Inside the idyllic seafront cottage with hidden dark secret

New Brighton seafront is home to many stunning properties, from castle looking buildings to idyllic colourful cottages. The calming and tranquil atmosphere is one of the many reasons people love living here.

But behind the walls of some of its beautiful homes sit hidden tunnels and chilling ‘prison cells.’ Dawn and Steve Quinn, both 52, sold their home in Warrington and moved to New Brighton over two years ago to live beside the water. Dawn had fallen in love with their cottage immediately and put an offer in while Steve was away in Italy.

The pair have loved living there ever since. Dawn told the ECHO: “We originally had wanted somewhere in Wales but couldn't find anything. We knew we wanted to be near water and then we found this place. I love it here.

READ MORE: Derelict and decaying city centre building could be transformed

READ MORE: 'Transformative' homes to be built on banks of River Mersey

“I have so many friends, there are so many groups - this evening there is a group of us going on the beach and having a fire and a get-together with drinks and nibbles - it’s a lovely community. We do lots of groups, everyone is so friendly here I just love it. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I meet so many people. There are so many things going on.”

Not only has Dawn fallen in love with her new life here, but her new home is something she always dreamt of. She said: “The view of the city is fabulous, we come outside and have a coffee and breakfast in the morning and look at the view. We have parties here, it's a bit of a party house. The view from the bedroom is amazing. It's lovely to just watch people as they walk past.

“I love it here, even when it's raining you can just look out. The sky is different all the time and you can see all the cruise ships coming in. You could see Queen Mary from our living room. Our neighbours come round, I absolutely love it, I do not regret moving here for one minute.”

The couple also rent half their home out as a holiday let. Dawn added: “The removal guy when we were moving here said ‘it would be amazing to have a holiday let here’ so we kind of went with it. I worked in education for 28 years then during covid it all changed so we decided to move here and open up.” You can find out more about the holiday let here.

But behind its innocent face, the home has some very interesting quirks, including its own morgue table, jail bars, and secret tunnels. Dawn said: “It was built in 1806 and has a very interesting cellar. There are morgue tables down there and jail bars. We’ve had historians come and look at it but we have no idea what it is.

“We had a water leak and the tiles were loose, my husband moved the tiles out of the way and we found a tunnel underneath the floorboards. We have found things in the cellar too, there were handkerchiefs with lipstick marks that were found in a stocking with a bra in the middle of it.

“There are jail bars in the corner and a cooking area. I bet these walls can tell some stories. My husband found a secret room that was bricked up with another slightly larger morgue table. Underneath the table, we have found an engraving of something that could be a religious kind of meeting place.

“It’s a very interesting house. You can see the footfall of hundreds of people coming down the stairs over the years. It’s a crazy house but we absolutely love it here.”

Dawn’s husband, Steve, added: “There are so many people from different walks of life. There is an openness and care around the place like nowhere else. We have been here for two and a half years now and we have far more friends here than we ever had in our lives. We love it. It's crazy too, I think someone got off the bus thinking it was Brighton and not New Brighton and they said it’ll do, you get all the same flamboyant people. It's great. It's stunning.

“I was just chatting to a bloke called Carl, I’d never met him in my life and we were talking for 30 minutes - he was saying the same thing.”

The ECHO's Where I Live series explores one property from across the region each week, with its owner giving us an insight into what makes a house a home. Do you want to have your home featured in Where I Live? If so, please email: megan.banner@reachplc.com