ME AND MY LISTED HOUSE


Previously we had been in a run-down cottage in Clent, Worcestershire, and Martin and I moved in here in 1965. We had three small daughters aged 4½, 22 months and the third a baby at the breast.


In spite of our spending many many hours and a huge amount of money on it, parts of the mill are still somewhat dilapidated. It is, in fact two mills. The one we live in ceased to be a mill in the 17th century when the adjoining mill was built. That building is now a rental.


The older building is my home. It is quite small really and it was rather a squash when we had three daughters at home and later a younger adopted daughter. So quite often we used the other mill, once we had done a complete conversion job on it, as overspill and guest accommodation.


We bought it all for £10,500 from a chap who had run out of money. He lived here and wanted to convert it into a pub. He had built a large extension and had bought 300 tonnes of stone that filled the front garden. This was in anticipation of getting permission to build a second massive extension onto the front. It might well have been a very successful pub but it would have completely wrecked a beautiful building that is part of the industrial history of this amazing valley.


We managed to carve out three bedrooms and make it into a rugged but comfortable home for our daughters. But I would never describe it as ‘comfortable’ in winter: it is always so cold.


The girls grew up to love it. It is right in the valley bottom, quirky and remote, and access is down a narrow, steep wiggly lane. The old dried up Thames/Severn canal runs along the valley side and the property came with a mile-long stretch of it, which I still own. To reach the village up the hill you have to pass beneath the arches of the railway that runs from Swindon to Stroud and carries mainly local passenger traffic.


When we moved in during 1965 the only ‘furniture’ was a suit of armour by the fireplace in the living room. By the time we arrived here all the machinery had gone. Martin adored the place from the beginning. His new job was managing a factory just down the valley, so he was able to come home for lunch, which he loved.


Nobody seems to know how old the house is, but the adjacent mill that took over from it was built in the mid-17th century and served most of its time as a silk mill. We like to think


Continued >> 90 Listed Heritage Magazine September/October 2018


The rented bedroom in the newer mill


The picture shows the 1960s extension and also the lean-to where Daphne likes to sit and work in the summer


The stone-tiled garden shelter


A view of the garden and valley side beyond


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