Vape shop trapdoor hid 700-year-old mysterious crypt in UK — until manager found it
A mysterious surprise lurked beneath the floor of a vape shop in the U.K. — until the store manager had to check the gas meter.
Sam Jessop, the store manager of Evapo e-cigarette shop in Maidstone, recently needed to take a gas reading, he told the BBC. He opened the basement’s trap door and walked down the steps.
“It was like going into a different world,” he told KMTV, a TV station based in Kent. “As soon as you go down that trapdoor, it looks like you’ve gone back in time.”
Below the shop, Jessop found a stone crypt with vaulted ceilings, videos from KMTV show.
The chamber was likely built in 1331 as part of a monastery, local historian Simon White told Express U.K.
Although its exact purpose remains unknown, the nearly 700-year-old crypt may have housed corpses and coffins, the BBC reported.
“It could’ve been for nefarious purposes like smuggling or escape routes for the gentry, but it may also have been used to dispose of bodies during the tuberculosis outbreak, as it would be somewhere where they couldn’t contaminate people,” White told Express U.K.
The space has likely been adapted and reused over time, Jessop told the outlet. “It’s a real hodgepodge of different periods,” he said. “There’s stuff from the 1600s to 1700s, and then modern parts that have been added later on.”
“There’s also electrical cables down there, an old oil radiator, a big iron ring mounted in the ceiling, a fireplace, and what looks like some sort of grill,” he told the outlet. “There are all sorts of things here, there and everywhere.”
The mysterious crypt may have been part of a larger underground network of tunnels and basements, White told KMTV. More forgotten structures have been found underneath businesses in the Maidstone area, the historian said.
“For people coming to Maidstone, it’d be nice if they realized the great history we have here,” White told the BBC, “and that most of it is buried under the streets.”
Maidstone is in the region of Kent and about 35 miles southeast of London.
This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Vape shop trapdoor hid 700-year-old mysterious crypt in UK — until manager found it."
