Priest Holes - the hidden history of the country house

If you've never heard of them before, priest holes are commonly found in historic houses from the Tudor and Elizabethan period. They are small cupboards, nooks and rooms which were hidden within the walls, ceilings, behind fireplaces, underneath floorboards and basically anywhere you might not think they would be - that was the whole point.

So why would you have a hidden cupboard called a priest hole in your house? well in the 17th century during the reign of Elizabeth I Catholics were heavily persecuted and so those homes which were wealthy enough to have a priest in residence began to hide both their beliefs and their priests so that when houses were searched for "signs of heresy" they wouldn't be persecuted - hence the invention of the priest hole. 

Some were genius feats of engineering, hiding rooms behind wood panelling or a false wooden beam; others were little more than gaps between the floorboards or flue holes in fireplaces. They didn't need lots of space, a bed or even a seat as they were only there for short periods of time. Of course this didn't always happen and there are documented incidents of priests becoming trapped within the holes or even forgotten and so died within their hiding holes.  

Here are a few photographs of priest holes that I thought you might like:

Carlton Towers Hotel

​​

(photo credit: carltontowers.co.uk )

Harvinton Hall

(photo credit: britainexpress.com)

(photo credit: pinterest.com)

Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk

(photo credit: Pinterest.com) 

Sampsons Farm, Nr. Newton Abbot, Devon

​​ (photo credit: sampsonsfarm.com)

Baddesley Clinton

​​(photo credit: glamourinthecounty.com)

I hope you've enjoyed looking at some of the examples of different priest holes across the UK - there are hundreds of other examples that you can see either by clicking on the links that are in the photo credits, or by Googling 'priest holes UK'. I'm sure there are hundreds of others that have simply not been discovered yet. So remember the next time you visit a country house and a floorboard seems oddly hollow or loose - it could just be concealing a hidden space . . . . or it could just be a wobbly floorboard ;)