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Original poster

Unusual things in your homes...

58 replies

cjt110 · 14/01/2020 11:17

Reading an article about unusual things people have found in their homes such as milk doors (who knew they ever existed!), mouseholes and electric switches.

What things have you had in your home...

We lived in a big house that was previously a manor type home but was divided into 10 flats. The cellar was as big as the floorplan of the house and inside had meat hooks, a stone slab table for cutting the meat, a stone carved wine cellar and a coal chute. Amazing to look at and see. And the old plans were fascinating. Turns out our flat was the lady of the house's bedroom and dressing room and the man had his own bedroom and dressing room too. The grounds had an unusual flat lawn which had previously had a tennis court on and they had also had an orchard of some kind.

Our home now is a newish build (2006) and on accessing the toilet cistern we discovered all sorts of sketches on the wooden plinth from the builders... mainly looked work related but had the obligatory "Matt woz 'ere" scrawled on it too!

OP posts:

bobstersmum · 14/01/2020 20:07

These are fascinating!

Bunnybigears · 14/01/2020 20:13

Under our floor boards we found a machete type knife and some shot gun cartridges wrapped in newspaper the newspaper was from the day after the Great Train Robbery which was on the front cover

bobstersmum · 14/01/2020 20:25

Omg bunny, you win!

Beekeeper1 · 14/01/2020 20:27

I have a well under my downstairs bathroom floor and, in the main reception room, two gargoyles in an inset panel - allegedly from the original Palace of Westminster and acquired by a former owner of the cottage who was political correspondent for the 'Times'. Slightly out of place in a Somerset cottage, but I love them and they watch over my home for me!

AlexaAmbidextra · 14/01/2020 21:09

My friend had witch bottles embedded in the inglenook fireplace of his 17C house.

vampirethriller · 14/01/2020 21:20

About ten years ago I lived in a flat in a huge Victorian townhouse. My attic flat had a bell from when there were servants and in the unused bit of the cellar there was a stable with manger and room for a carriage.
Grew up in a house with meat hooks and a big marble meat table in the pantry.

willothewispa · 14/01/2020 23:15

@comptessedestair he's cute in a funny sort of way. We had a few when I was a child, no idea what happened to them.

BlythesEyes · 14/01/2020 23:26

When we stripped the wallpaper from our dining room we ended up taking some of the plaster off. This then grew into a bigger job and we ended up going down to the path and plaster base. We found about 6 layers of paper and cuttings from newspapers about bombings in the war dating back to 1942. (Ours is a Victorian semi).
Before plastering over we bought the Times and the last ever edition of The News of the World and stuffed them in the walls for someone to find in the future.
The newspaper cuttings and wallpaper I mounted into a frame for keepsakes to pass on to future owners.

mathanxiety · 15/01/2020 06:42

Old neighbours of mine found a stash of 1910s - 20s girly magazines under the boards in the attic, featuring ladies wearing pretty much nothing but a saucy smile. We just found a troop of raccoons in ours. Raccoons are not as friendly as you might have imagined.

MaJoady · 15/01/2020 07:06

We have a graveyard in /as the garden, if that counts. I know it's not technically in the house...

House is a converted church, but doesn't look anything like one, just an old stone building. It was only used as a church for 50 yrs or so in the 17-18th centuries until they moved elsewhere down the road. But we have approx 12 family graves in the garden with multiple occupants, mostly smallpox victims. No headstones or anything though, so again, you'd never know.

FearaNohope · 15/01/2020 07:16

We have a sword collection. Claymores, Viking style, sword sticks and many old knives. Including a Nazi SS issue blade with the engraving still on the blade. That one makes me feel sick but it’s history.

Tinabn · 15/01/2020 09:50

A wall with a window in it. The room was always freezing and we were going to re- plaster it. The builder was very excited when he found it! When an extension was added in the 60s they put a new exterior wall on the house, dry walled the interior and left the old wall as the filler to the sandwich. The window frame and fittings were original from the 20s and in perfect condition, we think there could be a door behind my son’s bedroom wall.

ninecoronas · 15/01/2020 09:57

Lots of idiosyncrasies built by the previous owner, Ron, who fancied himself a bit of a DIYer but was clearly totally inept. Ron's wife disapproved of drinking so he'd Macgyvered a power supply to the greenhouse, whited out the glass and installed a beer fridge. God knows what he was telling her about that setup.

He'd also apparently had a falling out with the council, stopped paying tax and therefore 20 years worth of uncollected rubbish had gone into a sort of personal landfill beside the house. That was a joy to discover. Good old Ron.

willothewispa · 15/01/2020 10:10

Including a Nazi SS issue blade with the engraving still on the blade. That one makes me feel sick but it’s history.

I'd feel sick at that to. How did you end up with it ?

Hoppinggreen · 15/01/2020 10:44

We’ve got quite a bit of Nazi memorabilia, passed on by (German) family
Obviously we don’t revere it but it is an important part of history

labazsisgoingmad · 15/01/2020 19:37

ive 16 guinea pigs in my lounge!

Funko · 15/01/2020 21:52

Not as interesting as others but I found it creepy. In a previous house purchased from a property developer. All rooms empty and completely redecorated and immaculate.

In the loft though was a modern photo canvas. It was a family portrait of youngish family. Blonde mum, dad and 2 very young beautiful blonde children. It was a lovely looking and perfectly normal family picture but I immediately found it chilling, and felt like something was very wrong.

I thought it was so odd that this was the only thing left behind which should have been a treasured family portrait.

It gave off vibes of the pictures you see in the news of a family murder suicide. Was about 15 years ago now but I can still remember it and how creepy it felt. I didn't like it being in the house but also felt weirdly afraid to get rid of it. So left it there.

Sorry people who brought the house from me 7 years ago

FearaNohope · 16/01/2020 22:27

@willothewispa it was part of a collection we bought. It included some beautiful knives from all over the world.

InAPrettyCabinet · 09/02/2020 08:04

I need more stories!
Nothing particularly odd for us but in our first home they seemed to use old clothes instead of proper filler. We found old socks and jumpers stuffed up the chimneys in the bedrooms (old surround in place but no fire grates) and also in the bay windows pillars.

Ikora · 09/02/2020 09:00

Friends in laws found a poppet which was a doll associated with magic stuffed inside one of the stairs in their very old house.it was when they were doing something to the understairs cupboard. Both of them had felt too stupid to say anything but neither of them had liked stepping on that particular step and had stepped over it for years.

DH great grandparents house had a small safe in it, he managed as a teenager to open it and revealed some solid silver cutlery. An Aunt took it off to get valued and it was never seen again, his Mum still tuts about this.

I grew up in a house built in 1840 it still had gas mantles though not used in the hall and meat hooks in the huge kitchen fireplace. It was a very large townhouse a bit like the one in Upstairs downstairs. My Mother found a box in the attached servants quarters that had a sampler, bible covered in ivory and a silver photo frame from the 1920’s in it.

We found two grubby porn mags from the 1950’s under the floorboards of the old shed when we demolished it. We also found the remains of a coal hole and lots of bits of smashed china when digging in the garden.

InAPrettyCabinet · 09/02/2020 22:37

@Ikora that's so weird

MurrayTheMonk · 09/02/2020 22:54

We live in a 15 c house. I have a jolly monks face carved into one of the beams on our stairs.
We also have An old tunnel in the cellar that leads to the church over the road -or it did before it fell in.
And in 1982 the body of a young woman was found bricked into our fire place when some work was being done on the chimney flue. She had been murdered. They said the skeleton was hundreds of years old.

Some ghost hunter types randomly showed up once and did a sort of seance where they claimed to have spoken to her. So they were the Oddest things we ever had in our house!

HearMeSnore · 09/02/2020 23:11

We've been house hunting for a few months and one place we looked at had a fully functional servant-summoning system of bells that rang in the kitchen. There was even a bell-push in the shower (I suppose you never know when you might want a sandwich bringing...)

It was quite an old house, but not particularly big. You could probably just shout from upstairs and be heard in the kitchen so I'm not sure why all the bells were necessary.

CommunistLegoBloc · 09/02/2020 23:15

@Hoppinggreen I'm Jewish and owning Nazi memorabilia is fuck all to do with it being an 'important part of history'. It's sick. I don't know how anyone could bear to be in possession.

EmMcK · 09/02/2020 23:24

@EmmiJay you have to find out what is in the missing space. Please. Look at all these posts - they must be piquing your curiosity

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