The Restoration
of Battlecrease Hall 2013
T
ake one business man,
one electric violinist
and one Grade II Listed
crumbling pile add
one very ambitious schedule...
Et voila, here is the result..!
I am currently sat by the sea in a beautiful
seafood restaurant in Rostock, Germany,
overlooking the sail boats and motor boats
tethered up against the inclement September
weather. The tourists are wrapped up tight
against the wind and rain, whilst I find myself
warm inside with a moment of serenity in
which to recount our incredible story.
This story may beggar belief, but as we
come to the end of our renovation (almost
8 months) a phone call home to Michael, has
just confirmed that the scaffolding is down,
the pool is being used daily and the portico
is almost ready for painting.
Even more staggering, is that our relationship
( Michael and mine) was only 6 months
old when he bought BCH, five days before
Christmas 2012.
There is no point disguising the fact we are
“love a second time around”. We both have a
son from our previous marriages, and Michael,
far from downsizing after his divorce, actually
up sized when he purchased BCH. Although
I was terrifically excited by the purchase
(having been a member of SPAB for several
years), I was adamant that Michael was buying
for love of the property and not just for me!
It’s immense history and inherent beauty were
what sold it to us; as well as the fact it was
crying out to be rescued !
Nelson visited his lover Lady Hamilton who
was residing there, Charles I ordered the
planting of the Mulberry tree in the garden,
the Roundheads locked their Cavalier
prisoners up in the cellar (now filled in!)
Ryder Haggard, author, bought the house
for his sisters and Sir Walter Hayes, chairman
of Aston Martin was the last owner and
apparently signed the deal with FORD in
our drawing room!
Life has an incredible way of being cyclical,
a friend of Michael’s, who lived near to BCH,
emailed Michael a photo, as he ‘d heard it was
for sale. He pinged the link over to me (don’t
forget we were living in separate addresses)
and we stayed up until 1am discussing BCH
and all it’s fabulous History.
Seven hours later, Michael called me from
the car to say he was en route to find it with
his son, JB. When he pulled up outside, he
called to tell me the strangest thing that he
recognised the house directly opposite BCH,
on the other side of the common. It belonged
to the parents of the girl who had actually
introduced us 5 months previously! A week
before we had met, the girl and her parents
had invited us both to a Jubilee lunch at their
home Michael had attended (hence he knew
the house), but I did not as I already had
family commitments.
Continued >>
From the left:
Lisa unloading stone
from China
Second floor chandelier
Rear stripped of
emulsion paint!
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3
BCH continued
(I am writing the next part of this article en
route back from Helsinki and I am genuinely
excited to see the re-conditioned cast iron
hoppers on the house when I return tonight
can’t wait!). So back to our dilemma of no
current LBC before we had chance to fire
our awful surveyor (She was, it transpired
completely useless and very expensive) she
quit, so we were left up the proverbial creek
without a paddle.
It was then I had a lightbulb moment. I realised
what we needed was a surveyor who knew
the area, knew the council and had time on
his/her hands, I then thought we needed
someone who was retired! I quickly called
my friend’s parents across the way who were
both retired and luckily they found me the
perfect man within the hour. And yes, he was
retired and the ex-head of the local planning
on the council no less!
With a fantastic surveyor on board,
work resumed at full tilt. By now we had
several teams of men working on the house.
A British roofing team, a British sash window
restoration company and a Polish
building team.
So onto strange coincidence no.2 as Michael
and JB looked at the exterior of BCH, the
front door opened and out stepped a man,
who even though the house was uninhabited,
just happened to be the owner and just
happened to waiting in for a trademan!
Needless to say, he offered to show Michael
and JB around the house and the deal was
done “Old School” style on a hand shake.
The completion date was December 20th
and scaffolding went up on January 7th. Due
to the severity of the roof leaks and guttering
damage our RICS accredited surveyor applied
for emergency planning permission or so we
thought.
Around the time of the completion date,
Michael was offered the chance of brokering
a business deal in Ghang-Zhou, China. He
decided to leap at the chance and asked if
I would accompany him as well as perform
a show for the Chinese company. Michael
also realised it would be a great opportunity
for us to purchase stuff for the house,
particularly stone for the exterior, which
we needed 30 tonnes!
Let me not underplay just how difficult it
is to actually acquire a Chinese visa...! The
stress nearly killed me and my 3rd trip to the
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Listed Heritage Magazine March/April 2014
Chinese Visa office on Christmas Eve no less,
resulted in me collecting our 2 approved visas.
On January 17th, after a busy day of teaching
violin, I dashed home, collected my suitcase
and off we went to China.
Buying anything in China is really not an easy
undertaking. Most of the shopping centres
are unable to take Western credit cards. So
as the days passed by, we had an increasing
list of items we had put cash deposits on, but
we were unable to pay for as the ATMs didn’t
allow you to take out much money. Frustrating
was not the word!
Whilst Michael had his various meetings,
I went around 5 different stone yards alone
with only a driver and a translater for
company. Most of these rough and ready
places had never had a westerner visit them,
never mind a woman! There was nowhere
to have lunch and going to the toilet was out
of the question. Still on my fifth stone yard,
I found the planters and troughs I’d been
looking for!
A colleague of Michael’s then sent us both
to another stone yard, this time for paving
stone for the exterior.
I remember drinking copious amounts
of green tea to “seal the deal”! I cannot
From the outset this was a huge project that
WAS going to finish on time! (Projected initial
completion date was June 20th). One of
the perks of being a member of The Listed
Property Owners Club was an e-invite to The
Listed Property Show at Olympia. I mentioned
it to Michael and he was very keen to attend.
We took JB, and fortunately had one of the
most interesting and useful afternoons.
I nipped off and joined the Georgian Group
and found out about their locations Agency.
underplay just how gargantuan Ghang-Zhou
is. It’s like a city on steroids. Each area sells
different specialist products, and each area
is the size of Hemel Hempstead (if you can
imagine that?)
BCH continued
(I am now writing this next section en route
to Malta and having just ordered an extra tin
of Keim mineral paint to finish out gleaming
white Portico at Heathrow.... I am very excited
to do our “end of the project” pictures upon
my return...!)
Needless to say, it was not a relaxing trip
(especially for me) but it was successful.
Most of our purchases would not reach
the UK until July.
Having returned from China, our next
horror was an innocuous email, saying that
our Listed. Building Consent Application had
been thrown out due to lack of evidence (ie
drawings) This filled us with horror as we had
been told that as long as our LBC application
was in, we could proceed with emergency
re-roofing in order to protect the fabric of
the building. Just to give you an idea of how
bad the roof and guttering was, we had water
flooding into a top rear bedroom and a plant
growing out of the wall in another. As you
will all remember, it was an extremely hard
and long winter and our British roofers were
up there in sub-zero temperatures. Plants
were pulled out of hoppers and gutters were
cleared in order for the guttering to work
again and allow drainage.
Resplendent
Portico
Music room with
antique piano
Cornicing being
painstakingly restored
Apologies, I digress... So back to The Listed
Property Show, whilst I signed up with the
Georgian Group, Michael found a specialist
roof lantern company, who could provide
bespoke roof lanterns in wood and glass,
and were very good on price. Result!
We also found an incredible oak dining table
and chairs, which Michael bought for great
expense on the spot. We cancelled the order
the very next day, as we went to Lots Rd
Auctions, and found a stunning old French
table and bought that instead with a job lot
of rustic dining chairs. It looks amazing in the
conservatory with a sheet of toughened glass
over the top; allowing the patina of the age
of the table to be seen and functionality for
a modern family.
Continued >>
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Rear of house
with serene pool
We also found a gorgeous old school
company called JW Longbottom in Holmfirth,
who made cast iron hoppers and ventilation
bricks. They didn’t have email or a website
and did everything over the telephone! I loved
that! So after a fantastic afternoon at The
Listed Property Show, we were onwards and
upwards with our renovation.
At some point I will have to mention “the
budget” word, and now feels about the right
time. SPAB do warn you that restoring an old
house, especially an 8 bedroom one and the
coach house, is like peeling an onion, there can
be layers of problems underneath.
We certainly found that out the hard way,
as the re-roof of the Coach House, revealed
rotten timbers infested with woodworm
(NOT identified in our initial survey with our
1st surveyor... Tut tut), plus a gable wall that
was on the verge of collapse. Major structural
issues like that can set your budget soaring
into the stratosphere. At the very end of our
renovation we are exactly double our original
budget. That is with asking for discount on
everything. Every purchase, and buying costly
items like stone and furniture from China.
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The way we ran the project was I went
to the house on Tuesdays and Fridays,
(my non-working days) and Michael and
I went there together on Saturday mornings
and sometimes Sundays (although most
Sundays we went to Lots Rd Auctions to buy
furniture) Considering we were amalgamating
two households, we found that almost
no items from both homes were suitable
just too modern. Therefore every piece
of furniture, curtain, rug and art had to be
bought specifically for the house... No small
undertaking for two very busy people with
two kids!
Highlights of the renovation were seeing
the rear of the house stripped of the
hideous white plastic emulsion it had been
painted with and revealing the brick work
underneath... Permission had to be granted
from LBC, but due to the poor condition of
the bricks, we re-pointed with lime render and
re-painted with fully breathable mineral paint
in a soft beautiful grey, from Keim paints .
One of the most unusual aspects of the
renovation was realising that Michael was an
exceptional (straight) man in terms of his eye
for detail. So instead of me being
left to “get on with the interiors” we very
much “wrestled”each decision together.
For a couple who were in the infancy of
their relationship; this was no mean feat!
The unravelling of the colour palette we
eventually chose, was our toughest decision
…we veered from bright Georgian colours to
safe neutral. It was just impossible to decide.
I was driving Michael crazy forever going into
Farrow and Ball and “squandering” money on
match pots.
The reason it was so tough, although we had
a Georgian House, it didn’t have massively
high ceilings due to the fact the original house
was 1650 and a Georgian front was added
in the early 1800s.
Michael then threw a curve ball at me and
suggested a grey colour palette. ...GREY..???!!!
I was mortified.... Surely this would be like
living in a battleship? I felt sick inside... But
I acquiesced.. After all it was his house and
he paid for it... But my goodness he was
right... The grey was perfect and uber classy
yet contemporary.
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Aga bliss...
My pride and joy!
At this point, I realised Michael and I were
garnering a mutual respect for each other
with the stress levels we were coping with.
On February 1st, he started a brand new
job which was incredibly full on, but was
still scouring the internet EVERY evening
looking for stuff for the house such as pewter
doorknobs and oak water butts! One funny
incident I recall, was staying up late one night
watching “fridge” videos together..! That’s when
you really know you are neck deep in
a renovation project!
A fantastic suggestion we were given was
to build a large outdoor fire in our walled
garden. This has been a massive hit with
not only us, but all our visitors; I strongly
recommend building one..!
Positive restoration highlights were re-instating
the chimneys that were pulled down in the
1980s, re-instating fireplaces that had been
bricked up... And one of my favourites; just
when Michael and I quote “felt like he was
haemorrhaging money” decided to take the
courageous step and hire a cornicing expert
to restore the incredible ceilings in the front
downstairs rooms. I was so proud when he
took that step, as I knew intrinsically it was
the right thing to do!
Two of the biggest successes of the
renovation, have been the Aga, complete with
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Listed Heritage Magazine March/April 2014
resplendent chimney breast which the mantel
we found in the Battersea Decorative Arts
Fair and duly painted. Also our kitchen garden.
When I first tentatively suggested getting
an Aga instead of a gas range, Michael
emphatically said no. Undeterred I kept
championing the Aga, looking into second
hand prices. After I suggested a modest 2
oven reconditioned, Michael did a U-turn and
decided to super-size..! We have ended up
with a stunning 4 oven in pewter, with a gas
hob addition.
Having switched it on only a few days ago,
I can safely say we are ALL in love with our
Aga. (I do recommend a private cookery
lesson first at Divertimenti in Knightsbridge.
Priceless!)
Our second proud achievement is our
vegetable garden and greenhouse. As a
modern hippy, this was key for me; Michael
also. The ethos of Battlecrease, was to re-use
and recycle wherever possible. Hence the
rotten beams that we pulled out of the Coach
House, we had treated, and hung on our rear
garden wall to support tomato plants. We
have had many happy moments this summer
eating the produce we have grown. Yes
to be cliché and honest, it’s a wonderful
feeling to dig up your own produce and
it tastes amazing!
Doing a Grade 11 listed renovation was
always a dream of mine but the reality is,
how can I say, a schedule so punishing and
all-consuming that you better have nerves
of steel, deep pockets and a rock solid
relationship to weather the storms that your
renovation will undoubtedly throw off.
Everything suffers, your stress levels rocket,
your relationship becomes almost a business
partnership, your sex life goes out of the
window, you NEVER see your friends and
your kids become fed up with being dragged
around yet another tile shop...
BUT for all the negatives, the incredible
property we are now left with reminds me
absolutely of childbirth, dreadful at the time,
but the minute it’s over, the end result is SO
beautiful you just want to do it again.
I know we will!
© Lisa Rollin
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