We began restoration work in August 2023 on the derelict ‘sheds’ in the walled courtyard to the north of the main house. The 200-year-old buildings were in a state of disrepair and had a forgotten air about them – the stone buildings and the courtyard were overgrown and had been used as a dumping ground for unwanted items. The first building encountered on entering the courtyard was in the worst condition, the roof had collapsed completely and trees were growing in and through the walls of the building. When we cleared the junk, ivy and trees we realised that this building was most likely the forge for the main house as we could see evidence of a chimney and a hole in the wall for the bellows. The front wall of the building had been rebuilt at some point using modern breeze blocks. The building next to the forge (now Copper Cove Cottage) was still standing and whilst the walls were covered in decades of animal dung, structurally they weren’t in too bad shape (relatively speaking). The middle building (now Linden Lodge) was clearly used as a stable with heavy wooden stable doors in place in a V shape adjoining a breeze block wall that separated the building into two stables. We kept the wooden stable doors, painted them and they can now be seen in the outdoor kitchen alongside other salvaged items from the property. The fourth building at the north most point in the yard (The Little Gem Stone Cottage) presented a design challenge as it was the only building with windows, suggesting that a farm hand or animal minder lived here. However the three slits in the back wall of the building seem to indicate that this was also an animal shed. Perhaps the animal keeper shared this room with an animal.