Church and Stanwick Hall Restoration Home - One Year On

One year ago we followed the stories of six historic buildings,

each crumbling and at risk of being lost forever.

Six brave new owners made a commitment to save them,

attempting to transform them into their dream homes.

Well, she found it.

But there was more to rescuing these incredible buildings

than anyone imagined.

I don't think we'd ever buy another listed building. Ever.

With architectural expert Kieran Long and historian Dr Kate Williams,

we've not only been following the restoration of these magnificent buildings,

we've dug deep into their history

and uncovered some extraordinary stories.

One thing led to another and they murdered her.

In this hall somewhere.

Now, we are going back to discover

what happened to these buildings and their owners, one year on.

Today we're revisiting two Restoration Home's

that had done battle with the elements.

Floods had devastated Thomas A Becket Church

which then became one man's epic struggle to turn it into a home.

Fire had once gutted Stanwick Hall,

whose external beauty masked darker secrets inside.

But one year on, what new discoveries have been revealed?

And then the builders knocked on the door and said,

"We found a tunnel."

Do you know far it goes down?

Has work finally been completed?

It will be the first finished room in the house.

And does the end result live up to expectations?

Oh, good Lord. You've gone to town here a bit.

We've gone for it, yeah.

Our first building is Thomas A Becket church in Pensford, Somerset.

When we first arrived two years ago

it had been neglected and empty for decades.

With a Victorian nave and a medieval tower,

the whole church attracted a grade II star listing,

the second highest grading for an historic building.

But despite its architectural importance, without a use,

the church was facing complete dereliction.

That was until Paul and Laura Baxter decided to take it on.

They were working their way up the property ladder

when Paul spotted the church in 2007.

I was looking for a flat in Bristol and nothing came up that I liked.

This was up for sale by auction.

Went and had a look, thought it was ridiculously large,

couldn't afford it.

It's leaking, it's rotten.

But we thought, "This would be wicked if we could sort it out."

So then we started thinking that it was a great idea!

For £120,000 they bought the nave and obtained listed building consent

to create a three-bedroomed home over three floors.

They didn't buy the tower,

which remained the property of the church's conservation trust, and

the centuries old graveyard had to remain open to the visiting public.

Their restoration budget was a modest £140,000.

To have any chance of doing it for this amount,

Paul would have to do all the work himself.

And Laura, who's an accountant, would be bankrolling the project.

I don't have a problem with being the breadwinner, it's fine.

Right from the start of our relationship,

Paul said the wanted to renovate property,

he didn't want to get a job.

He'd never had what I would call a proper job.

Building their home became Paul's job and he had to train himself

in a completely new range of skills, including becoming a roofer.

I've done an 11-month crash course in roofing,

because on the first phase I got a lot of roofers in to help me,

and I made sure that at every stage I was doing it with them.

Having learnt from the roofers, he continued on his own.

Out in all weathers, Paul spent a solid year fitting 7,000 slates.

As Paul was throwing himself into the work of restoring his church,

our historian Kate Williams had been delving into its past

to try and discover why it had been abandoned.

What she found was that over the years,

Thomas A Becket Church had paid a heavy price

for its location on an island in the middle of the River Chew.

There has been a terrible history of flooding.

Over and over again, the church has suffered.

1807, 1809, two years later, another flood.

Then throughout the 18th century and the earlier periods.

But it was a flood in 1968 that hit the whole valley,

which was to prove disastrous for the future of the church.

And it's an event that's etched on the memory of the locals.

Come down through the valley here like a raging torrent.

Anything that was loose was gone.

Cars, garden sheds, you name it, it was gone.

The church wasn't used for years after that. Years.

So really the flood was sort of the absolute end?

Basically, the end of it.

The catastrophe proved to be the last straw

for poor old Thomas A Becket church.

It was deconsecrated and subsequently fell into disrepair.

It was just nothing but a cold, empty shell.

That was the last time I looked inside it.

It was awful. The centre of the village looked derelict.

It looked horrible.

But not everyone was behind Paul's plans.

How do you feel about it being a house now?

Not a lot.

-Not happy?

-No. It should still be a church.

-Right.

Whilst the conversion of Thomas A Becket Church into a house

was causing concern to some in Pensford,

over at our next restoration project in Northamptonshire,

there were no such objections as it had always been a home.

But Stanwick Hall in Northamptonshire

had troubles of a different kind.

A Grade II star listed Georgian House,

it seemed picture-book perfect from the outside.

Inside, it was anything but.

Years of neglect had left the walls running with damp.

With broken roof tiles and rotten timbers,

one good storm could have brought the whole thing down.

Its future was getting worse until the day

when Simon and Gina Russell first arrived, looking for a house.

I remember the first time I drove onto the drive.

It was almost surreal, really.

I'm thinking how perfect the shape was and the chocolate box look of it.

It just made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

It was just love at first sight.

The bit I remember most was, we walked round the garden,

it was only when we got to the gate and looked back

and saw the house with the sun reflecting off it,

against the stones,

it was like a sledgehammer blow of, "Wow. That's going to be our home.

"That is our house."

So they bought it for just over £1 million and budgeted another

half million to turn Stanwick into their dream seven-bedroomed home.

Gina and Simon, who both run financial services businesses,

were still working full-time in London

and living with their 18-month-old son Jude in their city pad,

70 miles from the build.

Simon had two other children from a previous marriage,

Harry and Madeleine,

and the eventual move to Stanwick would make seeing them much easier.

I think we should start with the Harry Potter front door.

If you look at it from here, it just looks like a normal front door.

But when you go and stand next to it,

it suddenly becomes an enormous front door.

I don't think we'll get a replacement in B&Q easily.

Right.

But it was beyond the front door

that the condition of the house became more worrying.

It's in an absolutely appalling state,

there are big cracks, gaping holes, lots of damp.

Actually, the house is in worse condition than it possibly

might appear at first sight, it's only when you start

to tour the interior you realise just how bad things have got.

Ooh! Christ! Don't go through the floor.

That'd be a good bit of footage, if I plummeted through the floor.

HE LAUGHS

As Simon and Gina were discovering just how precarious

the current state of their home was, our architectural expert

Kieran Long was on a mission to find out more about its past.

Well, I think it's just the most charming little early-Georgian house.

There's something very modest about it, to look it.

I think it has that simple domestic architecture

that English people love to imagine.

Speaks so well of our nation.

But further inspection was to reveal darker secrets of its history.

He came across clear evidence that it had once been devastated by fire.

We can see some strange discolouring of the limestone up here,

where it's gone red.

It suggests to me that there's been a fire here,

and that the stone has suffered accordingly.

We don't know, we'll have to do a lot more digging to find out.

And digging further into the archive,

Kate indeed found evidence of a fire.

One night in 1931, a blaze ripped through the house,

gutting the inside.

Oh, my goodness.

Look at this 1931 picture from the local newspaper,

about how Stanwick Hall appeared after the fire.

It has been utterly decimated. It's ruined, it's a blackened shell.

Amazingly, no-one died in the fire.

The biggest casualty, however, was the original Georgian staircase

which had been replaced by a less distinguished model.

What we're faced with is the most abject piece of joinery

that you've ever seen, really.

A really poor quality staircase, which is clearly nothing to do with

the Georgian roots of this building. Who knows when it comes from.

It's not the right thing here.

The house was throwing up more questions than answers.

There was gloss covered panelling,

the style of which seemed to be older than the house.

And down in the cellar, there were other interesting features.

So, we have descended into the earth here,

we're into the belly of the house, the cellar.

You can hear, underneath here, water running.

There's a well down there.

The house was surrounded by rumours of a secret tunnel

and Kieran went in search of possible clues to the mystery.

So we're in this strange arched space,

with flagstones on the floor. This odd passageway,

and soon enough, look, we come to the end of the line.

Somebody's blocked up this passageway,

and wherever it goes, we can't go any further.

Even if one starts to take this stuff out,

all we can see beyond is just more fill, so is this the end of

the line or is this just blocking up a route that really goes somewhere?

We don't know.

But mythical tunnels below the house

were the least of Simon and Gina's worries.

They had much more urgent problems up at the top.

Their very first job was to remove the very heavy roof tiles,

which were weighing down the building.

They did that just in the nick of time

because a few weeks later the country was hit by snow.

It was said that one good snow fall might have brought the roof down.

Last night we did have one good snow fall, as you can probably see.

That could have been it, had the tiles remained.

But it wasn't all good news.

Their new house was about to give them some very unwelcome surprises.

Removing the roof slates had revealed that

more of the timbers would need to be replaced than originally thought.

Even with my limited structural knowledge,

this isn't right.

The weight of the roof has pushed down on this

and split it in the middle.

I mean, this is major work.

The contract for the roof alone is £120,000.

If we stay on budget

then £600,000 for the whole refurbishment will be a result.

But as everybody knows with building projects,

numbers don't always pan out as you think.

It's scary. Of course it's scary. Financially, it's scary.

Emotionally, it's scary. Spinning all these plates and not dropping them

over the next year and half is scary.

But, like I say, if you overanalyse you become paralysed,

so we've just decided to get on with it.

And things weren't about to get any easier

as there was news of an addition to the family.

We have a baby on the way.

It's coming in about six months.

That was an interesting development.

Obviously, we're overjoyed, but I do feel slightly fearful

about just how much we've got on our plate.

-Oh!

-Oh, no!

-Tragedy.

-Oh, dear.

But Gina and Simon remained convinced

they could keep the restoration on track.

Fingers crossed, a year from now, I'm going to put my life on the line

and say we would be preparing to have Christmas in the Hall.

We have Christmas next year firmly in our sights.

Gina and Simon refused to be defeated by the slipping schedule

at Stanwick Hall and 150 miles away,

at Thomas A Becket Church, Paul was also trying to remain positive

whilst tackling a monumentally tedious task.

Every time that you, you know,

try and do something with the old bit of the building, it just hits you.

You kind of think, "I'll just take the paint off these stones."

But there's no just about it.

You scrape off the white top layer

and then underneath there's this blue stuff that just will not come away.

You're sanding it and you're scraping it

and you're putting the poultice on it, and you're like "Urgh", and

then Laura comes on at the weekend and she's like, "It's a bit blue."

HE LAUGHS HYSTERICALLY So it is.

HE LAUGHS

Paint scraping is one thing, fitting bespoke secondary glazing

in the draughty leaded windows is quite another.

Jack of all trades Paul thought he was up to the job,

but Laura wasn't so sure.

Paul seems to think that he can do anything.

A lot of the time, he is really good with his hands.

I do have to reign him in a bit and say,

"Actually, I want it done properly. You're not going to do this."

Put your foot down a bit.

I said I'd have a crack at that and Laura kind of went,

"What makes you think that you're able to do that?

"We'll get someone in for that. We'll definitely get someone in for that."

So we got a load of quotes in, and Laura looked over the quotes

and after a few moments reflection, she turned to me and said,

"So is there any reason why you can't this yourself?"

HE LAUGHS

That was pretty much it.

What it is, this one here is the test case,

so I'm going to make this one frame, and then Laura's going to come

in with white gloves and peruse it, check it over with the microscope,

and decide whether or not I'm going to be released on the other windows.

Before he could fit the glass,

Paul had to make the frame for this DIY double-glazing.

The trickiest bit was bending the wood.

But true to form,

Paul built a homemade steam box to fashion his arch.

And then the two of them go together like that, there's your arch.

But while making the frame had been pretty straightforward,

fitting the glass was a different matter.

The adhesive strip should hold the glass in place if it fits the frame.

But the most important thing was to make sure

the inside of the glass was completely clean before being fixed.

Just one thumbprint could do it in.

It'd be like the Hubble Space Telescope all over again.

I'd have to take it all down and redo it at huge cost.

With Paul confident the inside of the glass was spotless,

it was the moment of truth.

Will it fit? Please fit.

Ah-ha-ha!

HE LAUGHS TRIUMPHANTLY

Yes!

HE WHOOPS

Who'd have thought that secondary glazing could bring so much happiness?

HE LAUGHS

Yeah, I'm well pleased with that.

I hope that wipe's on this side.

Is this going to be... Oh, you little BLEEP.

I can't take it off now. Hopefully the beading will cover most of that.

Yeah, that's all right. We can soak that up.

But the church was Laura's home too

and understandably she wanted it to be perfect.

Can't really see it.

Hooray!

-Can I go up here?

-Yes, of course you can. Why not.

-What's this stuff?

-That's a swipe.

-Does it come off?

-No.

-No?

-Certainly not.

-Are you serious?

-That's the only...

-On the inside?

-Yeah.

-That looks bad.

The problem is, I cleaned the window twice, but when I put it in...

-What is it? Glue?

-No, it's a wipe.

They put a number on the wrong side of the glass.

It just looks awful, and I don't think this should be set back.

I actually like it like that, that's my preferred appearance.

And I don't.

SHE LAUGHS

The verdict is, generally, it looks really nice,

but it's not quite there yet.

HE LAUGHS

Phew!

Well, I'm going to take that as meaning it can stay, just,

but the next one better be better.

-That's exactly it.

-OK. Phew! That'll do.

A few months later, I dropped in to see how they were getting on.

Paul had been making great headway, rooms were beginning to take shape

and his list of tricks of the trade were increasing.

I'm right, aren't I, in thinking you're not trained in any of this?

No, I'm not trained in anything.

THEY LAUGH

But are you reading books, manuals, are you...?

He tends to ring people up in a builder's accent

and get it really cheaply.

And then say, "How do you install it?"

OK. What's a builder's accent?

Well, you'll ring the first one and go...

"Excuse me, I was wondering what you call those scaffolding clips

"where one goes through the other?"

"That's called straight, mate."

"Thank you. What do you call the ones that turn?" "That's a swivel."

You get this whole list of jargon and just say,

"Thanks very much" and hang up.

And then you ring up as another builder?

You ring up another scaffolding firm...

"Awright, mate, could I get 400 straights, 35 swivels,

"probably looking about 6K.

"Have you got that?

"Second hand. Wonder price."

"I'll see what I can do."

THEY LAUGH

You're not really a builder, you're an actor.

The part of the church Paul was busy converting into their home

was the Victorian nave and Kieran suspected that there was more

to this local church than met the eye.

In the Somerset Archive, he discovered that it had been

built in 1868 and designed by architects Giles and Robinson.

It became clear that they had been influenced by an architectural

movement that was sweeping the nation, the Gothic revival.

To find out more, Kieran went to Cheadle in Staffordshire

to a place considered to be the very embodiment of the Gothic Revival,

the church of St Giles.

It's exciting to be here because I'm convinced

that Giles and Robinson would have visited this building,

and so we're here to find out a bit more about the DNA,

the history, of Paul's church.

St Giles was designed in the 1840s by one of the most

influential architects of the last two centuries, Augustus Pugin.

And St Giles of Cheadle was his masterpiece.

This church is the manifesto of the man

who changed British architecture in the 19th century, forever.

The moment where Roman and Greek models were given up

substantially, in favour of the Gothic.

The other great architects were persuaded that Gothic

was the great style of their time.

People like Gilbert Scott, the designer of St Pancras Station,

hugely inspired by this building.

Of course, we later see Pugin's work with Barry

on the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

Perhaps the most important statement of our national identity.

Didn't take long before it dominated the British landscape

as the appropriate style for houses,

villas all over the suburbs that were being built in the 19th century.

When Giles and Robinson would have walked in to this church,

they'd have seen things that were out of their league,

way out of their budget, they would have looked at them

and thought, "How can we reproduce that?

How can we get some of that style

into this small provincial church that we're making?"

And one of the grandest features architects Giles and Robinson

incorporated was the stunning stained glass windows,

which would eventually be in Paul and Laura's dining and kitchen area.

But over the years they had been damaged and it was going to be

tricky work to restore them to their former glory.

Paul carefully removed the broken pieces, which were then sent

to professional stained glass restorer and artist Graham Dowding.

Working hard to preserve this legacy of British craftsmanship,

Graham and his team spent painstaking hours

making a new angel's head and fixing the disciple's knee.

With the pieces finished,

getting them back into the delicate leaded window was next.

But that is the most difficult part of the whole process.

To put the piece of glass back in to its lead-work is always critical

because the point at which you can break it.

It's Graham's colleague Tim who had the heart-stopping job

of fitting the new pieces.

Tim is very patient. He's known as the Zen master

The new piece wasn't an exact fit, so Tim would have to trim it,

ever so gingerly, a millimetre at a time.

So, I'm actually just paring away the glass very gently.

It's a bit like a wild animal.

It can sense that you're nervous of it,

and if you show it too much respect, it will crack on you.

She's in!

But restoration is a never-ending task,

and he had to start all over again on the angel's face.

They've done a brilliant job.

Yes, I'm very, very pleased that I can see it from my living room.

She's in.

Thank goodness, she's in.

A lot easier than the other piece.

And with that, the spectacular stained glass window

was complete once again.

As the restoration of the church was visibly moving forward into the next stage,

down in London, the owners of Stanwick Hall, Simon and Gina,

were starting a new chapter of their own,

finally saying goodbye to their city pad and moving house.

That's my handkerchief collection.

Baby's just about to be born any moment,

maybe even today,

so we want to be in Stanwick full-time.

But with the hall still far from finished,

Simon, Gina and Jude moved into the two-bedroomed cottage in the old stables that came with the house.

As they settled into their temporary home, Kieran went on the hunt

to find out just who it was who designed their future home.

He suspected that such a beautifully designed building

was the handiwork of more than a provincial builder.

And trawling through lists of architects

working in the 18th century, he discovered who it was.

Here we are, Stanwick Hall.

Under the entry for William Smith.

The eldest surviving son of Francis Smith of Warwick,

and these were architects and master builders.

So here we have the individual who designed and built Stanwick Hall.

There's a long list of works here, of different churches, houses,

large-sounding houses.

It suggests to me that the architect is somebody of note,

and makes the building just that bit more important.

It was clear that the Smiths were far more than provincial builders.

Kieran discovered that they had some rather well-to-do clients.

And 20 miles from Stanwick was the Smiths' crowning glory.

They created the west wing of Stoneleigh Abbey for their most aristocratic customer -

Lord Leigh.

What we're seeing here is the Smiths of Warwick bringing out all the toys.

They're really bringing tricks, all the architectural tricks

they have learned. It's a grand house for a very prestigious client.

What's really exciting is that Gina and Simon have a house that is connected,

through its architect, to one of the major pieces of architecture in the country.

And it was here that Kieran found the greatest example of a Smith-designed staircase.

Fabulous.

At Stanwick Hall, we have no idea what the staircase was.

It's destroyed, it was lost in the fire.

And here we have a Smith staircase, a real, original one,

and we can perhaps start to make some connections about what might have been there at Stanwick.

The shallow treads making this a kind of processional stairway,

you know, you walk up this stair slowly.

It's not just for getting you upstairs, it's an experience,

it's about the procession around this incredible double height space.

Almost three centuries later,

Simon and Gina were starting work on their new, improved staircase,

and the first thing was to remove the old one.

-It's a lovely smell. It's real, old timber.

-Yeah, sorry!

But before any new staircase could go back in,

there was one major piece of work which needed to be finished.

The roof.

The original budget for the roofing work had been £120,000.

But then, this was no ordinary roof.

It wasn't covered in slates but with a special kind of limestone

that gets its name from the local village of Collyweston in Northamptonshire.

When Stanwick was built it was widely used.

But it's no longer quarried,

and virtually the only remaining source now is reclaimed salvage.

Collyweston tiles are also really difficult to work with,

not least because they're all irregular shapes and sizes.

Richard Elliot is one of the few people who are keeping the craft alive.

He comes from a long line of Collyweston tilers.

Sometimes you'll pick a slate up,

and you automatically know it doesn't sit next to that one very well,

so you put it down and you get another one, until you get the right...

So the roof flows.

A few weeks later, I went to catch up with Simon and Gina,

and, of course, their new baby.

-Hello.

-Hello.

Hello, Lily! Hello, Lily! Say hello to everybody, Lily.

They know you already. So, come on, how's it gone? Tell me the truth.

Tell me the truth.

-God, it's been seriously hectic, hasn't it?

-Has it?

-Yeah.

Gina stopped work on Thursday, we moved here on Friday,

and then Lily arrived on Monday.

And you appear to be upright, which is absolutely awesome.

-How are you feeling?

-Knackered. Very.

Any idea when you're going to be in?

Erm, our original goal was the end of this year, Christmas '10.

But, erm, it's difficult to guess, now.

-I can't wait to have a look inside. Is that OK?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, sure.

-The scaffolding coming down will be a fabulous day.

-Yeah.

-When is the scaffolding going to come down?

-Any week now.

-THEY LAUGH

Oh, the new staircase!

Oh, it's fantastic!

-Pleased?

-Delighted.

-Fantastic.

Quite a major thing, seeing this in place.

-Yeah.

-This is actually the first time I've seen it in situ. I'm amazed. It's beautiful.

The detail I love is this little bevelled edge. Can you see?

It's just like a little point. Beautifully made.

'They had re-instated a handmade oak staircase

'in traditional Georgian design.'

So hit me with it, Simon, how much does a Georgian staircase cost?

A Georgian staircase, for you?

£40,000.

Which, I'm just thinking, is about £1,000 a step, actually, as you go up it.

-Probably slightly more. It's refreshingly expensive.

-THEY LAUGH

It is lovely.

'And it wasn't just the staircase that was an expensive job.'

Again, hope not an indelicate question,

But how much did it cost you to put that beautiful roof on?

An absolutely huge amount.

I mean, you could have bought another house for it. It's scary.

100,000?

-More than that.

-Keep going.

-200,000?

-About that.

I think we broke through the £200,000 mark. It's a great roof.

It is a great roof. It's really beautiful.

And it's actually saving the life of a very, very beautiful building.

I think the house is probably in a more precarious condition than even we had imagined.

-Yeah, definitely.

-It sounds like it was a kind of, you know,

five minutes to midnight scenario for this place, really.

You were just catching it before it collapsed.

I think, without being too melodramatic, we probably were.

Additional work had completely derailed the schedule in Northamptonshire,

so I went down to Somerset to see if things were still on track

at Thomas A Becket Church.

-Hello, hello!

-Hello.

-How have you done?

-Let's have a look, I can't wait to see what you've done.

-This way.

This was how Paul and Laura's church looked when their restoration began -

a huge space, but almost unimaginable as a home.

-This is it.

-SHE GASPS

-Well, it's beautiful.

-Thanks very much.

It's beautiful. It's stunning.

The neo-gothic nave had been transformed into a modern,

21st-century home, with open living spaces and three bedrooms.

Upstairs, they'd created stunning views from multiple mezzanines.

I love the fact that you can see right up to the roof.

It's the first thing that greets you as you walk in,

-so you haven't pretended you are not in a church.

-Oh, no.

You have created a beautiful entertaining space,

with en suite altar.

-Yeah.

-With three bedrooms, four bathrooms.

Obviously we're really pleased, but when you say

three bedrooms for bathrooms, we haven't actually got any bathrooms in,

and you couldn't stay in any of the bedrooms.

A little bit of work to go, but I think we'll get there on budget.

Paul and Laura's restoration of the church had been a fantastic achievement.

But with no bedrooms or bathrooms, last time we saw them

they still weren't living in the church.

It's now one year on.

Paul and Laura have at last moved in.

-Arch, arch, arch.

-Yeah.

-Line.

-Yeah, and then straight, straight, straight.

And it's almost finished.

They're working on the final touches to the interior.

It's just that they have been rather distracted of late.

Big thing that's happened since you were here before

is that Joshua has arrived.

-Me and Laura's son.

-He's a big distraction for daddy?

He is a big distraction for Daddy. If I'm walking past him and he's...

I just want to pick him up.

Paul and Laura moved into the church just four days before Joshua was born,

and had been living there for just over three months.

It's really nice living in such a big space,

particularly with her little baby, because, you know,

just having a change of scenery, and I think it's fun for him, too.

Because we've got the big chandelier, he loves looking at that. All the pretty lights.

Yeah, it's just so different from having, you know, a flat.

This project has only been possible because of Paul's free labour and Laura's monthly salary.

But as she's now on maternity leave,

their income has significantly dropped.

Creating their home has been Paul's life for the last four years.

As the end is fast approaching, thoughts are turning to what comes next.

-Paul's got to get a job, that's what's next.

-Aha-ha!

Because I'm on maternity leave, and not getting any more pay

other than statutory pay, so one of us has to work,

cos we haven't got any money.

Spent it all on sofas and things like that.

With the last remaining funds, they are working on the final push.

Kieran will be returning to the church and we will find out

what he and all the locals think of the finished building.

One year ago at Stanwick Hall, any thoughts of a finished building

were still looking rather far-fetched.

-Lovely to see you. How are you?

-Really well, I...

I'm just gazing up at your ceiling there,

and there's still a massive hole.

Come this way. Come to my office, I want to have a word.

-I'm not a detective, but I...

-THEY LAUGH

-I don't think this house is finished.

-What makes you say that(?)

-Yeah, you're quite right.

-There are a few subtle clues.

-So have you made huge headway that I can't see?

-Yes.

What have you been up to?

Well, the cellars have all been dug out by hand, which was a monstrous job,

and the floor relayed in there, and the walls all cleaned down.

-Yes.

-We've put a back door in, where a back door used to be.

Every window frame in the house has been replaced.

The Victorian kitchen has been demolished and rebuilt. Admittedly not finished.

The big, heavy structural stuff is done now.

Once we get that clad in stone and the roof on, then we're really in to plumbing and plaster.

Do I need to wear a hard hat?

-Probably.

-No, you'll be all right.

I love what you've done with this hall, I really do, but I...

-Yes, acrow props, always a good feature.

-Yeah.

-Oh, you've gone for the double use, that's very nice.

-THEY LAUGH

On the ground floor things didn't appear to have moved forward,

but up on the top floor, the children's rooms were finally beginning to take shape.

-Whose room is this going to be?

-This is Jude's.

-And who will be in this one, then?

-This is Harry's room.

-Harry.

-So where is Lily going to be?

-Lily is over there.

-In here?

-In the corner. Yep.

I wish we could show you the finished result, but... Soon.

-But you are nearly there.

-Yep.

Very exciting.

It's now one year on, and the Hall really is in the final stages.

Our bedroom is no longer pink, so that's ready for decorating.

There are the shutters, waiting to go back on.

We're nearly there, we're on the home straight.

I feel like I may have said that before, but we really are.

Plasterers are plastering, tilers are tiling,

we're picking paint colours and carpets, and the end is in sight.

Sink's in, loo's in, bath's in.

This is actually the first finished room, or very nearly finished.

It will be the first finished room in the house.

I don't think I've ever had quite so many people ask me

if we've moved in after the programme went out.

It has been so embarrassing. I can't walk down the street without people saying,

"Going to be in by Christmas?" Which has been a bit awful.

But, yeah, we are actually going to make it, this year.

Oh, it's so lovely to actually see some heat in the house,

for maybe the first time, I'm guessing, in ten years.

And Gina and Simon have been overwhelmed by the public response.

Since the programme went out, we had so many lovely letters.

People who had stories and memories of the Hall.

Quite a lot of older people had written in,

and their relatives had been associated with the Hall.

One person who contacted the Russells

was a descendant of a man who had lived at the hall

over 100 years ago.

They had a copy of Mr William Blackwell's diary,

starting in 1887, and sent some extracts to Simon and Gina.

There's one here, I'm looking at it now,

and obviously talking about the village of Stanwick,

and it says, "Went to town meeting

"to discuss what should be done to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee."

Which is, of course, exactly what's on the mind of the whole country right now.

Though in 1887, that would have been Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

And there's all sorts of anecdotes about the village and about his life.

It's a very rural life, there's lots of talk of horses and cows and harvest, as you might expect.

And he also talks about his wedding. September 25th, 1887.

"Married today in Stanwick, to Church, by Reverend Bonnar.

"Left for Scarborough for honeymoon."

No mention of the wife, but I guess she was there at some point.

So it's fascinating.

It's a fascinating glimpse into the life of somebody who was linked to our home.

I think it's lovely. There's an extract in there which says,

"Stayed up all night with the cow man tending the horse."

And you just think, was that in that cottage that we live in now,

or was it one of the buildings here?

It's just great. It's just lovely to see.

It strengthens the reality that you are simply

the custodian of an old building.

You are the latest little snippet of history, but that's all you are, really.

But in the last year there has been one incredible find

that once and for all confirmed the local rumours.

Ever since we purchased the house, local people have always talked about a tunnel,

and we tried to find it with no luck, and then one winter's evening

the builders knocked on the door and said, "We've found a tunnel."

I'm so excited about the tunnel.

Really, quite frankly, behaving like a complete school child.

I read the Famous Five when I was younger,

and they always found a tunnel!

There are many stories surrounding the Stanwick Hall tunnel.

Local legend has it it was once a passageway connecting

the house to the church down in the village, but no-one knows for sure.

Today those legends will be put to the test.

Someone who can give Simon and Gina answers is archaeologist

and tunnel expert Tim Upson-Smith.

He's solved countless subterranean mysteries -

everything from secret passages under monasteries

to mysterious tunnels below stately homes. Tim has seen them all.

So, Tim. What is it?

Well, it's a bit gloomy, but it's beautifully made, isn't it?

-So beautifully made.

-Superb arch.

It's a local limestone, but they are using very much the rubble-y sort of stuff to build it with.

Do you know how far it actually goes down?

Yes, it goes quite a long way, actually. 20, 25 metres.

-So it's quite a distance, then?

-It's quite a distance.

Does appear to be blocked at the far end.

It looks like somebody has been down there, cos we've got

-looks like a probably late 19th century, early 20th century ceramic pipe down there.

-Yes.

-This tunnel is certainly obviously a lot older.

-Yes.

And I have no problem with suggesting it's 18th-century,

-obviously contemporary with the house itself.

-Oh, really?

You know, it's quite a major feat of engineering,

especially for the period.

It's quite an impressive thing, I have to say.

So it dates back to the time of the house, but why was it built?

And looking at it, cos where it comes through, obviously, behind us,

it's been filled in, hasn't it?

Yes, it looks like it's been deliberately filled in.

But it does seem to go through,

-and lines up quite nicely with the cellar, doesn't it?

-Mmm.

-And I gather there's a well in the cellar, isn't there?

-There is, yeah.

So this sort of feature would have been built

to take any excess water off from the well,

-and then it would then go down...

-It's a drain.

-It's a very nice train, and we love it very much.

-A beautiful drain.

-But it's a drain.

-A drain, nonetheless.

Well, we'll love it even if it is a drainage tunnel.

Simon and Gina are the proud owners of a very unique feature in their back garden.

But now it's what's going on inside the house that's their main focus.

Final interior decisions are coming thick and fast,

and with all trades on site, it's a race to the finish.

Kieran will be back soon, so will Stanwick Hall finally be finished?

Three counties away in Somerset, the great news is that

Thomas A Beckett Church has completed its restoration journey.

Before taking a look inside, Kieran is off into the village

to find out what the locals think of it now.

I had reservations at one time, you know,

but to see the building being used now is quite nice, really.

To see a light on in there is kind of heartening for the village.

Yeah all the work he's done, when you enter there, it still gives you the impression

that it's still church-y, if you know what I mean.

-Well, I call him St Paul, actually.

-Right.

Because he must have been a saint to take it up, take it on like that.

It didn't look like much when he took it on, did it?

No, and he's really done well,

and I think the whole village are behind him.

He's done a cracking job.

Well, I'm amazed, absolutely amazed at what they have done

and how they've done it.

But the best thing of all, is in the evening,

when you go outside and you can see the lights in the stained-glass window,

and there's life in there. It's wonderful.

And it seems Paul and Laura's restoration has had an even greater impact.

Whilst they were restoring the nave,

the Churches Conservation Trust restored the medieval tower.

It's given the island a new lease of life.

There's great interest.

We get many more visitors coming to have a look at the church,

have a look at the island, and general interest.

So this heart of the village is alive again. Which is wonderful.

It's great.

It took Paul and Laura four and a half years of painstaking hard work

to rescue Thomas A Becket Church.

But saving a decaying Gothic church is one thing -

living in one is quite another.

I've come to see how successful they've been

at transforming a place of worship into a place to live.

-Nice to see you. There's one more of you.

-Yeah.

Are you going to say hello, Joshy?

-Hello.

-Are you going to smile?

-BABY CRIES

Oh, no!

And are you pleased with the result?

-Really pleased.

-What do you think of all the work?

-It's a shame it's over.

-Really?

-Personally, I find it very sad that it's coming to an end.

-Really?

-Yeah, I loved it, absolutely loved it.

Paul's tireless hard work has created a unique home.

They've certainly not shied away from making the most

of the church's original features.

Do you ever get somebody coming here and saying, "How can you live here

"with this altar and these, kind of, religious things all around you?"

We've had people come and say, "When I came before, I thought

"this would be a problem, but now it's finished I see that it's not."

I'm so used to it, and I was brought up with religion, so I'm not scared of it.

I think the only people that seem to have a problem, I think,

with the concept of living in a church generally are people who haven't...

it's not around them. It feels...

It doesn't feel that strange to me, that all.

Apart from the altar mantelpiece,

the public living spaces have a clean, minimal decor.

In the private bedrooms, however, it's another story.

Oh, good Lord! You've gone to town here, a bit, then?

We've gone for it, yeah.

It's the master bedroom, you know, it's got to have something going on.

And I really like these kind of Chinoiserie rooms,

that's very much of the era.

-But I love that you're just having so much fun with it.

-Yeah.

You've enjoyed the latter stages.

We've had a lot of fun, and I really like this room.

-You've even got a hidden door.

-We have.

-It's not that hidden then, is it?

-Well spotted!

Oh, wow!

It's like a combination of hunting lodge

and some small room in a castle.

With gold paint, antlers on the walls and a solid copper bath,

Paul and Laura have embraced the Victorians' love of opulent and eclectic interiors.

As well as the master suite, Paul and Laura have finished two further bedrooms,

three more bathrooms, and a leather-and-oak panelled study.

And up here we have the living room. At last.

-So, your finished living space.

-Yes, this is it.

-Fantastic.

And here is where you really feel, you know,

like you're inhabiting this amazing space up here, don't you?

-It must be great.

-Yeah, it's really nice.

Paul and Laura managed to bring their build in

for just £10,000 over their modest £140,000 budget.

What's next for this project, Paul?

I mean, this has been your life for nearly five years.

-It has, it has.

-What are you going to do, next?

I'm not sure. "Job" has become a bit of a four letter word,

but I'm just going to have to get with the programme, I guess,

cos little Joshy here is not going to pay his way for a while,

-and somebody has got to pay the electricity bills, so...

-Yeah.

But, you know, I'm open to the idea that

I might actually like what's coming more than I have what's been.

I just don't know what it is yet.

The thing I've loved about coming to Thomas A Becket Church today,

is to see how Paul and Laura's taste for the Victorian Gothic

has added a new, showy layer to this already amazing building.

It's not everybody's cup of tea, but for them, what they've done is

transform a church into a really warm family home.

We've come from Somerset where Paul and Laura have achieved the unlikely

in transforming a church into a lovely place to live,

and we come to Northamptonshire where Gina and Simon

have taken on a building that always looked like the perfect home,

but in fact turned out to be the most challenging restoration of them all.

-Hello!

-Hello, Kieran.

-Hello.

-So nice to see you again.

-Good to see you.

-Nice to see you. And how are things?

We're just so close now. We really are genuinely at the final stages.

-It's tantalising.

-Yeah.

-You know, you can almost reach it.

They're just finishing, really, the finishes and the final stages.

-So you haven't got rid of builders quite yet?

-No, we haven't.

But you're very close to that moment you've been waiting for for nearly four years.

-Yes, that's right, we are.

-Yeah, nearly there.

Well, this is quite a transformation in here.

I mean, when I first came here,

this was where a wall was running with dirt and water,

and now you've got walls with just,

a lick of paint away from being finished.

-How does that feel?

-Brilliant. Really good.

So, on the first floor there's still a fair bit to do,

but up here you just get a sense of how close you are to completion.

All that needs doing is just a little bit of wallpapering, and the carpets.

-And then it's a world for the kids, really.

-Yeah.

-It's done.

It's really nice to see these rooms within reach of

coming back to life completely, but there's one place I've been

really looking forward to seeing, and that's the kitchen.

Is it finished, is it there?

Yes, it's finished, yeah. The new part of the house is done.

Wow, well, this is an extraordinary kitchen, it really is.

Look at the size and scale of it! This is like the heart of the home.

I love to cook and I love to entertain.

You know, a house is nothing without guests and people, is it?

So, this will be where it all happens, I think.

So, one of the other critical questions, of course,

is how much it costs to achieve this, to save a historic building

and to make it into a family home. What's the damage?

We estimated half a million to renovate the house when we first began,

and I think the final figure is probably 1.1.

Well, that's... That's...

Yeah, it has a huge impact, but once you've started,

you have to finish, so you just keep going until you get there.

You took on a historic property, a four-year journey.

Do you ever think, we could have just done our own thing,

we could have built a new house.

No, not really.

You wouldn't have the soul of the house if it was all new.

It's more about the property and our family.

So the two things coming together. It's a dream come true.

A lot of it is the visualisation of the children enjoying the house

having their bedrooms, running down for their meals, and so on.

That's what gets you through, that's what you focus on,

is the happy times with the family that you will have in the house.

What pleases you individually is what's important,

and it really pleases us, we love the house much,

and we love the thought of all living here together.

Secret tunnels, fire damage, decades of neglect.

The restoration of Stanwick Hall was never going to be easy or come cheap,

but now, more than two years after work began here,

Simon and Gina are on the brink of moving in.

I believe that saving a building as special as Stanwick Hall needs more than just money.

It needs someone to love it, and need someone with the imagination

to give it a future life as long and illustrious as its past.

And that's exactly what Simon and Gina have given Stanwick Hall.

Next time, we're revisiting two more ambitious restoration projects.

It's just amazing to see a building almost completely ruined.

We'll reveal what secret World War II links have come to light at Calverton Manor.

This was where a lot of the radio transmissions to our secret agents

in the low countries actually took place.

Big House was a ruin with a history. Could Alun Lewis save it?

We're just ordinary people trying to attempt the nearly impossible with next to nothing.

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