"Lobster" wrote in message
...
wrote:
I own an old Victorian house that has a coal chute that leads into the
cellar. The chute cover is made of cast iron and has a number of holes
through it, possibly for ventilation (???). When it rains, water can
pass through the holes into the cellar. Will this cause problems with
damp?

Dunno; presumably if it's been like this for 100+ years it would have
happened by now?

Reminds of a tale... a few years back a friend was walking down a street
nearby late one night, chatting to someone walking with him and vaguely
aware of a woman on the far side of the road walking a dog. Suddenly
there's a shriek from across the road and an almight racket from the
dog... they immediately look up, but the woman has just completely
vanished into thin air: they can still hear the dog going totally
ape-****, and muffled wails coming from the direction the woman had been,
but no sign of her whatsoever.

Fearing a possible alien abduction, the friend crosses the road and finds
that the old dear has fallen straight down a coal chute in the pavement,
which someone had left the cover off. She was a large lady, and was
totally wedged in, about halfway down; with the dog having gone down
afterwards and landed on top of her.

Apparently the extraction ended up being a fire-brigade job; she wasn't
injured other than a few cuts and bruises.

It's a strange place for a coal chute - in a pavement! They've always been
in the wall (i.e. vertical) in the houses I've live in which had coal
cellars.

Mary