Last week I had the privilege to work on a 17th/18th century dovecote!
This unique property in East Harlsey dates back to around 1680–1710 and was built to house pigeons. It is now a Grade II listed building and no changes are allowed to be made to the exterior of the tower.
The pigeon home was built to provide food for the village and surrounding area, there would once have been 1,000 pigeons living here, although it hasn’t been used like that for over 100 years. Back in 1908 a water tower was added to the top of it, the cast iron water tank was made by Bolckow and Vaughan Ironmasters in Middlesbrough - when it came to restoring the property, it was decided to integrate it as part of the building.
Prior to the conversion to a dwelling, it had yet another use, as a stable!
The current owners are carrying out a complete renovation and needed several small jobs doing throughout. The main job was the bathroom ceiling on the top floor, reaching up into the roof space between the rafters.
There were few small patches and lastly we plastered around several doorways on the ground floor, around the entrance door and new double glass doors, that have been installed leading into the kitchen.
The quality of the renovations is fantastic and I love the spiral staircase that connect all three floors. It was great to work on such a unique, historic building in a fabulous location.
For more photos of our work, see the other projects posts or our Facebook page; for more images and history of the Dovecote visit 'Our Dovecote' on Instagram.