march 2006
During this trip we took a closer look at the fireplace in the lounge. We could see that there was one corble made of stone and highly decorative, but the other was clearly false. We removed it and found it was just polystyrene! The fireplace itself looked impressive but somehow out of character. We had also found that the chimney was not drawing smoke (although it was clear and open).
We knocked away part of the fire surround and noticed that it was made of china bricks. This would not have been original and we continued to knock away until we had broken through to the oak timber lintel supporting the front of the chimney (and the real fireplace). It was clear that the fireplace was really a well decorated, faced stone construction.
Continuing to break away the plasterwork around the fireplace, we found that the whole wall was constructed of faced stone blockwork and there was a hidden alcolve which had been filled with rubble at some point in the past and part of a doorway arch. We uncovered a hidden gem!
Selected images:
