Have you ever wondered what might be lurking inside the walls of your home? No, we’re not referring to ghosts, but rather forgotten treasures that may have been left there years before, completely undisturbed until someone discovers them. If you’ve got an old house, or recently moved into an old property, you might think twice about what’s inside after seeing these unique discoveries.
A medieval well
Colin Steer in Plymouth, England, had always wondered why his living room floor dipped in the middle, so he started digging. Three days and 17 feet later, he figured out why.
His home was sitting on top of a medieval well. Further research and excavation revealed that the well dated back to the 16th century and went down 33 feet. Crews also uncovered a sword that must have been tossed in centuries earlier.
“I love the well and think it’s fascinating,” Colin told The Telegraph in August 2012. “I’d love to find out who was here before us. I’ve got a piece of Plymouth’s history in my front room.”
A ‘mammoth’ discovery
In July 2010 a man (identified only as “John” by ABC News) in Oskaloosa, IA, was walking with his two sons looking for blueberries near their creek. One of the sons noticed something that appeared to look like a ball—but upon closer inspection, John, who has an interest in archeology, noticed a marrow line at the top of the object. They began digging and discovered something big. When they finished, John was holding a 4-foot long femur, which is believed to have come from a mammoth that lived 12,000 years ago.
Love letters
Homeowners uncovered a WWI soldier’s love letters found hidden behind their attic wall. The letters were discovered by a contractor who was hired to redo their bathroom. The contractor found letter after letter hidden in the attic wall.
They dated back to July 1918 from a man named Clement to his love, named Mary.
“I thought we had ghosts, like I said at first, because these letters just kept appearing,” said homeowner Phil Mathies. “You know, we go up there one day and the next day you come up and here comes another batch of letters. Until we find out the contractor was the one that had found them.”
The homeowners tracked down Clement’s relatives and found out he did eventually end up with his true love, Mary.
“Those letters really convey what he lived in his life and how he felt about our Aunt Mary,” said Nancy Teder. How the letters ended up in the walls is unknown, but Mary and Clement’s relatives say they’re glad they were saved.
A Secret kitchen
Shrouded in a thick layer of dust and hidden under piles of debris, a complete Victorian kitchen lay forgotten for more than a generation.
Archie Graham-Palmer and his wife Philippa discovered the incredible time capsule when they began rummaging in the basement of the family home.
Archie believes the basement kitchen with its double ranges at Wrexham’s Cefn Park house was last used briefly during World War II. And when they started to prepare the room for renovation at the 19th Century home they found an array of Victorian utensils in the cupboards, along with a 1911 cookbook.
Dead Chickens
During renovations in February 2015, the dream home of the Bretzius family in Auburn, PA, quickly escalated into a real-life nightmare when they discovered their 1930s house had been insulated with dead chickens in the walls, along with spices and other “ritualistic objects.” Why? Experts theorized it was a form of Dutch folk magic known as Pow-wow, meant to ward off sickness.
“We were shocked, horrified, and disgusted,” Bretzius told WNEP News—even more so when she learned that excavating the carcasses would cost $20,000.
A former czar
A rare Faberge figurine found hidden in a deceased retiree’s upstate New York attic sold at auction on the 4th of November 2013 for over $5.2million.
Dated to 1912, the figurine portrays a known personal bodyguard to royalty and was given by Czar Nicholas II to his wife only years before his death at the hands of Bolshevik revolutionaries.
A bomb
A ‘bewildered’ homeowner got the shock of his life when he discovered a suspected World War II bomb in his back garden.
The man, who wishes to just go by his first name of John, stumbled across the device while renovating his home in Swinton. He had hired a team of builders to dig up his garden and load up a skip with rubbish.
John told the Manchester Evening News: “While they were digging to scoop it into the wheelbarrow they found what appeared to be a World War II ordinate.
“I prodded it a bit, but it’s not something that happens every day so you don’t know what to do. “I called 999 and they took it pretty seriously. “It’s from so many decades ago – if the wind had blown slightly differently it wouldn’t be there, but it was.”
The bomb is now safely disposed of and John has gone back to renovating his property.
Comic
A lucky find of a £1.5million comic book enabled a US couple to keep their home from debtors.
The vintage comic book is set to raise up to £1.5million in an auction. They discovered the comic while rummaging through boxes in the attic of their home.
Within it were about 50 boxes with a few comics without much value, along with the prized book which cost just 10 cents when it was originally bought.
Sources:
https://lifebuzz.com/house-findings/