The cosiness factor of this little cottage cannot be overstated, and is further enhanced by the new wood-burning stove, creating that indefinable sense of ‘hygge’ that makes a Cornish cottage so desirable


a night of 95 mph winds, which saw the roof of the old lean-to lifting. “My dad and I were there with some friends, trying to hold it down with sandbags and rope. Then, the main roof blew off – we were lucky we heard it going and got out of the way in time to not be hurt.” After the Farrar’s son also passed, family tracing company Heir Hunters found distant relatives, and the property came to market. With the chimney having collapsed, the lean-to kitchen detached from the main structure, and ivy everywhere, it was a challenging renovation prospect, but “we weren’t daunted,” says Mark. However, Mark and his father had an advantage, come the auction: “People came to view it, but they had no clue what was inside, as there was no access. We knew what would be involved.” Yet despite being familiar with the cottage, the day Mark and Stephen got the keys, they had a surprise. “We couldn’t get through the front door,”


recalls Mark. “We eventually broke through and realised the front wall had collapsed on the inside, so we boarded it up again.” Fixing this structural failure was the first phase of a five-year project to rescue the cottage. As the property was unsafe and at risk of collapse,


may/jun 2024


Mark applied for planning permission to take down the front wall and roof, and rebuild them. Yet there the cottage had another surprise waiting for Mark. When the application for phase one went to the local planning office, the cottage was treated as a listed property, despite not being on the register, but being in a conservation area. “And, around 2002, the council wrote a conservation report on the village and named this cottage as a ‘property of significance’.” This meant that, although Mark was not required to apply for listed permission, the conditions attached to his permission were strict and, of course, expensive. With planning granted, Mark hired his cousin’s building firm to take on this painstaking task. “We had to number the [granite] blocks in the


front wall and put them back in the same order,” says Mark.


Once the building was secured, Mark turned his attention to a full restoration. After looking at several local architectural firms, Mark had chosen James Moran and Dan Sheriff at Lilly Lewarne to work on the project from the start. “James was brilliant, he knows the area and the planners,” says Mark. “We didn’t


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