Another little repair

Whilst helping Michelle chisel out the old mortar and plaster above one of the windows in the middle tower room I noticed something strange! The wall above the window obviously has to be supported and at the front this was done with a large stone block lintel. However at the back all I could see were stones that appeared not to be supported by anything other than some old plaster! Immediately we stopped work and I went to the room above where there is another window cut into the wall from floor level. 

I wanted to see exactly what was going on here. So I took out the few remaining clay tiles and found loose, dusty dirt underneath them. Once this was cleared away sure enough I could see the top of the stones that we saw below. Nothing supporting them, no lintel or anything! Also as I was clearing all the dirt out a few of the stones in the wall itself were falling out as the lime mortar was totally shot. After carefully removing the loose stones I ended up with a nice hole in the wall through which I could see the trees!! This was quickly repaired. We have to repair the crack above when the mortar has set. Also at some point we will have to go up in the cherry picker and repoint it all outside. Next job will be to remove the stones above the window and put in a proper supported lintel... Ho hum the things we sometimes find!