Cellar Hole Survey Newsletter #9 December 2025
No Front Door?
Greetings Canterbury history enthusiasts,
The Question
This small foundation is at the point where two roads converge at a small angle. It is 2 feet from one road, and 11 feet from the other. But there is no evidence of a front door. How did this happen?
The Site
Joseph and Jane Pallet were early settlers associated with this section of Canterbury, known as PalletBorough as late as 1885, and now just the Borough. This site was built upon a part of the original 40 acre Home Lot #75 granted in 1731 to David Davis, a Proprietor. The construction of the house that once occupied this site is lost in the dust of time. Built probably before 1811.
The History of the Roads
The earliest record we have points to the fact the road first laid out in this part of Canterbury was along a north-south rangeway that was a couple hundred feet to the east of our site. This was around 1766. Over the years, several homesteads were established on Borough Road north of our site, but the south part of the rangeway passed through land unsuitable for a home and was never built upon.
The family who did build here had every reason to believe the road they found was correctly located in the rangeway. And moreover, the land there was better than the land to the east. So their house was erected with what would be the front of the house facing a road to the west. In the photo above there is a hint of how close their road was to the house: 2 or 3 feet!. Could the front door have been there? Maybe, but who wants to step out of the house into the road?
We surmise that their building and settling near the prosperous neighborhood up on the hill seemed like a good idea. And maybe they prospered.
On June 25, 1811 the location of Borough Road was moved westward and now passed only a few feet east of the foundation of their house. The perfect location for a more suitable new front door. However, following custom, a stone wall bordering the road was constructed, barely 5 feet from the house. No front door there. No cooperation from the town was offered!
The Documentation Crew’s Discovery
Arriving over 200 years after the road was moved, and after a couple of hours of the work of many hands, we found flat stones on the skinny south side of the house indicative of a door opening there. Our success. But it must have been uncomfortable to have the only house in Canterbury to have no front door! But that is what we found.
Oh! Before I forget. Tthe answer to last month’s quiz. When the tank filled with maple sap was pulled up this ramp, the sap could flow by gravity into the sugar house evaporators on each side of the ramp.