The Cellar!!

Well, it's sort of the cellar by default, as you can only see into it now as the floor has been removed. As you can see, the joists were pretty much all rotten, as we thought, and need replacing. We thought maybe some would be OK but it looks as if they'll all have to go. Seems a shame, but it's all grist to the mill wood for the fire.
The pictures are not brilliant because they were taken with the flash as we couldn't be bothered to take off all the shutters. Still, you get the idea.

One thing that I noticed was the newspaper hanging over the copper water pipe. Presumably this was considered to be enough to prevent it from freezing? I think I'll lag the new one!

The new floor will have a new hatch to allow entry to the cellar, although I don't envisage keeping anything down there. There is a chute into the cellar from the street which was obviously used for delivering coal, as it is blackened with coal dust. Guess this was the fuel for the old Rosieres cooker that was in the kitchen! The chute will remain, to provide ventilation, but with a grill over it to prevent rubbish falling in from the stree.