THE MYSTERY OF THE UPSTAIRS CHIMNEY

15 Feb 2018

I realised a while ago that the chimney breast was in a different place upstairs compaired to where it was downstairs, so last friday I decided to have a look.  

It was NOT what I was expecting...

I was really baffled by what I found.  The actual stack is the bit on the right.  The bit on the left appeared to be a brick box built into the side of the chimney, overhanging the room downstairs.

I honestly feared I would find someone's granny bricked up in there.. (It was about the right size to hide a short person)

And it was solid, hitting it with a hammer and chisel took some time, as the top layer was cement.  I made sure I wasn't alone before I went any further, but..

..it turned out someone had just built an extra fireplace upstairs.. and then bricked it up.  I was still baffled, but relieved I hadn't just uncovered a murder scene!

The little fireplace wasn't useable, because it was on the first floor and the entire left hand side of that brickwork was resting on 400 year old wooden floor joists. I was amazed whoever built this failed to burn the house down!  I was even more amazed that the floor hadn't collapsed under the weight!

It was causing a huge issue, so it had to go.  But it did mean I had a lot more space upstairs than I had anticipated...