately the inside has been bricked up, so it isn't just filled with concrete as I first thought and the quality of the bricklaying poor so they are coming away quite easily.

More pictures will follow shortly.

Graham

 

[Penners]

Oooooh - I do love a mystery!

 

[skier-hughes]

More pictures up on the same page.

 

[skier-hughes]

There may be a chimney to it.

I'm just working on opening up the main fireplace/chimney, which the Rayburn will move back into again.

It appears there may be a route from the main chimney to the "hole".

More pictures and news when I've dug a bit more.

Graham

 

[skier-hughes]

Todays update.

On further investigation the hole from the chimney appears to be an access route from outside.
As the weather is so nice today I'll be in the garden for most of it, but I intend to do some more digging later.

Graham

 

[skier-hughes]

Nice weather and the need to shop for more goods for the kitchen has meant no update is available on the kitchen hole today.

I do have 133 acorns and one horse chestnut planted in pots...... if I remember next year I'll give you an update on these as well!!!!!!

 

[Penners]

Planning your own oak forest, Graham? Good on you!

 

[biffvernon]

I collected some acorns from the south of France last year. The seedlings are ready for global warming.