Mystery writing found on Keighley historic house cupboard door
The previously unseen words at East Riddlesden Hall look to date back to 1765
Last updated 12 hours ago
A mystery's been uncovered at the National Trust's East Riddlesden Hall in Keighley.
Writing has been found on the back of a cupboard door - never seen before and with no record of the graffiti in the historic house's archives.
Bosses say it seems to suggest it's around 260 years old and could be a shopping list, as it looks like it mentions milk.
Amy Gregory is the Collections and House Officer at the site: "We were doing a routine inspection and just spotted while the light was casting on it, that there was some writing on there that we've never seen before.
"By putting a bright light in it, we've managed to figure out that it says January 6th, 1765, milk 4, then we think either Mr. or Mrs. something, one half, and then the rest is a bit of a blur. It's very light, so it's quite difficult for us to read."
Amy admits they're not sure who wrote it - or when it was done, "It is a mystery. It might be from 1765. It might have been later. There was tenants in the hall at a later period. They might have been playing a joke on someone and decide, I'll put some interesting writing in that cupboard, see if someone finds it one day."
They're now hoping that scientists may be able to study the door to get a better idea about where it came from, Amy added, "It'd be interesting for us to kind of fully understand what it says, to then put it into the picture of the whole history.
"The hall has so many mysteries. It's not actually very well documented. Just today we met with an architectural historian who brought up lots of new theories about the whole that we haven't even thought about before. So we're always interested in uncovering things. For example, last year, a floorboard collapse upstairs and it uncovered some wallpaper that brought us to understand how that room was used in the tenant period. So we're always uncovering things and piecing together the hall's mysterious history."