An interesting discovery about my French larder .....

[woolybanana]

in a Tudor house in England.

OK, here's the story; this house has a good sized utility room off the kitchen but it is about 18 inches lower than the kitchen (and hence partly below ground level) and has a much lower ceiling - in fact the doorway is a real head banger unless one is aware.

The result is a room which is significantly cooler than the rest of the house.

Given that the house seems to have been built about 70 years ago, it seemed odd because I had never seen such a room before in a house like this.

So, why build it? Was it simply a left over from a previous building which had been lower and perhaps damper?

Anyway, on my last trip to UK, we went to the Tudor house and farm known as Mary Arden's house, just down the road from Ann Hathaway's place and a short cart ride from Stratford.

What did I find in the back (north facing) side of the main house, off the kitchen, but a sunken room, set out as a larder and preparation room. And cooler than the rest of the house, unheated and not subject to heat from the fires.

Eureka, thinks I, yet another idea that the French took from the Tudors, my own cool room built before refrigeration came about. (And, before buying a new fridge when I moved in, I was very glad of the cool room.)

Which leaves the problem of the date of the original room and, perhaps more importantly, the secret of the HIDDEN ROOM.

[Patf]

Sorry my mistake - I thought  the room was in France.

No idea if in England.

[woolybanana]

It is in France, the larder I mean, as well as the hidden room.

[Patf]

Oh - well my original guess was a WW2 hiding place.

Could be for people - Resistants, Jews, other French oponents of the German invaders, members of the allied forces who had got stuck etc.

Or for the family's treasures, to stop the nazi invaders from taking them.

Or just an air-raid shelter.

[Yonner]

We have a room similar to what you describe - maybe slightly lower sunk - but half in half out of the ground. Its vaulted ceiling supports the floor to my workshop. To us its always been a wine cellar.

Temperatures range from minus 20 to plus 40 round here ( not in the same month) and this room, according to the max min thermometer, is always between plus 5-10 degrees.

It contains several old barrels, and a huge half barrel of the sort old pictures show folks stomping grapes in, which will not fit through the door ( the barrel, not the old folks) so must have either been built in there or gone in first.

I also keep paint in it now, to stop it freezing over winter and becoming useless.

[woolybanana]

Thank you Patf and Yonner. Will try and investigate both possibilities.