Description: Interior, one of the bedrooms showing the fireplace with secret cupboards above it. The panels which once covered these recesses are now missing. In the small room through the door on the left is a chimney which leads from the cave under the house. The following is from the Nottingham Guardian of 27 February 1933 (Mr Campion is G.F. Campion, archaeologist). Mr. Campion points out that the house 'Was built over caves which date back to the time when Nottingham was a place of 'Cave-dwellers'. He found that the steps leading to the, caves made an opening 30 feet long, 25 feet deep and 15 feet wide, and at the bottom caves branched out in all directions. The caves were in existence long before the house was built. They had been dug out of sandstone at the foot of a natural cliff which was 12 feet in height. Concerning the historical side of the house, Mr. Campion recalls that the first town wall was built around the high land east of Bridlesmith-gate - the oldest part of Nottingham - during the reign of Edward the Elder. The cliff above the cave referred to was the site of this wall, which meant that the entrance to the cave was outside the city. The old town gradually began to outgrow its walls, and dwellings were built on the outside of the wall, which acted as a dividing wall between the Anglo-Saxons, who dwelt in the old town on the east, and the Normans who occupied the west, or the 'new town.' It was the Normans who enlarged Nottingham so as to extend it as far as the Castle. The cave in Bridlesmith-gate endured until the 16th century, when it was brick-arched over and a house was erected, this being the building which has just been demolished. Its east end was built on to the old town wall, and it is interesting to note that the base up to the first sill, was constructed out of stone of any shape that was available. From that point the old narrow red, hand-made hard-baked, badly-burned brick was used, a tile roofing being added. The interior was exceptionally quaint, and in the garden it is still possible to see a portion of the old town wall behind some outhouses. As is the case with many old buildings, the Tudor house in Bridlesmith-gate has many ghost stories associated with it. Tradition states that about 70 years ago the maid of the house went into the cellar to fetch some ale. She was startled and ran up into the house shouting that there was a ghost in the cellar. Nothing could be found, but a few days later a similar experience befell the son of the house. A search party was organised, and tallow fat was found on one of the barrels of ale in the cellar, one of which had been moved. When this barrel was moved away from the cave side, a newly made hole was revealed. This was just large enough for a man to crawl through, and as the path led to other cave cellars, it was obvious that a neighbour had been wandering from cellar to cellar and drinking other people's beer! Despite this revelation the cave below the house is still reputed to be haunted, and it has been declared quite recently that rumblings could be heard, although this is likely to be caused by trains that pass through the tunnel a little to the east of the cave. Mr. Campion's experience while taking flash light photographs of the house carry the subject further. 'It was a very dark night, but I had a friend with me, he writes. 'When everything had been arranged for the first photograph on the ground floor, I ordered lights out and exposed the lens of my Camera. It seemed extraordinarily dark and eerie, and just at that moment I heard a sound upstairs as though someone were walking. 'My friend asked me what it was, and I told him it was a ghost. I pressed the trigger of my flash apparatus, but the powder did not ignite, and just at that moment I heard my friend shout 'Oh!' and I heard a noise at the same moment. 'In the dark I groped about and closed my lens, at the same time switching on my electric torch. Then saw that my friend had tumbled through the floor up to his waist! I found that an old well had been filled up and the floor bricks had been put down again. When the fillings under the bricks had sunk, the bricks gave way under the weight of my friend's feet.