Next phase, August 2007

Well, it's been a long break since the last posting. The whole Ogmore Vale project went belly-up in the spring, due to unfathomable actions by the supposed vendors. The name remains in the title as a memorial, a bit like the 'Fisher' in Graham and Fisher.

Grand-daughter Angharad was born at the beginning of May, and Nina spent a month in Oz shortly thereafter. That's all been chronicled on Emily and Ben's blog, q.v.

We then had the wettest July for 200+ years......

This week, we finally got back into development gear.

(Captions usually relate to the picture below them.)


The old back kitchen - probably pre.1900 in its basics:

The team that were to demolish the lean-to were also contracted to clear No. 6 - but the contractor was (understandably) reluctant to send employees on to the roof. He would have simply pulled it down.
So I set myself to clear the remaining slates first - not as foolish as it sounds.

Progress at the back. You can see the internal divisions. The room under the window was a living kitchen to several generations - we stripped 6 layers of wallpaper off, including false dado strips. There was also a baxi-type stove with what must have been a very short chimney, providing hot water. But the back wall was slowly tilting into the path, the floor was erupting, and damp getting in everywhere. No conceivable option but to demolish.

The double section nearest the camera was a kind of scullery passage and a bathroom, added in the mid 1950's. The owner of no. 4 bought a 6' run of yard from the owner of no.3 on which to build the bathroom - and took 8' ! He paid £2 for it, with a full legal conveyance.

Here you can see the furthest internal wall has gone. The furthest section was a tiny scullery kitchen to no. 5 (through the door ), a 'flying freehold' from no. 4. There was a sheep skeleton in here when we first came, and I don't think the bones had been picked after being in the oven !

All gone, though not all clear. There was a back right of way along the right of the picture to all the further houses in the terrace, with a heavy stone retaining wall set against the slope.

Herself surveying the scene. Now what shall we do ? Cricket net ? Real tennis court ?

The sinews of war - keeping 4 or 5 men working on a hot day.

Back to no. 6. Front face stripped.

The view from the scaffold. The scar down the opposite hillside is a watercourse fed by a peat bog. After rain it quickly becomes a cascade or water-fall. After much rain, an absolute curtain of water. We can lie in bed and watch it. ( Well, we are both pensioners now.)

Two roof ladders save moving the tower - in any case, there's hardly room for it at the back.
But it's a bit of a stretcher straddling over the ridge.

Back face almost stripped.

Now the boys have moved on to No. 6. This is the tumbled mass of fallen rafters, beams and staircase after they moved it out.

And here is the underlying rubble still inside:

Looking up into what was once a bedroom. I've since rescued the door.

At the other end, there were actually saplings growing in the spare bedroom.........

A day and a half of hard graft later, we have the bare shell:

Reverse angle:

(In 1891 this was actually two houses. The three Jones children from the end you're looking at were playing in the other end when the Census enumerator called. He'd got their names in his book as part of the Rees family before he realised he'd got something wrong......You can still see his asterisk and little annotation on the scans of the Census. )

Nice little Victorian fireplace.........

And so full circle for this Blog - the view from the bottom of the garden again, with the roof open to the sky.

Now we have to talk to draughtsman and authorities to see what we can and can't do......