Students discover 19th century cave under their rented house

A group of university students were stunned to discover a 200-year-old CAVE lurking underneath their rented house.

The friends only made the incredible discovery after workmen who were installing new emergency lighting left a door unlocked on the ground floor.

They went down to explore the cellar before they found a door leading to another set of stairs which took them to the 6ft by 4ft cave below.

Experts have now confirmed the surprising discovery dated back to the 19th century and was probably used as a domestic cellar in the 1800s.

MORE: Pothole crisis to hit ‘unprecedented levels’ warns RAC
MORE: Woman phoned RSPCA over ‘trapped bird’ that turned out to be a smoke alarm

One of the students who found the cave said the group were spooked when they first went down the stairs at their terraced house in Sherwood, Nottingham.

Stephanie Bennett, 20, who is studying broadcast journalism at Nottingham Trent University, added: “It was quite exciting but we all had to go down together because we were all afraid of what we might have found.

“We’d like to keep it open because it’s quite cool having a cave.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do with it yet and we haven’t had any parties down there yet.”

Nottingham City Council acting archaeologist Scott Lomax, who confirmed the discovery, said: “Although small in size, it is interesting in providing further details about the use of caves in the city.

“It has rock cut thralls (benches) on all four sides which would have been used as shelves to store food and/or drink on.

“There is also a rock-cut recessed shelf for storage.”

Nottingham, which is largely built on sandstone, has more than 700 caves from the 18th and 19th centuries but the earliest have been dated back to as far as 1250.

The cave at the students’ house will now be recorded on an official database which is used to conduct further research.

Top pic: SWNS