The cellars beneath an estate agents in the town centre of Louth have only just been re-discovered having lain there for about 150 years with no-one paying them a visit in at least two decades.
The dank cellars serve as a reminder of when the building was used as a pub many years ago. Something, Peter Mountain, the owner of the estate agents which now occupy the site of was already aware of. What has surprised him is the extent of the network of underground spaces. He said: "I knew the building was originally a pub, so it was no surprise that it should have cellars, but I had no idea that they were as extensive and fitted out at these are."
 | | Peter Mountain below his Louth offices |
He explained that the cellars appear almost endless with some surprising twists and turns. He said: "It's incredible, it turns at right angles and goes under the road to the front with the vaults going at least halfway across it." The cellars were recorded on an archaeological report in the 1980s and their re-discovery has attracted interest from local historians including David Robinson who has researched them in detail.
 | | A feature of the cellars |
He's particularly interested in the system of record-keeping workers in the cellar would have used. This included carving numbers into half-brick ends of shelf supports to help the workers with stock-taking. The system of caverns is all the more remarkable because nearly all the original features are still in place, with the addition of something else, it's own stalagtytes. The only thing missing from this creepy grotto is a ghost, but who knows what the history books might turn up?
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