Advice on old cellar please

[longdogs]

Hi all

I will be moving soon to an Edwardian house which has a cellar with a soil floor. The walls are stone and the ceiling lathe & Plaster. It is only accessable from the garden via some steps and a kind of home made bulkhead door. Sorry no pics available.

I understand that this type of cellar was originally used for storing vegetables and plants etc.

What I would like to know is if it can be turned into a proper storage area for garden tools. Maybe some paving on the soil floor?

I think it has a drain in there somewhere and ventilation grills.

I also noticed an open ended iron pipe sticking out of the wall, approx. 3"" dia. It appears to go under the house towards the street. Does anyone know if this would also be ventilation or should I be expecting surface water to come out of it?

This type of cellar is completely new to me as I have always lived in modern houses so any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers guys

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

What height above ground is your mystery pipe? Could be that it was roof water feeding a cistern.
Frank

 

[longdogs]

What height above ground is your mystery pipe? Could be that it was roof water feeding a cistern.
Frank

Hi Frank

At a guess, I would say about head height 6ft maybe

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

I did not realise that people lath and plastered their garden stores! first point . It will be at the outside temperature so its ceiling needs to be insulated (or underneath the ground floor floorboards).
I suspect that under that earth floor lurks the remains of a brick floor. Also in those days coppers were used for washing in (complete with a flue), so this might have been removed.
You can water proof it and lay a solid floor if you want, turn it into a bedroom for your MIL.
Frank