It's not very often on my travels I'm lost for words.. but this was one of those days. I had taken a wrong turn on my way to another explore and out of the corner of my eye I saw what I thought to be the front of an old chemist shop, I came to a screeching halt, which I Really need to stop doing! and dumped the car on the kerb. From what I could see, the shop front was all that was left of what looked to be an old Chemist. As I peared through the painted windows all I could see was a massive pile of rubble,.. no shop. Curiosity has always gotten the better of me and before I knew it I was squeezing through a small gap and came face to face with a mountain of bricks. I could see a few remnants of what had been old advertising signs and bits and bobs strewn amongst the rubble so I proceeded to clamber over the mountain to see what I could find. In front of me was a big hole in the ground, I crouched down and sort of slid in a very ladylike fashion towards the hole,. I honestly sat there staring for a good few minutes at what was before me until I really quickly snapped out of it and thought hell I need to get in there now!!!
I'm not even sure how I did it but in true kamikaze style i slid towards the hole and before I knew it ide hit the bottom.
I looked around and I realised I was in the cellar of what used to be the old chemist.. if this was heaven, ide just arrived.
Bottles and Ceremic pots filled the shelves and the floor, some buried in the dust, just their necks showing.
Some still had their contents in bursting out of their lids and corroded to the bottles.
Tiny little green and blue poison bottles hid behind huge ones, pots of liquids and creams balancing precariously on rotton shelves, one push and the whole lot would come tumbling down.
Old crates piled high with empty bottles that never got taken out and filled, an old cash bag that once held old pennies and the takings of a good day lay on a shelf covered in dust and consumed by darkness for decades..
Beautiful Latin writing of what the bottles held, Carefully written on a label and then tied with string, I always knew I should of listened more at school.. Before I knew it darkness was drawing in and it was time for me to get myself out and back to reality. With the help of a pallet and resembling a coal miner I dragged my self out of the hole in the ground and into the fresh air. As I sat in my car I couldn't help but wonder how busy the little chemist would of been, the shopkeepers with their little black pinnys and white hats climbing up and down the stone stairs making medicines and remedies for the surrounding villages.. what it looked like, why and when it shut,. After researching it the shop closed around the 1950s and was taken over by another chemist who sealed the cellar up and it was only discovered when in 2022 the workmen pulled the chemist down and while digging they found it. Due to the chemicals in there I believe a proper licence is needed to remove it all and that costs money, so to this day, the hole in the ground is still there awaiting its fate..
