I found this when stripping the dry stone wall apart today. The Cannon Brewey opened in 1868 and closed in 1999. I reckon this one dates to around the turn of the century – crown bottle tops became popular after this date.
Month: November 2012 (Page 2 of 2)
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| 3D artist’s impression of the renovations |
The plans have now been submitted to the local planning department and although the 3D drawings are not part of the planning process, they do provide a clue to what the building will look like when finished. You can see the main building is left pretty much as it is today (although minus the conservatory). The barn on the end has become the corner of the L shape which is then extended out for the lounge and the master bedroom.
The roof line on the extension stays constant even though the ground rises upward. The rooms inside flow when the natural rise in the land. The garden area is split into two distinct spaces – a lower garden accessible from the lounge and a higher garden accessible from the master bedroom. The roofline in the extension is at a lower level than the main house (pretty much as it is today) to give a clear separation between old and new.
Well, I am getting the feeling that we are making progress – you can now see all of the dry stone wall along the one edge (and strangely enough, the wall that was under the brambles is in the best shape) and the grass is starting to grow under the trees now the undergrowth has been cleared.
I spent today working in the corner clearing out the holly. This is hard work and I needed to clear around 10 feet of holly from around the base of the tree before I could attend to the trees. It is difficult to believe that this took most of the day. This corner is now cleared out and I can start on the other task in this corner – rebuilding the dry stone wall.
My enthusiam (and confidence) boosted by my dry stone walling efforts in the top field, I am going to make a start on rebuilding this wall next. This wall will be seen my anyone visiting the house, so it had better be reasonable!
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| The holly is now gone revealing the old wall – not the one to the right, but the one the other side of the large tree. |
And then the last task of the day was to get rid of the material from thinning out the orchard – the large pieces of timber were cut into logs, but this left a lot of smaller pieces. This made a great bonfire.
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| About 2/3 of all the material from the orchard went on the bonfire. I will burn the rest when it is a bit drier. |
The application for planning permission was submitted electronically to Kirklees Council this morning. The countdown can be begin.
I will post more detail on the planning application over the next few days.
I haven’t posted any of these photos before, but that is because we haven’t really worked out what to do with this space. The cellar runs under what we have been number 8 and number 9. I suspect that they have always been a single cellar since there is only one stair case (which is from number 8).
They are remarkably clean and dry. This is no doubt due to the amount of air circulating through the holes in the walls. The roof is made up of large stone slabs and this makes up the floor of the room above. The walls are all made of stone that has been whitewashed with stone shelves, presumably for storing food.
These cellars are original to the property so are likely to date back to around 1750, maybe earlier.
This time it is the turn of the brambles that have overgrown the existing dry stone wall to get some attention. Removing them was made more difficult due to an old barbwire fence that was entangled in the undergrowth. Carefully snipping this out a section at time using wire cutters made life a lot easier. Fitting the metal blade to the brush cutter also made the job easier.
Four hours and we had cleared out the 10 metre section of undergrowth. It all went onto a bonfire in the middle of the orchard. It is amazing how well this material burnt down. There is only a small pile of ash left (which will go around the base of the apple trees – I am told that it is good for them.
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| Now you can see the wall that was previously hidden by the brambles |
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| Brambles all gone – we will need to dig out the roots, but we can do this when the wall is re-built |
We have had a few cold mornings recently, but this is the first real frost that we have had this year. It makes everything look so pretty.
Well, I have been slowly clearing out the orchard – taking out the mass of undergrowth and the non-fruit trees. It has been a slow task and when I look that the orchard itself, I am not sure that it has made that much difference. However, when I look at the mass of vegetation that is on the “bonfire”, I begin to realise exactly how much material has been taken out.
I am still clearing out material around the trees on the edge of the adjoining field as well cutting back the brambles that have engulfed the dry stone wall that lines the one edge of the field. I am reluctant to pull too hard on the brambles as it is likely to damage what remains of the wall in the process. So again this is slow work.
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| The cleared out orchard – the brambles have still to go |
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| Another view of the orchard |
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| The growing mound of vegetation |
Day 5 and the first section of wall is now finished. Yes, I know, it is only 2 metres long, but it does give an indication of what the finished wall will look like.
I was watching the weather forecasts this week and today was a cracker. And with some holidays to use up at work, it was too good an opportunity to turn down. With one final push, I thought I might be able to finish this section. With an early start, I was putting the coping stones on just after lunch.
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| First section of wall completed |
It is difficult to think that it has taken 5 days over the last month to get this far. I can’t help, but look at it and see all the imperfections. However, I wonder what I would have thought of this a month ago before I started building my first dry stone wall.
Seeing a completed section is a real boost to both my enthusiasm and confidence. It was surprising how quick the top half of the wall was to completed, compared to the bottom half. I reckon the top half and the coping stones took 1 day, the foundations and the bottom half took 4. However, I suspect I will now speed up given the enthusiasm engendered by finishing this first section.
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The wall from the other side – ground level on this side of the wall is lower
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I have looked back on the original posts (I started on this wall at the end of September) and reflected on what I had learnt……
It is the Northern Homebuilding and Renovating show this weekend in Harrogate. We are intending to go on Saturday. Never been before. In fact, I have never been to any sort of home show (ideal or otherwise), so it will be interesting to find out more.
Links to the show are here.