College Cottage, Noke

This was our second self build, involving the complete restoration of the majority of a row of derelict farm workers’ cottages dating from C17th, or earlier. The section to be restored comprised two cottages, with the remains of two more collapsed cottages between them.

College Cottage, which we owned, had not been significantly altered since around 1790, and is grade II listed. Although intact and basically sound, it was in a very poor state of repair. Cherry Cottage, which was not in our ownership, had been extensively altered in the 1930’s. The initial structural works to the two cottages were carried out as a joint project with the buyer of Cherry Cottage, working with contractors as appropriate. But the rest of the work to College Cottage was undertaken directly by Neil.

We saw this project as reconstruction rather than extension or new build, so were keen that it should be completely authentic, while also being comfortable and energy efficient. It was also important that the original layout of the cottages and the different phases of construction remained legible in the completed project.

College Cottage has been featured as an exemplar project in Listed Heritage magazine, and won best renovation in Period Living magazine Readers’ Homes Awards 2016. Part of the prize was a photoshoot of the cottage to be featured in an article written by Period Living magazine.

Further info from Real Homes.

In the following videos Neil explains how he rebuilt sections of College Cottage, how to make traditional linseed oil tempera paint, and how to use traditional style casein paint.