30 years of beautiful homes

Sponsored by

Quality rainwater goods to suit all projects, from listed buildings and churches to newly built offices and private homes

Built in a day

Chris and Alison Young fell in love with a quintessential thatched cottage and have slowly uncovered its hidden secrets

When Chris and Alison commissioned a historical survey on their Wiltshire cottage, they were astonished to discover it had been built in the 1700s using squatters’ rights under Common Law. At that time, if a house was built and smoke rose from its chimney within 24 hours, then the builder could claim the land as his own. The hurriedly constructed timber frame and wattle and daub walls are still intact, and there have been later additions to the original one-up one-down home. However, Chris and Alison were determined to limit structural changes to essential maintenance, seeing themselves as custodians tasked with preserving the property’s pretty period features.