A questioner said:

We pulled down a false wall in the cellar of our 1857 house and found this! What is it? Any idea?

May be an image of water heater and hearth.

Some of the people comments about this found were:

How come no one talking about the tea kettle that’s just suspended in the air.

Weird it was covered.

My mother cooked on one of these, she made amazing meals, also bread and cakes, Friday was bake day. We lived on the moors in the borders of England and Scotland. I now live in western Maryland, US.

Excellent find, too bad it was not a treasure chest

That is beautiful. An antique dealer will give you quite a lot of money for that. I wouldn’t move it or touch it until I talk to antique dealers.

Wooooow lucky you I would be over the moon and use it with pride … I remember staying with my nan at weekends she had one and remember her having an iron on there to do her ironing … and doing toast on the fire it was lovely… lucky you.

So the original kitchen may have been in the cellar or it was the kitchen for the servants. Love it
I’d leave it right there. Dust it off. Then design around it. It would be the focal point of your room.

It appears like they intentionally closed up the fireplace with stove and kettles intact for a future find like this. As a builder/contractor we almost always leave little mementoes or time capsules in the wall or closed off portions of the build. We often include owners information and pictures as well as our information. Coins from the year we did the project. Even bran new tape measures or hammers. Sometimes I’ve included brief essays on current events or political thoughts. It’s fun.

Do you think this was original kitchen?

Wow! They left the tea pots in there!!

I used to black lead one of these for my gran, when I was a child. Of black lead can still be bought ot will come up like new.

That old black grate is in great condition. So what are you going to do with it?

What are your thoughts?

Owning an old house often feels like holding a piece of history in your hands. Each creak and groan of the floorboards, each worn corner, and each weathered brick tells a story. When we bought our 1857 home, we knew it had secrets. Little did we know that one of its most remarkable stories was waiting to be uncovered behind a false wall in the cellar.