1222 days ago
The kitchen should have been ready by November 8. It is not yet finished. But, as of a couple of days ago, it became usable and last night we cooked a meal on and in the Aga for the first time and then The work unit with the Belfast sink should be completed January 20 by when a few other remedial works should be done. But we are now, as you can see below, settled in for Christmas. I start with the newly exposed arch which was once the front door looking into the room from the main house. On the wall opposite is the Mrs, the Aga and the old bread oven from the 1600s.
1304 days ago
Okay, I accept this is work in progress. Gone are the carpets and wallpaper from the 1970s and also the plaster from the early twentieth century. What you see now is a room almost stripped back to the 1680s or whenever it was built. I shall come to the dating issue and mystery below.
1312 days ago
You saw the before shots from the dining room at the Welsh Hovel earlier. This is a room we can date to somewhere between 1649 and 1695. The start date is when the castle here in the village, about 300 yards away from the hovel, started to be dismantled and some of the stones here are, I am sure, from the castle. The end date is the year before the Window Tax. Who would build extra windows after 1696 only to brick them up?
1312 days ago
Work at the Welsh Hovel is now taking place in what has been the dining room but will become the main kitchen. This part of the house was bolted onto the original hovel but is still very old. We uncovered a window tax window on its outside in what was the hidden room, a tiny room plastered in by the previous owners which you enter from the library but lies on the outside wall of the dining room. So one can date the dining room as pre 1696.
