Tidying up

With the weather due to change for the worst we wanted to get as much done outside as we possibly could. So we split into two groups, one to finish clearing around the old gate posts and the other to start tidying up around the chateau walls where it has all become very overgrown indeed. It took about two hours to cut down the old trees, ivy and dense undergrowth around the wall next to the old gate posts. We then burnt it all up except for the good sized branches that we will cut into logs. It really did look amazing when we had finished, such a difference to a couple of days ago. Sadly as you will see (if you click on the photo to enlarge it) is that the wall has fallen down in places. What I do fail to understand is why anyone can let such a beautiful old property fall into such disrepair - it is just plane dumb!

Meanwhile back at the chateau the base of the walls were being cleared to reveal a few pleasant surprises. First being the beautiful 15th century entrance to the square tower where we were excited to see that it actually has a proper door step (not 15th century sadly). We have also been chipping off the old damaged render and pointing between the stones. We will be re-pointing these quite soon. 

To the right of this door is where I believe

the original entrance to the 13th century hall was. There is now a large window there but about a metre above this window you can clearly see an arch that was bricked up, below the window you can also see that the bottom of the original doorway has been bricked up. After clearing away under this window we found some very old stone slabs which certainly date from the time when the door was still in use!

Finally we set about the very overgrown area at the back of the chateau behind the old kitchen. Here there is a lot of ivy growing up the walls and at the far end it is really overgrown with old fruit bushes. A lot of strimming was needed here

to clear away this overgrown area which in places was a metre high. We managed to get about half of it cut out and will finish the rest as well as pulling the ivy down on Wednesday - rest day tomorrow as it is supposed to rain :(