This is just a guess but it reminds me of some old church seats they had up front. It would have had a built up padded cushion. Did you find anything in the hidden compartments? I know 1 church my dad had to do some work in he had to move 2 large angels & a container with some of St. Peters bones- yes that is what he was told. Could hold a book or some artifact of a church would be my guess. Some churches have paneling a lot like that up front.

It looks like a settee for a church. The hinged seat board suggests it was used for storage.

Thanks for the response. I was kind of thinking thats what it looked like as well. I have no clue how old it is though. I haven't figured out how to open the compartment yet unfortunately. The latch on the inside works, but it looks like someone tried doing some repair work on the bench and may have sealed it shut.

Does it require a key to open?

The main latch doesn't require a key to open. The hidden opening on the front has a lever, but it appears to have been sealed during a past restoration

Is there any way to turn it on it's side? You could then see if there was a compartment/drawer or whatever under the seat. Whatever may have been there might have been removed during restoration, in which case the reason for sealing the seat.

This post was edited by justlinda on Sat, Oct 18, 14 at 21:33