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Cistern is a distinct possibility.
One other would be:
A fat-bellied cast iron stove for heating or cooking.
A house I lived in up north had a similar set up. There was a concrete chamber at the foot of the original unit so, during a vicious blizzard, you could dump the old ash into the chamber below and reload wood without having to go out into the cold.
The scratches, therefore would be from the shovel or whatever tool was periodically used to empty the cooled ash refuse from the chamber.
One more possibility, that I have actually seen in real life.
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