Under the garden

[Onetap]

Malt house.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

No sign of any heating / burning - the house was heated by conventional fireplaces and latterly by a huge coke boiler in the other cellars. The floor is covered with earth and rubble but the foundations of the walls are only a couple of feet below the current floor level, and in digging trial holes to check this no sign of a "proper" floor covering has been found (so far).
There are a few vertical grooves near the centre lines of the wide central niches, and a couple of horizontal grooves above them, along with with a line of what look like they might have been joist holes (but they aren't matched on the opposite wall). So it does have some superficial resemblance to a kiln, maltings or smoke house, but as I said, no sign of a fire.
It isn't damp - especially considering it's so far underground - the bottom of it must be only a little above the river level. I should mention that although the mystery room is under a fairly level lawn, the site as a whole slopes down from north to south, so the other cellars (under the site of the house) form a terrace above ground level on their south side.
It's built in quite heavy clay soil. The effort involved must have been phenomenal - a pit some 30' square at the top and 30' deep, into which you then put a brick-walled vaulted room, before covering it all up again, when there were already huge, and perfectly good, cellars elsewhere on site, still accessed from inside the house.
Satanic temple it is then :shock:
The other cellars have a mysterious little tunnel (about 2'6"" wide and 4' high) leading from them towards the river, and elsewhere in the grounds is a long viewing mount which the locals have told the owner used to have a door in the end furthest from the house.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Your description is fascinating! What a wonderful job- going round looking at people's secret Satanic temples.

It does sound very suspicious, with the tunnels, the look out point. Were there any witches' covens locally at that time?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Extraordinary that it was apparently never, at any time, underneath the house.

I made a flippant jokette about Tutankhamun, but is it possible that this was a mausoleum? Actually, even as I suggest that, I find myself severely doubting whether they would have placed corpses that close to the well (assuming the latter was always there).

Unlikely, as I think the family vault is in the church, which is just off the other side of the forecourt.

 

[Schoolmarm]

I am still going for ice house.

http://www.bedale.com/icehouse.htm

The Ice House at Bedale.
Unlike many others of the period the Ice House at Bedale had no definitive drainage system, instead the bottom was found to contain a deep layer of loosely packed cobbles, through which the melted water would have drained. Above this there appears to have been a large beam which spanned the diameter of the Well, lodged in a brick support in the outer wall, supported on a brick plinth in the centre and resting in a brick support in the opposite wall. From the pattern of the brickwork this could also have supported wooden joists over which a timber planked floor could have been placed.

 

[biffvernon]

there's no drain,

So why is it not full of water? Presumably this is a naturally free draining piece of land?

 

[Penners]

While there is almost certainly a prosaic and sensible reason for this structure, it does look like the archetypal satanic temple that features near the end of many a Hammer horror movie!

Of course! Worms has the answer...

(I love the tag line, "Betrayal cuts both ways"!)

 

[glayzell]

the mention earlier of the two admirals and the other tunnels elsewhere and location near to the river does make me think smuggling could have had something to do with it, althoug it doesnt explain the height of the dome. could something have been built in their and lifted out? or bit that was bricked up later been an opening for hoisting stuff into?

fascinating.

 

[Schoolmarm]

The sloping entrance would make it easy to load and unload the ice.


Oooh just had deja vu. Didn't we discuss access to ice houses once?

 

[Penners]

I have a feeling we did.

But Gareth seems convinced that this wasn't an ice house. And I must say that all those carefully constructed niches would seem somewhat over-the-top for such a prosaic use.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Did they have model railways in the 1750s? Perhaps it was used for that? The shelves for proudly displaying miniature locomotives...

oh...hang on.... :lol:

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I think that it is the perfect place for all our period costumes, vintage wines, whiskeys and brandys.

 

[Penners]

Or for His Lordship to meet the chambermaid.... :shock:

 

[another_richard]

Any historical documentation exist for the structures?

 

[Lime]

Cock fighting or bear baiting?
Something to do with slavery, prison or torture?

 

[robgil]

its about the right size to hang people in? :shock:

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I know, let's have the next party there :roll:

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I'm there again on Monday (to look at the sample panel of repaired garden wall) and I'll ask. I can guarantee the catering should be exceptional (for reasons that can't be disclosed here - there, that's got you wondering, hasn't it?)

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Any historical documentation exist for the structures?

It was the home of a branch of a very well-known local family, when first built. So yes, but nothing that's come to light so far which has a direct bearing on the mystery vault.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I'm there again on Monday (to look at the sample panel of repaired garden wall) and I'll ask. I can guarantee the catering should be exceptional (for reasons that can't be disclosed here - there, that's got you wondering, hasn't it?)

I'm guessing famous hotelier or TV Chef....