Renovation of the bread oven

Here at the chateau we have a little house with an old bread oven and laundry bath. The bread oven is built onto the side of the house. Just like everything else around here, it has been left uncared for and totally neglected. It was so bad that a tree was growing out of the top of it, this I cut down last autumn. We have to repair and renovate this bread oven or it will soon fall down and be lost forever.

As you will see from the photos one corner is in a very bad condition and has already collapsed slightly. Today I dug out and cleared all of the stones that had fallen down, saving them for the repair. They had been there so long that they were actually covered in earth and weeds! There are lots of brambles growing out of the top as well as some grass. Soon I plan to climb onto the top and clear all of this away. It will then need repairing and repointing before a new tiled roof is built.