I just wanted to fix a rough patch of floor, and seem to have found where my house once had a cistern.

bodies.

Stir of Echoes

coal furnace? sump pump?

There had been an oil-burning furnace on this spot before i bought the house, that was the rough patch i wanted to fix. It's entirely possible that there was originally coal heat - there's space that could have been the coal bin, but if there was a coal delivery chute it must have been taken out when switching to oil.