Shippon clearing – job done!! 

Success! We managed to tick a big job off our to-do list this weekend despite the freezing temperatures – one that’s on the critical path to being build-ready… which was clearing all the overgrowth off the shippon. We started this job on 9th October – albeit with a few days off and other jobs in-between – but it does feel like it’s been going on forever. 

The wall of the building is actually our boundary – the land that’s been left to go wild belongs to the Highways Agency, which is why no-one’s bothered to cut all the weeds and bushes back. As the building hasn’t been used for anything except storage, it’s not mattered before that ivy, brambles and a rogue jasmine has been left to infiltrate the lime mortar and grow under and through the roof tiles, cracking a lot of them in the process. But as we’re turning that into our home (and a holiday let at one end), we need to clean it up so that the wall can be repointed, and the roof tiles can be accessed with scaffolding to take them off temporarily to re-lay with proper felt and insulation.

It’s been a ridiculously big job. Firstly clearing all the bushes (and countless dead shrubs/trees) so we can actually get to the wall, and then pulling out the vegetation from between the stones and roof tiles. Not a nice job as the lime mortar comes out at the same time and showers dust everywhere… Standing on a slightly-wobbly ladder and pulling hard on ivy and jasmine that’s stuck tight to the roof above also wasn’t the best idea – causing a few moments where a handy tile prevented a slight mishap!

Annoying that it feels like it should really be the Highways Agency’s responsibility to keep the vegetation under control, but given it’ll never be a priority of theirs, we didn’t really have a choice but to tackle it ourselves. It would be a great bit of land to own too, as it’s the first thing people will see when arriving and so will create the first impression. Hopefully we can take over planting it at least, and put some lovely lilac trees and grass seed down to make it look less wild!

Previous blogs showing progress: when we first started on 9th October; and our second weekend on 16th October.