Motorways
I had to go to Yorkshire on Saturday to look at a job. It was on an estate very near to the Ampleforth Catholic school, and it looked quite bleak when I was there as there was a howling wind and driving rain. The site itself was wonderful, and sat high up on a big escarpment that could be seen for miles. A real Heathcliffe sort of feel, though I’m not sure we were anywhere near Heathcliffe country! I had to measure up for a lot of stone: mullions; door surrounds; some lovely copings for the gables, and two stone fireplaces. The house was a ruin, and had been in that state for many years as it sat on the site of a proposed new road that has finally been cancelled forever, and thus the house has become available for renovation, after about 40 years of neglect. It is a large farmhouse, but with some noble features. It has impressive stone work round the doors and windows, and lovely riven stone roof ’tiles’ although many of these are gone and the new owner has to obtain some more although apparently that is not too difficult in that area. Anyway, I got everything measured up by about lunch time, and then trundled on back down the motorway to leicestershire. The point being that the motorway makes trips like that so easy, and it was little more than 2 hours each way, where as by normal (non motorway roads, it would probably have taken half a day each way and been incredibly tiring.
We’re all out in the stone yard today, and there was a lovely sunrise over the fields at the front of the stone shed. One mason has flown off to jersey to do some work on a client’s house that had been delayed because of planning issues, so we’re a bit short handed this week, but I’m sure we’ll manage somehow