The last couple of weeks have been a bit mad. The original plan had been to cast a new reinforced slab in the lower-ground floor with simple “hit-and-miss” extensions to the slab to underpin the surrounding walls. This was to give us a strong base from which to work off for restoring and correcting the timber frame above later on. The existing foundations were found to be weaker and at a slightly higher level than anticipated. The decision has now been taken to retain the existing footings and fully underpin them all round the base of the building. This should have been done three years ago when the building took a bit of a wander down the hill. But it wasn’t, for understandable reasons.
Work is not very pleasant with the rather inclement weather that we now have – but then it is December!
The cottage will now have a much surer footing upon the hill and hopefully, with all the concrete in the ground on adjacent sites, it will not be moving anywhere else over the next two hundred years!
Leigh Hill Progress 