The 16th Century coach house hidden in a cellar

The coach house had been completely buried back in 1889

At an unassuming address in Hastings is a hidden cellar, containing the long-lost remains of a 16th Century coach house.

The current owners of the property on Swan Avenue found it after uncovering a trapdoor beneath a rug in the dining room shortly after moving in.

Dark, cavernous and seemingly untouched for generations, it turned out to have once been part of an historic local pub called The Swan Inn.

"The coach house was completely buried in 1889 and this whole street built on top of it," said David Clegg, who bought the house with Steven Short a few years ago.

"The trapdoor weighs a ton and when we first got it open it was impossible to see what the cellar was like," he told Secret Sussex.

"It was pitch black down there and smelt terrible - we didn't venture inside for about six months."

Four and half metres below what is now street level, the subterranean space's barrel vaulted ceilings and cobble stone floors are a very real reminder of life in a bygone age.

"It's filled with little stories, this space," said Mr Clegg, who is thinking of turning it into an underground garden of sorts.

"We've even had mediums contact us wanting to do seances down here."