Our new project House (and rock cave houses)
Discussion
Afternoon all,
Thought I would start a thread on our recent purchase (completed last Tuesday).
We managed to secure the house by putting a note through the front door when we drove past one day in March 2021. One thing led to another and after some gentle management we finally managed to get it over the line….
The house comes with approximately an acre of land, some cliffs and five rock caves. Two of the caves were houses and people lived in them until as recently as the mid 1900’s.
The house itself hasn’t been lived in for five years or so. It previously belonged to a sound tech/manager/producer for Robert Plant and the Rolling Stones (Benjy Le Fevre). Benjy sold it a couple in 2003 and it appears to have gradually been left to deteriorate until they moved out altogether in 2016.
There are numerous “urbex” type videos on YouTube of people exploring what is now our garden and our caves and I will add the links in for those who are interested.
So, some pics
First visit and viewing in March 2021
Interior:
The plot of land:
Frontage:
Rock Houses and caves in garden;
View from rear garden down to back of house
View from side of garden back to house
Found a greenhouse!
After an awful lot of patience on our part we completed on 21 Sept 21. It should have been the simplest of transactions as no chain and mostly cash buyers but it wasn’t. The unwillingness of the previous owners to outlay even the smallest amount of cash meant that they instructed cheap solicitors (who took their money and ran) and refused every offer obtained for them to have the house and land cleared.
Anyhoo, moving onto the last week. As we had some sunny weather I thought I would get cracking with clearing some of the garden. Ultimately it will all be landscaped and a new drive etc put in but I wanted to see what we had gotten ourself into
Night before completion, a quick visit with fingers crossed..
Day of completion. Frontage of house a bit of a mess
Garden with cave to the right hand side. Buried in brambles
“Path” to side of house, buried in foliage
Started some clearing to make a path
And found the gate which I knew was there but needed to uncover for plant equipment deliveries…
So I did the only thing I thought was the right thing.. and managed to get our tip car/s
t box Corsa up the hill and into the garden..
Took a bit of coaxing and some smoke….
Then did some more clearing;
To be continued…….
Thought I would start a thread on our recent purchase (completed last Tuesday).
We managed to secure the house by putting a note through the front door when we drove past one day in March 2021. One thing led to another and after some gentle management we finally managed to get it over the line….
The house comes with approximately an acre of land, some cliffs and five rock caves. Two of the caves were houses and people lived in them until as recently as the mid 1900’s.
The house itself hasn’t been lived in for five years or so. It previously belonged to a sound tech/manager/producer for Robert Plant and the Rolling Stones (Benjy Le Fevre). Benjy sold it a couple in 2003 and it appears to have gradually been left to deteriorate until they moved out altogether in 2016.
There are numerous “urbex” type videos on YouTube of people exploring what is now our garden and our caves and I will add the links in for those who are interested.
So, some pics
First visit and viewing in March 2021
Interior:
The plot of land:
Frontage:
Rock Houses and caves in garden;
View from rear garden down to back of house
View from side of garden back to house
Found a greenhouse!
After an awful lot of patience on our part we completed on 21 Sept 21. It should have been the simplest of transactions as no chain and mostly cash buyers but it wasn’t. The unwillingness of the previous owners to outlay even the smallest amount of cash meant that they instructed cheap solicitors (who took their money and ran) and refused every offer obtained for them to have the house and land cleared.
Anyhoo, moving onto the last week. As we had some sunny weather I thought I would get cracking with clearing some of the garden. Ultimately it will all be landscaped and a new drive etc put in but I wanted to see what we had gotten ourself into
Night before completion, a quick visit with fingers crossed..
Day of completion. Frontage of house a bit of a mess
Garden with cave to the right hand side. Buried in brambles
“Path” to side of house, buried in foliage
Started some clearing to make a path
And found the gate which I knew was there but needed to uncover for plant equipment deliveries…
So I did the only thing I thought was the right thing.. and managed to get our tip car/s
t box Corsa up the hill and into the garden..Took a bit of coaxing and some smoke….
Then did some more clearing;
To be continued…….
Edited by CTO on Wednesday 29th September 22:49
So, this takes us to Thursday evening of last week….
Corsa in the garden
Friday; flail mower delivered
Garden clearing begins in earnest…
From this;
To this
Cleared the front a bit
Rock houses reappear
“Found” a wasps nest and got stung….
Killed it with fire:
This should be a video if you click it. Starts with my OH saying the famous last words of “is this dangerous?)
Chopped down my first ever tree using a chainsaw for the first ever time
With Doggo for perspective;
Beer time;
If people are interested, I will try to keep some form of chronological picture account going on PH.
The plan is for the house to be taken back to brick inside, extended with a double height glass rear and internal mezzanine looking down to the kitchen area.
The caves are listed and will remain as they are, however the top cave on the cliff face will have a decking out front, a fire pit and a glass balcony front for us to be able to sit and look at the views and have a few vinos
To give you an idea of the place: YouTube “urbex”
videos are viewable here. Ignore the back stories that they give the place… made up rubbish..
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=skyupUg8sSQ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QcG9tQbFGAA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IhzQJaGQXpI
The videos above give much more detail to the contents of the rock houses and the people who lived there. You should also be able to see the top cave and our plan to have it as a snug/chill out area..
There is also a video on YouTube of the previous Rock House occupants finally getting a proper house…. In 1959…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NykE6V3VNhE
My MIL remembers Annie Smith and has been to her “new house”. She was very relieved apparently as no she no longer needs to sweep her roof (as seen @16s)
Corsa in the garden
Friday; flail mower delivered
Garden clearing begins in earnest…
From this;
To this
Cleared the front a bit
Rock houses reappear
“Found” a wasps nest and got stung….
Killed it with fire:
This should be a video if you click it. Starts with my OH saying the famous last words of “is this dangerous?)
Chopped down my first ever tree using a chainsaw for the first ever time
With Doggo for perspective;
Beer time;
If people are interested, I will try to keep some form of chronological picture account going on PH.
The plan is for the house to be taken back to brick inside, extended with a double height glass rear and internal mezzanine looking down to the kitchen area.
The caves are listed and will remain as they are, however the top cave on the cliff face will have a decking out front, a fire pit and a glass balcony front for us to be able to sit and look at the views and have a few vinos
To give you an idea of the place: YouTube “urbex”
videos are viewable here. Ignore the back stories that they give the place… made up rubbish..
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=skyupUg8sSQ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QcG9tQbFGAA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IhzQJaGQXpI
The videos above give much more detail to the contents of the rock houses and the people who lived there. You should also be able to see the top cave and our plan to have it as a snug/chill out area..
There is also a video on YouTube of the previous Rock House occupants finally getting a proper house…. In 1959…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NykE6V3VNhE
My MIL remembers Annie Smith and has been to her “new house”. She was very relieved apparently as no she no longer needs to sweep her roof (as seen @16s)
Edited by CTO on Monday 27th September 20:25
Edited by CTO on Monday 27th September 20:28
Evening all,
You’re very welcome wrt to sharing. There will no doubt be some calamities along the way
Location: Worcestershire, near Kidderminster
Flail mower was a bit lethal in a rapidly moving spinny blades kinda fashion. If you look at one of the pictures of the garden you will see a small drop off….. I dropped off that following the flail mower which was in gear and making progress… think a lemming in a garden and you’ll be quite close to what it looked and felt like….
I should add a disclaimer in here that prior to last Tuesday I had never used a brush cutter/chainsaw and didn’t know what a flail mower was…
Thanks to YouTube I am now basically an expert
Bonus has been that I get to buy lots of toys without having to justify them too much.
Since last week I now have
Stihl chainsaw
Chainsaw trousers
Chainsaw gloves
Chainsaw helmet
Stihl FS 460 Brushcutter
Associated work gear and harness
Hired brush cutter v new purchase
All of the noms…
The below is where I tried to pull down the greenhouse frame with the flail mower. Even in low gear and with diff lock on it still wouldn’t budge…..
The family member in the pic came back today with a disc cutter and cut it into pieces for collection tomorrow…..
You’re very welcome wrt to sharing. There will no doubt be some calamities along the way
Location: Worcestershire, near Kidderminster
Flail mower was a bit lethal in a rapidly moving spinny blades kinda fashion. If you look at one of the pictures of the garden you will see a small drop off….. I dropped off that following the flail mower which was in gear and making progress… think a lemming in a garden and you’ll be quite close to what it looked and felt like….
I should add a disclaimer in here that prior to last Tuesday I had never used a brush cutter/chainsaw and didn’t know what a flail mower was…
Thanks to YouTube I am now basically an expert
Bonus has been that I get to buy lots of toys without having to justify them too much.
Since last week I now have
Stihl chainsaw
Chainsaw trousers
Chainsaw gloves
Chainsaw helmet
Stihl FS 460 Brushcutter
Associated work gear and harness
Hired brush cutter v new purchase
All of the noms…
The below is where I tried to pull down the greenhouse frame with the flail mower. Even in low gear and with diff lock on it still wouldn’t budge…..
The family member in the pic came back today with a disc cutter and cut it into pieces for collection tomorrow…..
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