The Restoration Responsibility

What happens to the historic houses running into disrepair which fall between the cracks of being rescued by the likes of English Heritage or The National Trust? There are many which are simply people’s beloved homes, dotted around our countryside and part of the fabric of our history, left to the whim and resources of whoever’s hands they fall into.

We see new owners as the guardians of a house and every decision from bringing the stonework detail back to its former glory to replacing a fire surround feels like a responsibility to the building.

Project teams always agree that we want to do the best for the building, to keep it authentic, make it useable for modern life so that it is reinvented and set up for the next few hundred years.

An old door arch was re-discovered and opened to the garden beyond

A client who is aligned with this vision and prepared to invest is a lifeline to any historic property in need of care and attention as well as a joy to work with.

Although a house may have effectively ‘held itself together’ over hundreds of years, the moment you really get stuck into it with investigations for serious plumbing, complex lighting and equipment, it reveals more of itself and its history and needs skilled handling.

Weeks down the line it is often redefined as a restoration project and there are many discussions around how far one goes with it, some of these choices are optional, many essential and nearly all, expensive.

More often than not, the buyer underestimates what they are taking on and a substantial ‘contingency’ is vital in terms of time and budget. Supplies and costs have rocketed in recent years and many last undertook works in the good old days of easier logistics, and smooth supply chains.

This is the very real conversation we have with our clients early on to carve out the path of the project alongside the team and some adjustment is often needed for journey ahead.

Our current project

We are working on an old Bishop’s palace currently where the front of the house is Georgian, there’s a great big 15th century tower on the side and a chapel attached with a birds nest in the still intact font inside – totally untouched. The contractors King & Drury, started their initial investigations and before long it became apparent that the rear of the property was in fact an old warehouse, possibly for storage for ships coming in to the coast nearby and the floor was close to crumbling.

The chapel restoration underway to form guest accommodation

Once progress was made by the builders into the structure, they advised that the floor was condemned and had to be completely demolished and rebuilt, setting the works back by months. The floor had been ‘patched’ in the past and years of dry rot made it unsafe.

Even the most skilled surveyor can’t always predict what will happen when you start looking under the floorboards and into the fabric of these houses.

The walls are reed and plaster and so soft that ‘if you were to fall into one it would bounce back’ – the structure so unique it was a first for the project historian. As the house is surrounded by coastal meadows, this must have simply been a local material that they made good use of. The new wiring and plumbing had to be eased up between the wall reeds and every wall fitting such as lights or switchplates had to be reinforced to hold tight to the structure.

As more was uncovered, we found a priest hole (they hid in these to avoid the ‘priest hunters’ from the 1500s) and witchcraft symbolism around the windows to keep evil spirits at bay.These elements are a hugely important part of history and the whole team has worked together to carefully preserve these. French polishers have restored and repaired panelling, specialist brick restorers have re-pointed and carried out detailed work on the walls (before heading off to do the same on the Tower of London).

The drawing room panelling is thought to have come from ship timbers

The future history can also be fun too – the house came with a library of old books which shall pass to the next owners and Kate Winslet’s four poster bed has been kept in one of the guest bedrooms for future generations (a story for next time… ).

Encyclopaedias form part of the library collection passed to the new owners

Nearly every historic house we work on becomes much much more than a refurbishment. It inevitably transforms into a full restoration creating a new backdrop for modern life.

Stay up to date with how the project develops here: 15th Century Manor House