Buried Treasure!
A few years ago we decided to investigate what was behind a wall in our living room. My husband was convinced there was a large fireplace so, mindful of the mess involved, I reluctantly agreed to get the builders in! I am so glad we did! We found this huge inglenook fireplace, complete with original brickwork, an arched seat, hanging rods and even an old cast iron kettle, which had been buried all these years! From what we know, the fireplace was bricked up in the late Victorian years. The cottage dates back to around 1800, a time when inglenooks were generally no longer being built. Our cottage is quite tiny so it was truly amazing to find this very large inglenook. The builders removed 6 tons of rubble - all of which left via the window!
I didn't want to scare you, so I have put the 'after' photo first!
I wouldn't be without our cosy woodburner now! Logs are a great way to keep the chill out - in fact they keep you warm twice; while you are stacking and piling them and then when you burn them!
I was reading Jane's blog recently and she has also discovered an inglenook! Have you made any amazing discoveries in your home?
Clare, what a fabulous find.
ReplyDeleteI am quite envious. We live in a new house, with no redeeming features I'm afraid, other than the boring practical ones.
The oldest home we have had in Canada was about 30 years old, and all we found when we investigated, was junk abandonded in a cupboard that had been boarded over!
An original inglenook is fabulous, and I imagine well worth the work and mess to uncover it..!
How charming :) Bet on a cold wet day it is perfect. Your blog is so nice :)Thanks for all you share.
ReplyDeleteOh Clare! How beautiful! I did see Jane's blog! I think it is so amazing the treasures you ladies had waiting behind the walls! Inglenooks-in-waiting! The house I grew up in was my family's home since 1903 (5 generations of my family on the same property)! The house was built in the 1860's. We had all sorts of tucked away cupboards about the house, my favorite being a tiny one carved into a dormer in my bedroom!
ReplyDeleteHow lucky - it is exactly like an inglenook a friend of mine has in Sussex. I bet it's nice and cosy at the moment, we're back to making fires in the evening again! Not yet discovered anything intriguing in our house but when we first dug up some of the garden last year we discovered a set of tools (small, craftsman tools we think) yet to be identified. Maybe I'll post a picture one day and see if anyone has any ideas.
ReplyDeleteYour living room must be so cosy. Have a good weekend.
Kim x
Clare, what a wonderful find. I'm afraid after 41 years in our house all we have found in our renovations is lots of dust bunnies.
ReplyDeleteWe were the original owners so there are no surprises for us.
Great photos.
What a beautiful, cozy spot - and such an amazing discovery. How wonderful to live in a cottage with such character.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! When I first saw the picture I had no idea it was actually your inglenook fireplace. How very lucky you are to have uncovered such a treasure! We live in an old house (here in Canada), but I don't think there is going to be any finds here.
ReplyDeleteI SO wish your house was my house, what a fascinating thing to find and I can't believe anyone would want to brick it all up! I DO believe in the original historicalness of a house but here in nz we don't have any houses older than maybe 150 years old perhaps...
ReplyDeleteHi Clare
ReplyDeleteHaving seen the before and after I can confirm how fabulous your sitting room now is, but everyone must be assured it was almost perfect before!! Certainly from a visitor's point of view!!
Sue xx
I'm feeling all warm and cosy from just looking at your lovely fireplace. What an amazing discovery! Thanks for sharing xoxo
ReplyDeletewhat a wonderful surprise! and i absolutely love your beautiful wallpaper chest i see on the left side of your photo. i have been searchng for one of those for months, to no avail... but i'm going to keep looking! debbie
ReplyDeleteWhat a marvelous, lucky discovery. It looks wonderful. Your home must have quite a history at its age. I enjoy your blog and have added it to 'my' blog list to read daily.
ReplyDeletepassing threw.come 4 a visit
ReplyDeleteI envy you! We live in a block of flats from 1961, no interesting discoveries here. Except that the bedroom wardrobe has an older wardrobe behind it. But it's empty. However, the house where I grew up in had a big attic full of stuff: unused sixties shoes, men's hats from the 50s and a big wooden hat box from Russia.
ReplyDeleteLooks lovely Clare. It's so lovely to find an exciting discovery isn't it? Thanks for the mention btw...We are having a small porch built at the moment and the builders have just uncovered the original well to the house! Luckily it was capped. The original pipework still leads to the pump so we may be able to get it working. It may have to be the subject of a post I think! Love the before and after pictures...
ReplyDeleteI've seen many cool finds in old homes on t.v. shows...one was a man who had to repair some bad damage & so they ripped down the walls & surprise...they discovered pristine movie posters from the 20s-30s worth a lot of money. The posters were used for insulation or something by the original owners.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is any hidden treasure in our house built in '54...I once found an old rusty iron foot shaped thing while digging in the dirt. I wondered if it was from the western days & maybe this was from a shoe cobbler.
It is amazing what is discovered by building excavators - dinosaurs, ancient villages...fascinating!
Hi Clare,
ReplyDeleteYour inglenook is beautiful and well worth all of the mess and dust that the removal of rubble would have caused. I'm sure it looks particularly lovely at Christmas time.
We have uncovered panelled doors under hardboard coverings, an extra room in our cellar and lots of badly bodged jobs by previous owners!! Such as the removal of ALL picture rails, and most fireplaces. Grrrr!
(Where is the March calendar lady??!)
Niki x
You lucky, lucky thing.
ReplyDeleteWow, you found a real treasure in your home! Well, we just built our house in 2004, so no chance at all for us to find something "secret" behind one of the walls... ;-((
ReplyDeleteWhata beautiful fireplace!!!! I can picture it for me, christmas days and lovely winternights, lovely...and i love the cheerful colour in your home, it makes it so welkome and cozy :) Have a nice week Clare :)
ReplyDeleteOh, i wanted to tell you that i have found some beautiful treasures at the local flea-market today. I will show some pictures later in the week..:)
Clare, that is just awesome! I would just love to find something in my old house as great as your inglenook but unfortunately there's not alot of inglenook's in the SW United States....LOL.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy it!
That is so beautiful it takes my breath away! How cozy and warm! And of course, you have decorated it so nicely!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful inglenook you have found in your cottage!
ReplyDeleteI can imagine sitting there on a cold winter day with a cup of tea and some good magazines.
wow, what a wonderful find! You home looks so lovely. Thank you for sharing it! Rosemary
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful find........a fireplace..and it looks so inviteing to sit and have a hot cup of tea..and of course a good book.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, we took down a tree that weighed 6000 pounds and anow I have full sun and can grow anything I desire.
ReplyDeleteLOVE the nook
WOW, Clare! We lived in an old house once and all we ever found behind the walls was old newspapers used for insulation! Hahahaha...nothing as spectacular as your amazing find.
ReplyDeleteDear Clare,
ReplyDeleteEach home has a special spot and it looks as if you found yours.
It is beautiful. Restoring a home to it's oringinal glory is a tribute to times gone by.
Sherry
That is practically a room! I love huge fireplaces! You are a lucky couple to uncover such a prize. A prize with function too!
ReplyDeleteOh...and we built our house but what we occasionally find is arrowheads from the indians.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing find! Your cottage sounds delightful, Clare.
ReplyDeleteOh it is so beautiful. We live in a 1920's house and have contemplated having a woodburner installed - but it won't be the handsome inglennok you have there. Mary
ReplyDeletehi Clare
ReplyDeletethat fireplace is awesome
the only thing I found when we moved into our home 15 yrs ago was a lovely little chest and a stieff stuffed animal, the previous owners left them
and it got sold on ebay
carol
I just LOVE your fireplace! What a wonderful find!
ReplyDeleteYour inglenook fireplace is just beautiful. And you have dressed, and acessorized it so well, I love your shabby chic style.
ReplyDeleteI do hope that we make some interesting discoveries in own new house (we will have to wait until friday to find out!). I'm hoping for floorboards and fireplaces.
Victoria x
What a great find Clare. We found a cellar at the farm. The stairs had been boarded over so I took a couple of boards up to find some stone steps leading down in to a cellar unfortunately the bottom of teh step were bricked up so we couldn't get any further which was a shame. Before putting the floor boards back we left some messages for the next person to find.
ReplyDeleteAmazing that people would actually hide such a beautiful inglenook hearth - thank goodness your dh was insistent on opening up the wall. What a grand find! All I've found around our house is a buried bicycle seat, old rusty chains, and the remainder of the builder's rumble!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful treasure you found behind that wall Clare, wow! And it looks just wonderful and warm and cosy with your gorgeous little black woodburner now!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog and leaving the nice comment on my little green machine! :)
ReplyDeleteConni
Before the woodcutter and I started going out we bought houses next door to each othe, both to be renovated. In his house he took three fire places out before he finally reached the original one. However it wasn't quite as big as your fireplace, but a fantastic find never the less.
ReplyDeleteWow, what an amazing find! The fireplace is gorgeous. You're very lucky. Unfortunately there is nothing exciting to find in our place as it's rented and 1970s! But I'm hoping for a place in the future with secrets to find.
ReplyDeleteOh! Talk about hidden treasure! Lucky you!
ReplyDeleteWish we could come over and have tea by the fire with you...It looks so cozy.
Nice blog. I enjoyed visiting.
God bless.
Terri
How lucky! I have an old home too and we heat with the wood stove as much as we can, but it sure doesn't have the gorgeous set up you do with the old bricks!!!
ReplyDeleteoh wow, i just noticed the wonderful fabric covered chest of drawers in the photo! DROOL!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's beautiful and so very cozy indeed. What an amazing find. I bet your husband was really relieved when he saw that he was spot on correct, and didn't make a big mess for nothing. What an amazing discovery!
ReplyDeleteallie from minneapolis
www.mycozyhome.typepad.com
How warm and cozy looking.
ReplyDeleteAhh, yes, Jane's blog! I knew I'd read about an inglenook, not too long ago. It sent me on a search, for the exact meaning of the word.
Mari-Nanci
Oh how wonderful, Clare! Luck you to have brought this beauty back to life! Can you believe we are in the middle of doing the exact same thing? Of course, our home is not nearly as old (ca. 1890), but we had a feeling that there was 'something' burid behind our dining room wall...and there was! One of the original fireplaces! Lots of work still to do...but seeing your 'finished' job gives me hope! Thank you for sharing this magnificent find! It's beautiful! :)
ReplyDeleteWow, what a beautiful discovery!
ReplyDeleteHow exciting it must have been to find such a treasure! May you enjoy it for many years to come.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy reading your posts. I will be visiting often :)
Now the girl with blue in her eyes
ReplyDeleteShe's back laughing, am still wondering, why I was captured by her eyes?
OMGosh! How incredible. You are so very lucky to have found this. It is simply gorgeous. xoxo
ReplyDeleteawesome .. this is sooo cool .. loved the antique fireplace .. surely is a treasure.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful discovery. I'm so glad we have a woodburner in our house. Its a shame it has not been lit more often. I have been too busy keeping the rayburn alight. I'm much bettter now and so took the chance to light the woodburner as well over easter, it was lovely. Glad your shop is doing well it looks lovely. I have been very sad not to get the chance to look at blogs more often the last month and leave more comments. The diy list is getting smaller and I can concentrate again and have time for blogging.
ReplyDelete