South Garden – Ruin

This cottage was built and inhabited sometime between 1842 and 1910. By 1910 it was definitely abandoned, and has not been lived in since. 

When we came we too were squatters (just of this little bit of the property!) as this part of the land was not by then owned by anyone. Later we obtained full and proper ownership and since then Charles has rebuilt it as a place to sit and a place to see the Coppice – and to lean on the wall and view the rest of the garden. Leaning is underrated as a pastime..

And you get wonderful shadows of the trees on to the wall in spring, before the trees are in leaf:

And Charles found these when he renovated the Ruin:

So someone lived here once. There’s also a well shown on the OS Map, which we’ve not yet found, but there is a huge boulder, which may be sitting on top of it.