Barn restoration                                                                                           

When, in March 2005, we first peered over the gate down the farm track to the long lime-washed house with rotting window frames, to right and left was dereliction; a roofless stone threshing barn with scraps of the original thatched roundhouse, and a cob barn and stable block with its dovecote of nine perches and tiny slate sills, roof caving in, covered in "dangerous, do not enter" signs.

The barns, one early post-medieval, the other late 18th century are being restored to agricultural use: a proper farm workshop; somewhere to keep convalescing livestock; a place to rear waterfowl; a hayloft to keep feedstuffs; a stable dairy for making cheese and butter; a farrowing pen for Berkshire sows and their piglets and a space for bats and barn owls.

Cob Barn - before - October 2007	Green oak trusses and rafters in place	Almost there - June 2008