Hollins – saving The Old Brewhouse

The Old Brewhouse saved

Nearly eight years after buying The Old Brewhouse, and six years after the start of work, we’ve now got the home we imagined when we first came across it in 2007 in a crumbling but idyllic state. There were roses climbing round the doors and windows, ivy smothering the walls and chimney and a lovely but overgrown pond and meadow for a garden.

The roses will soon be back to their former glory, though not the deadly ivy (the quickest way to destroy an old clay wall), Continue reading “The Old Brewhouse saved”

Ready for landscaping

The finished extension after limewashing — The finished extension reflected in the pond, after limewashing

We have nearly completed our seven year project to convert and extend an old farm service building. We’ve made the minimum possible changes to the old building so we can preserve the history of its fabric, including the clay in its walls, while turning it into a comfortable home. Continue reading “Ready for landscaping”

A new roof over our heads

Tim and Andrew laying the Glendyne slates

After the frame was finished and most of the insulation installed, there was a delay getting our Canadian slates on site, because the UK supplier had run out of stock. (For an explanation of why they had to come so far, see Continental Drift and the Art of Choosing Slates). Once the slates arrived, the shell of the building was quickly made weathertight, which included fitting the conservation rooflights from The Rooflight Company. These are solidly built, nearly flush and much favoured by conservation officers. Continue reading “A new roof over our heads”

We win planning permission to extend

It has taken much of the year, but we have finally got permission to replace the old part of the house that collapsed several decades ago, which will add just over 50 per cent to the floor area of the building.

If you look carefully, you can see the outline of the vanished end of the building marked on this recent Ordnance Survey — The outline of the section of the building which fell down – the part closest to the pond – is still shown on this recent Ordnance Survey map

One important factor was to demonstrate with photos and archives that there was a complete building on the site only a few decades ago, and certainly post-1948, which seems to be an important date. I may have misunderstood it, but the gist seemed to be that the old structure legally still had some vague sort of existence, so that we were in a sense rebuilding, and giving back the farm complex (of which our house is a part) its previous layout.

This began as a project to convert into a home a Grade II listed farm service building that had the same legal status as a barn and which did not even have planning permission when we bought it. Continue reading “We win planning permission to extend”