We’ve discovered a safe!

It’s hidden in one of the bottom cupboards, in what we call the Major’s study. It’s probably been there for around 100 years. Problem is, we don’t have a key and I was looking in the built-in cupboard (some might call it a closet), in the hallway, at the back of the house, where there are a load of random keys, just hanging there.

After trying several different types of keys, it became quickly obvious that not one of them fits!! So it’ll have to remain locked for the time being. There’ll be nothing in it, so I’m not that bothered about it.

Whilst I was going back and forth with different keys, I did notice something about the cupboard that seemed a bit odd. The floor was tiled.

This may not seem the slightest bit unusual to most people, but, for me, I asked the question. Why go to all that bother of tiling a floor, when you are going have the door shut 99% of the time. It is a cupboard after all, it’s got several built in shelves at different heights, although it does have a full size Victorian panel door….

I discussed this with my wife, Michelle, who agreed that it did seem a bit extravagant to do this sort of thing on the cupboard floor.

So, being the sort of inquisitive chap I am, I decided that I would drill a couple of holes through the wall, to see what it was made of. Several holes later, it appeared that the back of the cupboard was a brick wall. Keeping in mind that this is supposed to be a stone built house, I thought that it was highly likely that this was an original doorway into the dining room, but was at some stage in the past, bricked up.

After talking this over with Michelle, we agreed that I should go ahead and remove the back of the cupboard and return it to it’s original purpose of a doorway.

One easy way to see that a doorway has been blocked up is to look at the skirting board. Usually, there’s a piece of skirting board pieced into the original to fill in the space where the door should have been. However, on the other side of the wall, the skirting board was almost in one piece!

After removing it, I found a Players cigarette packet, with some writing inside!

It has two names written inside, (J. Robinson, cannot make the other one out) the date (March 15th, 1950) and the quote of “What a bloody job we had!”.

A message from the past, very surreal!

Anyway, using the breaker, I got the brick wall down in about an hour, including removing the rubble as I went.

The new doorway is in the middle of the dining room wall and is just where I was going to put one! So a lot of time and money saved there.

The pictures below show the cigarette packet and the eventual removal of the brick wall from what was the hallway cupboard!!

All that’s left to do is put a new doorframe and door on the other side of the doorway, with the door opening into the dining room and not the hall.

Oh, the second hidden door…. It’s in the upstairs hallway, which is for the fourth bedroom. Ironically, it’s in the exact place where we were planning to put one into the fourth bedroom!! I found it the day after I found the first one!!

See ya later!

Graham

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