A Day of Discovery

One of the amazing things about renovating a chateau is that every day is different and occasionally you discover something amazing! Today was one of those days and some. I started off by clearing out one of the old drainage pits that connects to the moat at the back of the chateau. A modern pipe has been added at some point which is very handy. The plan is to use this pit and pipe to harvest rain water and grey waste water from the chateau and then use it to irrigate the lawns and flowers.

Once I had cleaned out the drainage pit I moved onto clearing the

weeds from the paved area in the central courtyard. After about 10 minutes I realised that these weeds have been there for quite some time with many establishing some pretty hefty root systems. Even if I could clear most of them it would not be long before they returned. So  plan B. I decided it would be better to take the flagstones up, clear and prepare the ground and then re lay them. As soon as I had lifted a few stones I realised that they were not flagstones, they were old cut stone blocks that must have come from an old part of the chateau that was taken down at some point. Further confirmation of this came

when I lifted a couple of large rectangular blocks. The underside of these two blocks was cut and shaped and closer examination revealed that they would have been a part of an old window or door! Exciting stuff. From the wear and the style they must date to one of the very early stages in the chateau history. Perhaps even as far back as the mid 13th century but certainly no later than the 16th. I know that the chateau was modified and extended in this area during the mid 1700's and I think that this would have been when this paved area was put down. 

I was pretty excited to discover these old blocks but little did I

realise that there was more to come! I carried on lifting the blocks, they were all of a similar size and cut in square or rectangular shapes. There was however, one much larger square block which was totally out of place. When lifting the block next to this large slab I had noticed that there seemed to be a bit of a hole under the large slab. As I then started to prise it up there was indeed a hole - a very large hole. At first I thought it was a well that I had discovered. However after examining the exposed hole and

pushing a fork handle into the mud at the bottom I decided it was much more likely to be an old drain of some sort. I have in fact found a couple of similar but slightly smaller pits in the farmyard. They have the same design and construction. This drainage pit must predate by quite some time the building of the stone paved area. If my estimate of the age the stone paving is correct the drainage pit must be from many centuries ago.