Ahhh.. flagstones revealed and a surprise!

[Smithtrae]

As we have been slowly stripping the cottage and stable/hayloft back to get rid of the cement renders and plasterboard etc inside, we decided today to lift the disgusting old lino and foam liner that had been hiding what we hoped was a full flagstone floor. We had previously only lifted corners of the lino but decided to leave it to protect the flags. However, as it was creating a non-breathable layer over the flags we finally lifted it today and found....not only the flagstones but also remnants of old newspaper used to pad previous coverings, now attached to the flags! Not very old, dated to 1960s but fun none the less.

Good to see that the flags are mostly intact and much better than we expected. We will cover them with old rugs for now, just to keep them safe while we are stil working. Elsewhere we are down to the surviving lime render and will patch that where we can. Perhaps my favorite bit was the discovery of the window seat, hidden by a modern shelf and plastered and papered over! Lovely to think of the fireplace re-instated and the window seat cushioned with the evening light coming through the window. A lot of work still to do though... next stop, the drains!!!

 

[Smithtrae]

A couple more discoveries...

 

[middi]

Aren't old cottages lovely ?.
Just remember, the more you dicover the more work you create, so, get ready for the scrubbing brushes and knee pads :wink:

( just wait untill you find a well in the living room, cat skeletons, buried bones or witches circles etc )

Middi

 

[Smithtrae]

Thanks Middi,

Actually I would love a well in the living room or a witch bottle and especially a mummified cat!!! Skeletons of any sort would be fine too :wink:

Maybe when we attempt to repair the fireplaces....

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Thank you for sharing the pictures-- how exciting to own a cottage still full of secrets-- what next I wonder!

 

[LadyArowana]

What exciting finds, the floor is going to look amazing when it's completely finished. Good luck with the rest of the work, do keep posting pictures.

 

[Zebra]

how exciting, your house does look like a great project. good luck and hope you find more fun things!

 

[MdB]

It is finds like these that keep you going during a big renovation.

We found a marble and a lot of rat bones under our concrete floor. Not quite so lovely.

 

[johnobirches]

This is so like our own project.
Unfortunately we have a concrete floor in one room so have to find some flags to match the other rooms.
Good luck.
John

 

[Smithtrae]

Thanks all, yes I love this kind of thing, it all adds to the history of the house and the people who lived there before!
Marbles are good, for some reason I always seem to find marbles on the archaeological sites I do, even fairly modern sites somehow I always manage to find one lost marble

Keeping all the odd bits that come up, even some old wallpaper from the 30s I think. With everything almost stripped back now the only places left for more surprise finds are the fireplaces now. Next move is to decide what goes where room wise. I think the one downstairs room will be a living room/kitchen in one with no partition. The odd thing is that the wall upstairs at the top of the staircase was just plasterboard and when removed the scars of a simple bannister were on the lime plastered wall so the upstairs was open to the stairs, never walled off. We are going to keep that I think and replace the bannister.

 

[angrybird]

I'm glad i'm not the only one that gets excited about "finds" i'm going to make a scrap book or keepsake box with all the bits of wall paper,news paper old receipts etc. I was pulling down some tongue and groove at the top of the stairs I found a letter tucked inside the gap from a little boy named Joseph it mentioned that he was having some chickens for his birthday and that his old dog had just died I have to admit I did shed a tear the only thing I haven't kept are the mummified mice i found in the ceilings!!!(fur still intact) I love looking at the styles of wallpaper a lot of them seem to be hand painted.
..and i'm still searching for that well :lol:

keep up the good work your cottage looks a little gem x0x

 

[Alex]

I am jealous of your flagstones that are not covered in cement like mine are. You are lucky to have so much lime plaster intact and your window seat is lovely. What was originally the only bedroom in our one up one down part of our cottage was also open to the stairs like yours but it did have a door at the bottom of the stairs. Keep up the good work and I enjoy looking at your photo's.

Alex

 

[AMc]

We found a marble and a lot of rat bones under our concrete floor. Not quite so lovely.

We found a massive rat skeleton and a tiny baby rat skeleton on top of it under one set of floorboards - very old. It was quite a thing to see 3 big, hard builders who wouldn't go near it. I had to grab a spade and take it to the skip.

We also found a very well preserved, empty packet of John Player ciggies perhaps pre WWII which I have put into a box frame and a crate lid from "A.W. Gamage Ltd, Holborn, London" that bears the shipping label to "A.K. Bovill esq 11/7/22" at our address.

 

[Smithtrae]

Alex...your cottage sounds almost exactly the same as ours with the door at the bottom of the staircase and just the bannister above! Yeh, we are lucky with the main flagstones, though in what was the tiny kitchen area those are covered in concrete and we have to try and remove that...eek.
Glad no giant rats so far though :?