There were two patio areas in the rear garden. One about 4m x 4m and a smaller one 2m x 2m. We have removed the fence and the fence posts, so now it is time to remove the patio itself. To be honest, most of the slabs came up very cleanly and whatever sand and cement was left on them came off with a gentle tap with a hammer and chisel.
The patio is made up of Indian sandstone. It does seem strange that this has been shipped all the way to Yorkshire when we are surrounded by the stuff. Still, I guess that is economics for you!
Both patios are made from the same stone, so it looks like we are going to end up with around 20sq m of reasonable patio slabs. I have no idea what we are going to do with them, but it would be a shame to throw them in the skip. Ebay or Freecycle is usually a good way to get ride of this stuff, but we need to decide what we want to do with them first.
The smaller patio will have to wait until another day.
We have stripped all of the slabs that made up the patio as well as the stones that made up the steps (looks like these were originally part of a window sill).
The patio slabs (Indian sandstone, apparently) sorted and stacked. These come in more or less standard sizes to aid laying them out in a consistent manner.