Harvington Hall priest hole challenge causes panic attack
Priest holes were created in houses to hide Catholic priests through times of religious persecution during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and James I.Harvington Hall has seven of them in total, including a swinging beam hide and bread oven hide.Discussing his experience, Mr Downing said: "It's extremely difficult. I only had one apple while I was in there and a few slices of bread."The thing is, it's so dark in there and it's so dirty you don't actually want to eat anything, you just want to drink."
Mr Downing said he had not expected it to be "so hot" despite only being dressed in a night shirt. He added: "There's no natural light whatsoever. "There's a viewing window which we black out, the light bulbs are taken out and the beam, it isn't flush to the wall, but what we do is put a black cloth material all the way around it so it completely seals it in. "It's completely pitch black."Detailing his health after the challenge, Mr Downing said he was suffering from a sore shoulder and arm, as well as a "seriously bruised" coccyx bone.
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