Water ingress, corner inside fireplace next to woodburner - help!

[SWnewstart]

Live in a hamstone cottage nearly 20 years old which has always had damp issues. A few weeks ago after a day of heavy rain, noticed a pool of water in one corner of the chimneybreast, next to woodburner. It's definitely not coming down, fully sealed over and around woodburner flue. Thick stone hearth and exposed brick inside fireplace.

Tonight, after more heavy rain, it's happened again. A proper puddle. We live on a slight hill, rainwater rushes down road. So worried about this as no funds for what sounds like expensive repairs or investigation. What could be underneath cottage and strong enough to seep up through stone hearth - Subsidence? Hidden stream? Any ideas or advice welcome.

Sorry, cottage is almost 200 years old, not 20!

If there are no water seepage indicators through the wall, it's coming upwards. Is the hearth built straight onto the earth underneath? It could simply be water table after heavy rain days. Our (140 year old) cellar is like that, the edges round all the stone slabs get moist after a couple of days of rain, but it almost never comes through to actual puddles.

Does it go away by itself?

Annoying, but perhaps nothing to panic about if it's staying put and not flooding the house. Get a specialist in your age of building in to have a look at it.

Agree with above- underground water source and no water proofing/foundations etc to stop it.

Unfortunately not cheap to sort

Definitely coming up, TheHighestSardine (strange name but interesting) and yes the water disappeared the next day but left a slight stain and felt colder than the rest of the hearth. Suspected an expert required to investigate, just very concerned about longer term costs. The joy of living in an old house I guess!

Gradetoolisted - yes, that's what I feared. Would such things be covered by buildings insurance I wonder?

Not sure - we never tried to do anything about it as we took the view that it wasn’t harming anything, must have been reoccurring for 125years and might try to sort it next time we change the flooring in that room. Ours is in almost the same exact spot as yours by the sounds of it and comes to say hello once or twice a year, max