{"id":3792,"date":"2018-06-14T10:39:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T10:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citylets.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3792"},"modified":"2018-06-19T10:56:23","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T10:56:23","slug":"will-your-house-give-up-its-secret-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citylets.co.uk\/blog\/will-your-house-give-up-its-secret-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Your House Give Up Its Secret Past?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mystery messages found on walls, frames or floorboards of old houses are intriguing to find and provide interesting information about the personal lives and values of people from centuries ago.<\/p>\n

New owners of a French Chateau were startled to find out the deepest secrets of their local villagers in the late 19th<\/sup> century, written on their very own floorboards.<\/p>\n

When replacing the flooring of their newly purchased mansion, they found the underside of the parquet had been used as a secret diary over several months, dating between 1880 and 1881.<\/p>\n

\"joachims-floorboards-mansion\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Image by BBC<\/span><\/center>
\nStories of certain villagers written on the wood<\/strong><\/p>\n

The carpenter, Joachim Martin, who had laid the flooring for the Chateau\u2019s owner at that time, had written the secret notes knowing that they would not be discovered until a long time after his own demise. He revealed shocking facts about local people, including his friend, his father and even the village\u2019s priest.<\/p>\n

He referred to an old childhood friend whose immoral actions appalled him and he wrote of an incident that had happened twelve years prior which still perturbed him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1868 I was passing at midnight before the doorway of a stable. I heard groans. It was the mistress of one of my old friends and she was giving birth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joachim touched on the subject of infanticide, disclosing that his friend\u2019s mistress had given birth to six children, and that four of them had been killed by his friend and were buried in the stable. The carpenter also believed that the man was trying to seduce his own wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis (criminal) is now trying to screw up my marriage. All I have to say is one word and point my finger at the stables, and they\u2019d all be in prison. But I won\u2019t. He\u2019s my old childhood friend. And his mother is my father\u2019s mistress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"joachims-floorboards-writing\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Image by BBC<\/span><\/center> <\/p>\n

Was Joachim trying to relive the burden of this knowledge by writing the events on the floors? He also inferred that villagers were aware of infanticide though nobody would discuss it.<\/p>\n

Anger towards the priest<\/strong><\/p>\n

The carpenter also had serious concerns regarding the local priest, who appeared to take advantage of his position and ask intimate questions regarding married couples\u2019 sex lives.<\/p>\n

The carpenter detailed that the priest himself was a womaniser and that the husbands of the village basically had to keep quiet.<\/p>\n

Boudon\u2019s book \u201cJoachim\u2019s Floorboard\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

A book has been published on the writings found on these floorboards. The historian, Jacques-Olivier Boudon, wrote \u201cLe Plancher de Joachim\u201d (Joachim\u2019s Floorboard) and commented that the priest may have been acting within what he felt was his \u2018duties\u2019;\u00a0 discouraging sex to be carried out unless it was for the purpose of producing a family.<\/p>\n

\"latest-apps\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Boudon also discovered that a petition was formed by the congregation and sent to the local parliamentary depute asking for a new priest. Letters were also given to the depute to support the petition and one of these was from Joachim himself. There were two main points to the petition, firstly they felt that he was abusing his power, and secondly that he was incompetent as a doctor (at that time, priests often acted as healers too \u2013 though many doctors themselves protested about this practice).<\/p>\n

Boudon viewed Joachim Martin as an intelligent and sensible man. The carpenter explained on wood: \u201cMy story is short and sincere and frank, because none but you will see my writing.\u201d Knowing that he would be long dead before anyone read his words, Joachim wrote: \u201cHappy Mortal. When you read this, I shall be no more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mystery messages found on walls, frames or floorboards of old houses are intriguing to find and provide interesting information about the personal lives and values of people from centuries ago. New owners of a French Chateau were startled to find out the deepest secrets of their local villagers in the late 19th century, written on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[430],"class_list":["post-3792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-joachims-floorboard","property"],"yoast_head":"\r\nWill Your House Give Up Its Secret Past? 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