Talk to me about Cellars

MonkeySaving?

Hi all, we've just moved into a new (albeit built in 1876), house which has a cellar. The cellar is quite bizarre as there is a well in the centre of the floor covered by a flagstone (no history of flooding). First thing to go down there was the Beko upright freezer however what other storage options do I have for this, particularly of the food type? There are meat hooks down there but i don't think i'll be hanging a hog!
TIA

WeegieWumman

A house built in the 19th century? And you say it has a cellar? OMG!!! Don't you ever watch horror films??
The meat hooks were used for hanging the multiple murder victims. Don't lift the flagstone that covers the well because it's the gateway to hell and the !!!!!s will try to come out to get you at halloween Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!

doelani

MonkeySaving? wrote: »

The cellar is quite bizarre as there is a well in the centre of the floor covered by a flagstone (no history of flooding). First thing to go down there was the Beko upright freezer

I acually read that as you had put the Beko FF down then well lol

Owain_Moneysaver

You could rent the cellar out to the fetish market ...

MonkeySaving?

Lol @ the replies! All i get on a google search is people making "root cellars", i'm all for a bit of rooting, but not in the cellar thanks . Tell me what i can store in this hole besides coal please

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

We live in an old early victorian house and have a cellar too,have'nt got a well but we do have a drainage hole in the centre of the floor covered by a grid.
I guess its incase of flooding but since we live uphill I guess we should'nt have a problem :rotfl:.
You can store almost anything if its not damp.
Fridges and freezers are ok.
We put some old kitchen units in ours to store stuff and we keep anything from tinned stuff to unopened dried stuff.
Best to keep everything off the floor,stone floors can get very damp and cold.
Get some racks and store your fruit and veg.
Mine keeps realy well down there,better than in the fridge.
Keep all your excess cleaning stuff and pet foods down there too.
In this house anything we have'nt got room for or is too heavy to put in the loft gets put in the cellar.
Not sure what you can do with the meat hooks though:eek:.

CRANKY40

I wouldn't store anything direct on the floor. Can you get a couple of breeze blocks or something to put your freezer on? My house was built in 1892...it has a cellar and we live on top of a hill. When we had that really bad storm at the end of August, the rain was so torrential that all the outside drains were blocked by the force of the water (man holes were popping into the air further down the hill) and there was several inches of water in the cellar.

It disappeared as fast as it came due to the cellar having an earth floor, but if I had anything of value in there it would have been ruined. Ok so this was a one off event, I've lived here 9 years and it's never happened before, but I just wanted to alert you to the possibilities.

cte1111

Wine - put up some racks and you're sorted.

babyshoes

Wine would traditionally be stored in cellars because of the constant (fairly low) temperature and humidity levels. Modern wines are not usually designed to be stored for years and years though, so don't bother unless you really know what you are buying! Rather store other stuff that won't be bothered by a bit of damp.

Having never lived in a house with a cellar, I am slightly jealous at all that storage space, though that is somewhat tempered by something I heard the other day - the words 'cellar spider', which apparently has a nasty bite and can make you ill...

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

babyshoes wrote: »

Having never lived in a house with a cellar, I am slightly jealous at all that storage space, though that is somewhat tempered by something I heard the other day - the words 'cellar spider', which apparently has a nasty bite and can make you ill...

I'm nearly 57 and have always lived in a house with a cellar.
I used to play in the cellar as a child for hours on end but have never ever met one of those spiders.
I think someone's having you on babyshoes:rotfl: .

[Deleted User]

We had a cellar in the house I grew up in (it was an old edwardian barn of a place) and mostly coal was kept there or a stock of wood to light the kitchen range (I told you it was old) My Mum hated the place even though it had 13 rooms we all lived on the ground floor as it cost too much to heat the rest of the house.But the part of the cellar that didn't have coal or wood in was for my brothers and I as a playroom.My two brothers made and built things down there, and we had a very large table tennis table that we used not only to play but came in handy for big jigsaw,painting and model making as any mess stayed in the cellar.Bikes were kept there in the bad weather.Only ever saw the occassional spider scuttle away in the autumn and they were probably more frightened of us than we were of them.
If you could afford in then get it lined with plasterboard and turn it into a playroom/spare room/study/hobbies roomThere are endless possibilities. As for wine, who keeps wine for long anymore unless you are a wine buff.