Saturday, April 10, 2010

Shropshire family discover church under their home

I saw this in the Shropshire Star a few days ago, but did not realise what a remarkable discovery it was until a reader sent me a link to the report on newslite (slogan "It barely qualifies as news", which seems rather unfair) and its photos.

It begins:

An inquisitive family have uncovered a bizarre church which has been hidden under their Victorian home in Shropshire for 100 years.

The Farla family made the discovery while investigating what was under a metre-long rectangle metal grid in their hallway.

The hole under the grid was just big enough for son Gareth, 20, to squeeze down and see what was under their living room.

And he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the dark chapel complete with a large wooden cross on the floor.

But that was nothing compared the the shock the rest of the family got when he followed a staircase in the chapel and came out of a cupboard in the dining room.

4 comments:

ceedee said...

Miraculously, the Daily Mail (I feel dirty now!) picked up the story just a couple of hours after newslite.

I suspect the first comment there offers a mundane solution to the mystery...

(Oh, and the newslite link should point here, btw.)

Jonathan Calder said...

Thanks, it does point there now. Blogger really hated the colon news:lite, so I have left it out.

That first comment in the Mail does rather spoil the story.

Paul said...

Let me through, I'm an architectural historian.

It is a cellar.

ceedee said...

Haha! Nice one, Paul.

Notice that raised concrete bed on the left of some of the shots?
That's called a stillage and is where the barrels lie.