Another weekend over

This weekend was spent downstairs removing plaster from the main room. The first step was to clear the plaster from between the two doors. The top was okay but around the base of the wall there is a solid concrete render. As you can see from the picture, this is trapping water and was a cause of damp. They have included slate as a damp-proof measure, but it clearly hasn't worked.

There was also a patch towards the left that could not be removed. It turns out that there used to be a window there and not a door. Part of the window has been blocked up, the rest was converted into the door on the right. You can see the wooden lintel in the wall - the wallpaper area is the newer blockwork to block the window.

Moving across to the other side of the wall, I removed the old hot water tank and the surrounding cupboard and found a much larger void. This has an original window that has been blocked up. Much of the plaster is loose and so will have to come off.

Whilst mucking about in this corner, I uncovered a gap between the step and the floor of the back room. The floor is only about an inch thick and sits on a layer of gravel/hard core. There is no damp-proofing on this floor.

Moving back to the void, the plaster was removed and the floor cleared. As you can see from the picture, there is a row of floor tiles and then two large flagstones. These flags are probably the original flooring, with the tiles being later.

Lifting one of the flags, it is sitting on a gravel layer about 1 inch thick. Under the gravel is soil. Not a whole lot of Foundation. This will need fixing to prevent water ingress through the floor (not to mention wildlife ingress).

Moving back to the mail wall, to the left of the door a concrete base has also been added. You can see that the door uses the left hand side of the original window opening. The door is very narrow, so will probably make it larger.

The next image shows more clearly where the window used to be. The wood lintel for the window has been cut, but both sides are still visible.

Finally, I took a look at the wall to the left of the picture above. This wall divides the living room from the old entrance hallway. The plan is to block up this entrance and make it into a study. The stairs will also be removed.

The wall had been skimmed in cement also and the whole lot came off in large sheets. Underneath, a brick wall rather than a partition. The wall uses wooden beams 1/3 and 2/3 of the way up. This looks like a taditional building method and, whilst not being part of the original house, it was added quite some time ago.

That was all the work - another full load to the recycling centre. We also received the documents from the solicitor. The oldest one we have is from 1880, which talks about the owner of the property going bankrupt and his sons selling up. At that time, it is recorded as a 'cottage bakehouse'. There is also some information in the document mentioning a brewhouse.

I have been in touch with the Local Authority about house names and hopefully we can change the name from Waters Edge to The Old Bakehouse. It would make a nice story as we have an original oven.

The premises was  a going concern up to 1880, so there is still more history to uncover. This will require a trip to the LA archives in Chippenham.