Barnhill Restoration Home

Once we'd walked through that gate,

we were hooked.

Well, look at that house.

I just think, "Wow!"

Every time I see it

I'm just like, "Wow!"

It's a castle, it's a castle!

How can you not buy a castle?

Wow! That's some fireplace.

It's going to be an amazing home.

First day of the rest of its life.

Are you happy?!

We are way, way, way over budget.

I mean I am actually living

in a building site.

We all have to make sacrifices.

There are days

when you just think -

"Have we made the right decision,

are we doing the right thing?"

I want it to look what it looked

like when it was first built.

Well, this is just such

a beautiful place.

It's like every romantic part

of my brain is just firing.

You don't have any idea of how much

money this is going to cost you!

I don't think either of us

envisaged quite as big a project

as we've actually taken on.

It's still a dream, it's still a

dream that we're actually doing it.

I can't wait to move in.

It seems just to take for ever.

It's just a nightmare.

I'm telling myself not to worry,

I mean, cos what can I do?

I've got to finish the house.

This is Barnhill.

An extraordinary house

packed with surprises.

From its lantern-style cupola...

..to the church-like entrance.

The interior is equally striking

and atmospheric.

A landmark in the village of

Brampford Speke in south Devon,

it's surrounded by magnificent

trees and has glorious views

over the River Exe.

But everything that's unique about

Barnhill is crumbling from neglect.

The gutters have been missing

for over three decades.

The building is riddled with dry rot

and damp, and the cupola

is a tottering monument to decay.

Without intervention, Barnhill would

not be much longer for this world.

But now, there's a chance it can be

rescued because Kevin and Geri

have decided it must have a future.

Fate. Definitely fate.

I love it. It's an amazing place.

I feel really privileged to be here

in this space, make it my home.

Kevin works in London, so it's Geri

who'll be masterminding

the restoration of Barnhill.

Years ago she renovated

their current home.

And here and possibly on that...

She's a great sort of motivator,

she's very firm

but extremely nice and she's very

good at getting things done

properly, at the right price.

It all began after their children

flew the nest and the couple

wanted to downsize from their house

in the Kent commuter belt,

to a relaxing country home.

Geri spotted an advert

in a Sunday paper.

I mentioned it to my husband.

We thought it might be fun to spend

a weekend in Devon.

Arrived -

glorious, glorious sunny day.

Fell in love with the crazy,

crazy house.

Within days they'd decided to buy.

I think things are much better

done spontaneously.

Too much planning you

tend not to do it.

But will Geri and Kevin's

haste be their downfall?

They didn't have time to get

a survey done before they

successfully bid £320,000 at auction

for Barnhill in March 2012.

Although a local builder suggested

it might take around £200,000

to restore the house, within weeks

of buying it, the couple

faced a major crisis in the kitchen.

The builder that we brought along

with us said that we could

underpin the walls,

but as soon as I got a structural

engineer involved,

he just said straight away,

"It's just got to come down."

Barnhill is not listed,

so the practical answer was to

demolish then rebuild the kitchen

and the master bedroom above it

in block work.

Geri and Kevin plan

to pay for the restoration

of the house entirely

from their savings...

but that was a big chunk

gone straight away.

The costly surprises

haven't stopped there.

To be sure of eliminating all the

dry rot, plaster throughout

the house is being stripped off

but it triggers another disaster.

The architects, builders

and structural engineer

have been called in.

So the whole thing has sunk.

One of the most important walls

in the house is literally

crumbling to dust.

Not only did that pull the cob

wall down in this section,

upstairs as well.

So it's dropped about four inches.

Cob was widely used

in Devon's old buildings.

It's a mix of clay, sand and straw

which can last hundreds

of years if it's well maintained.

The cob at Barnhill does not impress

mason, John Twitchen.

It's become very brittle,

as you can see,

so it's dried right out so there's

no strength or life in it now.

Geri's lead architect,

Nick Gilbert Scott, is concerned

by the cause of the weakness.

There's a real design fault

in this building.

The cob walls were built

from ground level upwards

and they should be on a stone base

and the last owner didn't look after

the gutters on the building,

so all the rain water's

been splashing down

onto the ground adjacent

to these cob walls and - surprise,

surprise - they've been collapsing.

Geri's team will have their work

cut out finding ways

to keep Barnhill standing.

But despite everything,

she's determined to press ahead.

It is crying out

for someone to love it.

It has been ignored and violated

for such a long time.

This is its time and it's going

to be beautiful again.

Geri and Kevin plan to retain

Barnhill's quirky neogothic

features,

and complement them with

contemporary design to create

a light, spacious home.

On the ground floor there will be

a large kitchen/breakfast room

with a conservatory and veranda,

plus a sitting room,

dining room and library.

On the first floor there will be

three en-suite bedrooms plus

the master bedroom with bath

and wet room.

While the whole of the top floor

will become a music room for Kevin.

The distinctive lantern cupola

will be a space for reading

and enjoying the views.

Geri and Kevin have found a unique

property, but is it really

worth saving?

Is Barnhill a restoration too far?

I want to find out why they're

prepared to take on this

potential money pit.

Lovely to meet you.

Aw, it's lovely to meet you too.

And this is your extraordinary

house?

It is my extraordinary house.

It's amazing!

It's a folly, I think,

in many, many ways.

I knew instantly that it needed

a fair bit of work,

but I don't know, it's kind of...

it has a personality

that's lured me in.

Was it love at first

sight for Kevin as well?

Kevin loves what I love. I've been

with him now for long enough,

he knows that's the thing to do.

Passion for a restoration project

is great but I'm wondering if Geri

and Kevin's savings will stretch far

enough to cope with all this.

What did you pay for it?

320.

320.

Yeah.

And so it could end

up costing you...same again?

Oh, God, no, that will be nice.

Much more than that.

Much more than that.

Really?

Yeah. I just don't know.

So, we'll see how far we get

with the money that I've got.

There's nothing here!

Not so much a house, more some

breeze blocks and no roof.

Geri and Kevin have set aside

an absolute maximum of £400,000

to achieve a really top-notch

restoration with luxurious finishes.

Oh, this is beautiful.

So this is the master bedroom,

is it?

From the first floor, it becomes

obvious why Geri sees such

potential in this crumbling

building.

The room is designed for the bed

to be placed in exactly

the right position to get the views.

And so you'll see right down

the river. Perfect.

How beautiful.

Yeah.

The bath is going to be angled out,

like that, for the view.

It's really bold what you're

doing, isn't it?

None of it's straightforward.

No. That would be really boring,

wouldn't it, and prescribed.

You're a very brave woman

because you don't have any idea

of how much money this is going

to cost you and you're just taking

it all as it comes.

Yup. It's that carpe diem thing,

isn't it?

You have to just seize the day.

In January 2011,

Geri survived a potentially

life-threatening medical condition.

I had a cerebral oedema

so I had a swelling in my brain

when I was on...

I was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

I had a lot of time afterwards,

months afterwards to think.

So I kind of now like to do things

that enrich my life

and I think this will

enrich my life.

Geri and Kevin bought Barnhill

knowing almost nothing about

the history of their new home and

how it came to look so remarkable.

We're going to do all we can

to unravel these mysteries

and discover the story

behind Barnhill.

Our historian, Dr Kate Williams,

will comb the archives

to trace the people

and events from its past.

While architectural expert

Kieran Long will search for clues

in the building itself.

Wow! Well, it's just an amazing

place, isn't it?

This kind of Gothic fantasy.

The first thing that strikes you

is this array of pointed windows,

mixed together with these

kind of castellations.

And then the sheer kind of sparkling

beauty of the cupola.

It's just a bit insane, this house.

You can see that this was once one

big house and has since been divided

into two, but it's interesting that

all of the money, all of the

effort, all of the architectural

atmosphere is loaded to this end.

It's not just the design

that's erratic,

so is the use of building materials.

The stone is the most expensive

material by a long chalk,

and they've invested all of it

on this amazing doorway.

But the rest of the building

is just in brick

and the thing that really

interests me are these arches.

They're not really

kind of archeologically accurate.

There's nothing exactly

medieval about these,

apart from the pointed arch.

It's not at all trying to say,

"We're a true Gothic building."

It's trying to say,

"No, we're going to give you an

atmosphere of the Gothic."

Barnhill's exterior echoes medieval

Gothic architecture...

..and the interior follows suit.

Brilliant, isn't it?

It's really jamming all that Gothic

atmosphere into as small

a space as possible.

Little niches, little spaces.

I think I can see five or six Gothic

arches in this tiny little lobby.

Think of a medieval monastery

or something in miniature,

that's what it's trying to evoke.

Whoever built the additions had big

ideas but little money or skill.

The infill walls are really low

quality brickwork.

There's nothing good quality

about this construction.

Regardless of quality, the ambition

expressed in the tower

and cupola above is striking.

This is just an amazing space.

This looks like some

kind of stair tower.

I'm surrounded by windows

and with bits of carving

and bits of decoration.

The church-style brickwork exterior

seems to indicate Barnhill

dates from the Gothic Revival of the

19th century,

but the cob walls hint at something

older.

Cob wall is a technique that's been

used for 500 years,

so it suggests to me that this

building could be earlier than the

frilly Gothic facade made of brick.

There are two buildings,

one within another.

There's one which is a substantial

cob wall and another which is

almost like a screen, a wrapping

around that house designed to

elevate it and make it a bit more

enjoyable, a bit more theatrical

and, you know, that suggests

somebody moved in here

at some point. Loved the spot,

added this Gothic dressing.

Someone used the windows and arches

to transform Barnhill and

their work reached right up to the

cupola, a wonderful vantage point

as well as a spectacular

addition to the roof line.

It's quite beautiful

proportionally and these triangle

pieces of glass, particularly,

are really, really nice.

As the sun shines through it,

it does seem to symbolise something,

it's just like it may be a symbol

like of knowledge or enlightenment.

But of course it also has

a brilliant function, which

is channelling light

down into that staircase.

Barnhill's been a real thrill for me

cos the Gothic Revival

is one of my most favourite

eras of British architecture.

It's a very special example with

this kind of ancient cob wall

construction, combined with this

sort of florid rather

decorative Gothic construction.

I think it's one of the most

exciting buildings we've seen.

Now the key challenge for Kate

is discovering who transformed

Barnhill.

She begins by trawling all the usual

historical sources...

..but draws a blank.

In search of a lead, she meets up

with Andrew Wiles, chairman

of the parish council to pick his

brains for local knowledge.

Andrew, a house like this really

dominates the village.

It's huge and so it's somewhere that

people would've always talked about.

Yes. The most common phrase people

use to refer to it

as the Bishop's summer palace

because the understanding

in the village is that the Bishop

of Exeter had this from about,

we think, the mid-19th century.

He would've been a very

significant individual at the time?

Yes, and we do know certainly

that there was a private path

and a private bridge from this

house to the church which will

take us through these very

good-looking trees which must've,

I guess, all have been planted

around about the same time.

Now Kate has a lead

but it's just hearsay

until she can research it further.

Well, talking to Andrew

was a real revelation

and it really intrigues me

the idea that this is possibly the

Bishop of Exeter's summer palace.

In cases like this,

it's just vital to tap into that

local knowledge because although

some of it might be rumours,

some of it might also be true.

Geri is overseeing the restoration

of Barnhill, mostly from the

family house in Kent until

it's sold, but the structural

engineer's report on the collapsed

cob wall calls for a trip to Devon.

It's not just that wall,

it's our neighbour's property...

It's this wall, it's the wall

above it, so there's basically four

rooms that have been affected

and a whole other house.

Some of the cob

is in such a bad state,

the only answer is demolition.

It has to be done slowly by hand,

for fear it could make other

walls collapse.

The better parts of the cob

can be saved,

but only with extensive

underpinning.

It's so fragile, it has to be done

a foot at a time making it a

slow and costly process.

It was completely unexpected

and it was a bit of shock, actually,

to discover the extent of the

damage.

Yeah...it's um...

Despite the expense, architect

Nick Gilbert Scott is relieved

to see stability built back into

Barnhill after years of neglect.

It's just been a sort of magnificent

Gothic fantasy which

everybody's rather mesmerised by.

You buy the dream but actually

when you get into the reality,

you realise that the whole thing

wants to die as a building.

We're making a very, very sturdy

structure out of it.

So, although it wanted to die,

it's not going to.

It's not all big structural work.

The delicate 19th-century features

are getting a new lease of life too.

Mason, Chris Lee, is enjoying

restoring the brick arches.

You've got big building sites where

you could stay there for six months

and just go from one four-bedroom

house to another four-bedroom house.

On this project it's, well, it's

different, it's exciting because you

know you're putting back something

that was as it was years ago.

Kate's established some local

residents believe Barnhill

was once the summer palace

of the Bishop of Exeter.

She's come to

the Devon Heritage Centre

to try to verify the information.

So I know the house

has been talked about,

so what I thought was perhaps it's

been talked about in the local

newspapers, so I began

looking through them.

And then I found my jackpot.

September 27th 1828, the lady

of John Mudge Esq of Barnhill

was delivered of a son.

That is pretty exciting.

We know that Barnhill

was there in 1828.

It's fascinating to find proof

Barnhill existed so early,

but it doesn't throw light on local

talk of a bishop's palace.

But, you know, John Mudge Esq

is certainly not His Grace,

the Bishop of Exeter.

John Mudge may not be a bishop

but he's the best lead Kate has.

She continues by looking for more

about his life at Barnhill.

So here I am in August 1849,

the entire Barnhill estate is

being sold by John Mudge, so that's

pretty disappointing for me.

I thought I had this great lead

and no sooner had I got him,

I've lost him again.

It's a setback, but the newspaper

reports do show the name

Barnhill has been in use for

centuries and that will help Kate.

And now I've got

the name of the house,

it's going to be much easier to find

the families who have it later and

we can see whether or not the Bishop

of Exeter was a resident there.

With Kate focused on finding past

occupants of Barnhill,

Kieran heads for the National

Archives

looking for clues about when

the house acquired its Gothic layer.

A tithe map provides a great start.

Well, what we've found here

is really exciting

because this is a map from 1843.

It's really, really great

because we see the outline here

of a house on the site of Barnhill.

But most distinctively are these

two big bay windows

and also a veranda on two sides

of the building, looking out

across the river to this wonderful

view that we know is there today.

But I don't see any evidence in this

map that that Gothic element

is present.

The next record of Barnhill's

appearance dates from 1905

when a surveyor's notes list

the building materials.

B here says, brick

and slate with lantern lights.

This is our turret with that

wonderful lantern at the top.

Letter N just simply says

brick and glass.

We know that that is that fantastic

Gothic colonnade

with the pointed windows.

We know now that these Gothic

additions were of course

completed after 1843

and before 1905.

Local knowledge suggested Barnhill

may have been the Bishop of Exeter's

summer palace in the second

half of the 19th century.

Now the sources have confirmed

the Gothic ecclesiastical touches

were added in the same era.

What's needed now is proof

of who lived at Barnhill then.

In the 19th-century tower

beneath the cupola at Barnhill,

stripping the plaster

has revealed what appears to be yet

another major structural problem.

Each wall is a free-standing section

with no interwoven brickwork

where they adjoin.

It's likely the whole tower is weak.

There are so many unknowns.

The final cost of the restoration

is anyone's guess, but it seems

certain to be more than Geri

and Kevin's savings.

We are way, way, way over budget.

When we first bought the house

we brought a builder along with us

who said £200,000. So we thought,

"Wow, that sounds really cheap.

"Let's say £400,000 and we'll get...

It'll be all singing all dancing."

Now, yeah, we don't have

the money to do it.

Ha-ha-ha, my God!

I'm going to have to project

manage, I think.

That's going to be hilarious.

Although I can do it, I just

can't do the structural stuff

cos I don't understand it and it's

so complex on a build like that.

Geri jumps in at the deep end.

Joining her architects, builder

and structural engineer to discuss

the state of the tower.

The anticipation alone is painful.

Yeah, I've got backache.

My stress zone. I think positively,

I behave normally,

I never lose my temper,

I just get backache.

There's bad news.

We've got an arch there which

doesn't actually bond with

the wall and we've got

ropey brickwork.

Really there's nothing...

And that's holding up this?

Yes, we've got one bit of wood

in there which he said

he doesn't dare take it out

cos he said it'll collapse.

Whoever added the tower did a poor

job here as well as in

the rest of the house.

I think that we've got to the point

where if we take them

out, we're going to have to

rebuild the...

..yeah.

It is a bit worrying, isn't it?

It's too much for Geri's back.

How's the back, Geri?

Ah, it's killing me.

Oh, my God. No joke...

I hadn't quite realised that

the tower's about to collapse.

It could just implode.

I honestly had no idea.

This is what happens when

you're not here all the time.

You know, this stuff has probably

been discussed before but for some

reason every conversation

involving that, I've missed.

So...

Kate has established Barnhill

was known by that name at least

as far back as 1828.

Now, she can search the census

records for the whole village

of Brampford Speke, confident that

amongst them she should find

an entry for the house name...

..and that will give names

of past occupants.

The 1841 and 1851 censuses

yield nothing, but in 1861

it's a different story.

There it is, Barnhill Cottage

it's now called and this is pretty

exciting because it is fully

occupied by a big family.

William Mallock who

is the head of the family

and he is the rector of

Cheriton Bishop and he's also living

there with his wife Margaret,

his children, the servants

and what I need to do now is find

out how long they're there for.

Now, she knows she's looking

for the Reverend William Mallock,

Kate's census search

becomes quicker.

There he is, 1881, William Mallock

and here I've got a family who were

there from at least 1861 to 1881.

But, interestingly, it's no longer

called Barnhill Cottage,

it's now called Barnhill.

And this suggests that, possibly,

it's during this time under

William Mallock, it is

being changed, extended,

made much more of a grand house

rather than a cottage.

It's a real breakthrough to find out

who was living at Barnhill at

around the time the house

was probably altered.

But although Reverend

William Mallock was an Anglican

clergyman, he's not what

local hearsay led Kate to expect.

This is not the Bishop of Exeter.

So unless the Bishop of Exeter

bought it much later,

it's very likely it was

never his palace at all.

By December, Geri and Kevin have

sold their house in Kent and

Geri moves into a rented home

yards from Barnhill.

She's certain it's critical

to staying in control.

I'll be able to keep

my finger on the pulse,

I'll be able to see what's going on

and have an input.

It's a mixed blessing.

Saying goodbye to my house

and then coming here

and realising how incomplete

the house that I want to

move into is, it was, yeah, it was

a bit of a shock, plenty of tears.

But there is some progress.

The tower structure was too weak

to use conventional strengthening

methods, so the structural engineer

and architects have devised

an ingenious solution.

Mason, Chris Lee, is attaching

steel mesh to the walls.

Every wall is joined together again.

If this was to try

and fall out, it would

have to drag this panel

with it as well.

It's a complete unit, whereas before

it was just a lot of straight

masonry joints which

isn't very clever.

Even though there's still a lot

to do there's a sense on site

that a corner has been turned.

We've come across all

the problems now

and we won't be demolishing

any more -

hopefully, fingers crossed.

It's ten months since Geri

and Kevin bought Barnhill

and it's been a bumpy ride.

I'm on my way to find out how morale

and finances are holding up.

Hello.

Nice to see you, how are you?

I'm really good, thank you.

Ah, come in,

just in time for a coffee.

Good. That's very good news.

When I first met you, £400 K was

your absolute maximum budget.

Mmm, it's probably more than

doubled.

So, we're talking about £800,000

plus the purchase price?

Yeah.

So you're well over a million.

Mmm. But we're in it now,

so have to do it.

Do you feel like it's running

away from you?

Completely run away from me.

It's taken on a life

of its own, really.

Cash from selling the house

in Kent is now funding

work at Barnhill,

with few obvious results.

Absolutely extraordinarily,

nothing's changed.

Yes, it has! How can you say that?

Inside things have changed, though.

Come into the kitchen...

Lovely huge kitchen.

Yeah, the whole house

is full of steel.

Steel and concrete everywhere.

So, really this house was held

up by cobwebs, wasn't it, before?

So, Aga and then turn around

and there will be a big island here.

Beautiful.

Doors opening out

onto a veranda that runs all

the way round this structure.

You've managed to maintain

a clarity of vision for the place.

I think I've always had a vision

of how I wanted it to look.

Have you? From the very beginning?

Yeah.

But at no point did you think,

"Actually, I've bitten off more

"than I can chew.

I should get the hell out?"

No. Never. But I have thought

I maybe should've stopped

and thought for a bit longer

about making a decision to buy this.

There's a big element

of fate in there.

I was meant to be here and do this.

This is looking fantastic.

Yeah.

It's still really pretty, isn't it?

It's beautiful and there's some

amazing features that have been

retained and the stonemason just

worked tirelessly doing all of this.

He's been amazing.

So what happens here?

OK, this is the tower which houses

the cupola and over there will be

the staircase which will wind up

and take you up into the cupola.

The cupola and the tower have

actually been your bete noire,

haven't they?

Yeah, they have.

It's been a nightmare.

And what's going to be up there

when you get up there?

Oh, these massive, massive padded

seats and a telescope.

That's very romantic, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, actually.

How much have you spent

on this tower and cupola?

£50,000, maybe? I don't know.

A lot of money.

Will it be worth it?

Yes, it will be worth it.

There's just something about it

that's just so magical.

There's not that many houses

with glass towers.

Kate's been trying to discover

who was responsible for the

unique design of Barnhill.

She established that between

1861 and 1881,

it was occupied not by the

Bishop of Exeter, but by the

Reverend William Mallock

and his family.

She's now done further

research on Mallock.

What I found here is his marriage

certificate in 1844.

What's really fascinating to me

is the identity of his wife.

She is Margaret Froude

and she is the daughter

of Robert Hurrell Froude and that

name immediately sets bells ringing.

The Hurrell Froudes were absolutely

vital in the changes of the

church in the early 19th century

and they're much written about.

The Froudes were

a remarkable family.

They had strong characters and they

had a great impact on the world.

One was a historian,

one was a naval engineer

and Margaret's brother

Richard Hurrell Froude is

regarded by high churchmen as an

originator of the Oxford Movement.

The Oxford Movement had a huge

impact on Anglican thought

in Britain from the 1830s onward.

While studying at Oriel College,

Oxford, Richard Hurrell Froude

became very passionate about the

idea that the Anglican Church

needed to reform, along with

men like Newman and Keble.

What became known

as the Oxford Movement

was really concerned with the idea

that the Anglican Church had

gone too far of throwing off

the Catholic tradition.

The Oxford Movement argued

for the church to return to its

Catholic roots in its

beliefs and worship.

And the fact that this is Margaret's

brother really tells us a lot about

William Mallock, because there's no

way he would've married into such

an important family if he hadn't

felt the same about Christianity.

If Mallock WAS the man who

commissioned the gothification

of Barnhill, his marital

connection could really help

explain the thinking behind

the additions to the house.

The Oxford Movement was hugely

influential on architecture.

To study its influence on churches,

Kieran's come to

St Barnabas in Pimlico in London.

Well, this church might look to you

like your very idea of what

a church should look like,

but when it was built in 1850,

this was a building that

started riots.

By the mid-19th century,

architects were already using

the Gothic Revival style echoing

designs from medieval times when

the Church in England

was still Catholic.

But architects associated with the

Oxford Movement saw Gothic not just

as a decorative style, it was also

a way to promote Catholic ideas.

That was controversial.

It was so completely contrary

to everything that the

Church of England had

stood for up to then

that they had to have guards

on the doors to stop the mob

storming this kind of popish very

Catholic-looking architecture.

The architects of the mid-19th

century were looking at those

medieval Gothic cathedrals,

they were thinking, "We need

"to bring that atmosphere back.

It needs to be in every detail."

They were an absolute feast

of colour and decoration,

so we have these wonderful detailed

pieces of stencilling,

pieces of geometric pattern,

naturalistic pattern,

all just adding layer upon layer

of delight and mystery for the eye.

These ideas spilled out

of the churches and into homes.

Now Kate and Kieran need to pin down

who applied them to the

transformation of Barnhill.

Back at the house, the

strengthening continues apace.

Rotten wood and crumbling masonry

are making way for more

block work and steel.

The tower has been reinforced too,

but in the cupola above it,

Chris the mason is perturbed

by the scale of the decay.

These posts are the actual

supports for the whole cupola.

They're just bolted through the

masonry on a piece of threaded bar.

The actual threaded bar is rusted

and they're rotten from behind where

they've got wet from the outside.

Geri's team of professionals

will need to devise a solution

and it's not likely to be cheap.

Having settled into her cottage

near Barnhill, Geri's determined

to start asserting more control

over the restoration...

Hi, Nick. I'm here.

I want to know everything

that's going on.

..and the ever-spiralling costs.

She's hoping being more accessible

to architect Nick

will hasten decisions.

If you made that of glass,

the light would come through it.

Yeah. I like it, OK, done.

I feel like I got a house.

Today is definitely

the beginning of the new phase of me

understanding the house more,

the people that are working

on the house,

hopefully, understanding me

in a different way.

It's all coming together...

It is.

..quite well, actually.

It's all coming together.

Kate's established that

in the late 19th century,

Barnhill was occupied by

the Reverend William Mallock.

She and Kieran are certain his

marriage to Margaret Froude

exposed him to the ideas

of the Oxford Movement.

Now, Kieran's unearthed something

else that might have influenced him.

Well, I've been looking

a bit further

into the Froude family history

and looking into the British Listed

Buildings Register,

we've made a really

exciting discovery.

Dartington Parsonage,

which was their family home,

was remodelled in the 19th century

by William White.

Now, William White is one of the

most prolific and a really important

architect of the Gothic Revival,

and someone whose architecture

was profoundly influenced

by the ideas of the Oxford Movement.

Sadly, Dartington Parsonage no

longer exists, but a photograph

gives an insight into the way it was

remodelled by William White.

The 19th-century additions

are really clear

and they're definitely

Gothic Revival.

We have this added turret

with its kind of witche's-hat roof

and weather vane on the top

and these beautiful stone windows.

They almost look like church windows

and the Gothic Revival

additions are just one layer.

That's very similar to Barnhill,

we just have one layer of Gothic

and an older building behind.

The similarities are intriguing.

Kieran will need to take a closer

look at a surviving example

of William White's domestic

architecture, to work out

whether there may be more than just

a superficial resemblance in styles.

By February, Geri is closely

involved in decision making...

I think black fascia,

black guttering.

..and desperately trying

to trim costs.

Mmm, when you see it...is it

worth £2,000?

The final cost still looks set

to be at least double what was

budgeted and ever more cash from the

selling of the house in Kent

is being swallowed up by Barnhill.

That was never the plan

but Geri has stuck with it.

Until we get inside,

we can't cut down on costs

cos it's all stuff that's

got to be done

and we've cut it back to the

bone as much as we can.

So when we get inside, we can

start saying,

"Well, I can't have these fancy

britannium handles."

Geri's also had to abandon plans

for a conservatory, but at

least the essential work is still

visibly progressing.

On the cupola, the plan is to add

strength with concrete.

Before that can go on, lead-work

specialist, Terry Harris,

needs to create a damp-proof course.

The original construction of the

cupola, like so much else at

Barnhill, was amateurish.

Every facet is a slightly different

size, so Terry has to tailor-make

each section of lead, and

there's another complication.

Ten corners into 360 degrees and

you've got a circle, haven't you?

So if every corner was 36 degrees...

..it would but they're not.

Kieran's come to Bishops Court,

a house near Exeter by the

noted Gothic Revival architect,

William White,

who also remodelled

Dartington Parsonage.

By studying his work, Kieran hopes

to establish whether White

played a role in shaping

the look of Barnhill.

This is just an astonishing

building.

It's a feast for the eye

of colour and of material.

If we're able to make a link

between the work of an architect

like William White and Barnhill,

it's just so exciting for me because

what William White is doing here is

one of the most important examples

of what we have in the country

of somebody interpreting the ideas

of the Oxford Movement of the Gothic

Revival in general in architecture

and deploying them making the most

beautiful house you could imagine.

As you get in closer to the

building,

you just get that incredible

richness of detail.

Look at the parapet line here

with its gargoyles, you know,

that incredible carving work

and then this polychrome

alternating red and light stones

around the windows.

I love these carved details, they

delight the eye and we just get a

sense of that incredible workmanship

that's in a Gothic Revival building.

It also reminds me a bit

of Barnhill.

There are other

architectural echoes too.

This is just stunning to see

and I can't help seeing the striking

resemblance between Barnhill's

amazing glass cupola

and that beautiful glazed

turret on the corner.

It's easy to imagine that

William White was a big

influence on Barnhill

when you see these two cupolas.

Look at this pointed arched window.

So Gothic, when in fact it's just

a screen at this depth although

at Barnhill it's made of one leaf

of bricks and just painted white.

Here we've got a bit more expense

but it's the same attitude.

This place is just extraordinary.

It's just an absolutely beautiful

space with all this

kind of profusion

of decoration and colour.

The arches are another reminder

of Barnhill, but these are

sophisticated works.

One of the things that just takes

the breath away in this space

is the quality of the materials

and the profusion of fine ornament.

The full-on all-guns-blazing

Gothic Revival effect.

It's now clear to Kieran that

although the ideas behind

the architecture of Barnhill

and Bishops Court are similar,

the quality of execution

is worlds apart.

Seeing this building,

it's very difficult for me

to imagine that White was

responsible for designing Barnhill.

Barnhill is a kind of fantasy.

It's paper thin,

but when you come here you realise

that White was engaged in an

architecture of incredibly elaborate

workmanship, elaborate materials.

All of those things that Barnhill

just doesn't have.

Bishops Court expresses the

Oxford Movement's ideals in the form

of domestic architecture.

But now it's obvious William White

wasn't responsible for the

alterations at Barnhill,

the question remains, "Who was?"

By April, extensive roof repairs

at Barnhill are nearing completion.

Roofing contractor, Mark Astley,

and his team, are wrestling with

fitting new tiles to every

nook and cranny.

I think it's one of the most

complicated roofs

I've done in the past 25 years.

It's critical to get it just right.

The roof is curved

and in order to get the tile to sit

relatively flat, we shave a little

bit of the underside off.

Obviously, if you chamfer too

much off, it won't be watertight

and, aesthetically,

it won't look right.

Geri is finding life tough now

she's living virtually

full-time in Devon.

Of all the build,

since I've moved here,

it's been more stressful because

I don't see my husband that much.

Yeah, I don't see my son

as much as I did...

and I really miss my friends.

REALLY miss my friends.

I'm here essentially

on my own for A HOUSE.

What on earth was I thinking?

What was I doing?

I feel a bit alone here.

Not lonely, but alone.

Kate's established

that in the late 1800s,

Barnhill was occupied by

clergyman William Mallock.

Now she's traced a memoir

by Mallock's son, the first

solid evidence describing

what kind of man he was.

His health was always poor,

so it - "Never permitted him

"to exert himself in the performance

of divine service.

"Indeed, his ecclesiastical

interests were architectural rather

"than pastoral."

And it says here - "He spent his

time in enlarging the house

"and gardens and in planting slopes

and terraces, about a quarter

"of a mile in length with,

what were then, very rare trees."

So we've got our house.

And here are the beautiful trees.

At last, it's clear it was

the Reverend William Mallock,

clergyman turned amateur architect,

who remodelled a humble cob house

into a Gothic Revival fantasy.

The book by Mallock's son holds

more answers for Kate with the

surprising reference to the building

of a palace for

the Bishop of Exeter by the seaside.

"Amongst the many villas then

rising at Torquay the Bishop built

"one of the largest.

"This agreeable residence,

"in the designing of which

he was helped by my father."

William Mallock had an interest

in design and architecture that

went much further right up to

that of the Bishop of Exeter

and this is at the bottom, I think,

of the those local rumours

suggesting that Barnhill was

the Bishop's palace.

It seems local hearsay had it

almost, but not quite, right.

Barnhill was never a bishop's summer

palace, but it's occupant did

help design one as well as

transforming Barnhill itself.

I'm pretty thrilled.

At the beginning I had no idea

and here, I've got the conclusive

proof it was William Mallock who

made Barnhill what it was.

At the house there's still plenty to

do, but it is really taking shape.

Geri is anxious to move in, but she

knows it'll be at least

a couple of months

before it's possible.

She's now got two Labrador puppies

to keep her company,

but she's still feeling isolated and

ambivalent about what she's done.

Whenever I come here

I do feel more relaxed.

I've just got to keep

remembering that

cos the good feeling has gone

because it's all about the budget.

It isn't fun because it's all just,

I dunno, overwhelming I suppose.

Lulu, Coco, come on!

But one thing remains unchanged.

"Do I still love that house?"

I absolutely adore that house.

It's, for the last year,

been my whole life, so...

Yeah, it would be like,

not loving a child.

Before we discover

whether Geri's completed

the restoration of Barnhill,

she's going to find out

all that we have about her

extraordinary Gothic fantasy home.

It has William Mallock.

He is married to Margaret Froude,

one of the most influential families

in the country at this time.

Ah!

Dartington Parsonage, which is

the home of the Froude family...

I have those windows!

..significantly changed by an

architect called William White,

using this new Oxford

Movement-inspired Gothic revival.

"His ecclesiastical interests

were architectural

"rather than pastoral..."

(How fascinating!)

"..he bought a picturesque

retreat embowered in ivy..."

My house!

"..overlooking the River Exe."

Definitely my house!

I kind of get what he was trying

to do, was try to make it look

something and had he got someone

in to do the house in the way

that he wanted it done, we wouldn't

now be having dramas that we've had.

So you're reaping

the whirlwind of this amateur?

I think we are, yes.

When Geri and Kevin bought this

unique house, they knew it

was in a poor state of repair.

But nothing had prepared them

for how bad it really was.

With dry rot throughout,

the collapsing cupola

and crumbling walls,

Barnhill was about to fall down.

But it's been saved.

It's 16 months since Geri

and Kevin bought Barnhill.

I've come back to see

how they're getting on

with this rescue operation.

Hello!

It's looking absolutely gorgeous

but there's still scaffolding

and there's still loads

of rubbish outside.

Yes.

But it's nearly finished,

we're very close.

Scaffolding's going to be down

probably this week so...

The pace is picking up.

Yeah.

Is it?

Yeah.

Cos this is the bit

where, I suppose,

everything's coming together.

Yeah.

And how does that make you feel

to see it looking...?

It's pretty good.

Yeah, I think pretty proud.

The cost to get here has

obviously been much higher

than we thought it was going to be,

but when you look at the result...

Slight underestimate there.

..but kind of priceless,

I would say...

which is what we did it for.

The sad thing for me

with my sort of finance head on,

is that it's...we're going to spend

more money on it than it's

actually worth in today's market.

But how are things inside?

They're a lot better than it looks

like they might be from the outside.

Is she telling the truth to me?

Half the truth.

The ground floor is still

a building site,

but you will see some progress

further up.

I'm going to go

and look at it now, if I may?

You may.

Thank you very much, follow me.

When work started, more and more

structural issues were revealed.

The only way to rectify many

of the problems was to demolish

whole sections of the house.

The room that will be the kitchen

has been rebuilt,

as has Geri and Kevin's

master bedroom above.

Aw! Your bedroom.

Yeah.

The views are amazing from this

room. I actually love that.

And this is where your bed's going

to be?

Right there,

so when you wake up you will see

a different view from every window.

What is amazing about these windows

is that there's no glazing

bar in the centre, so you

literally just open them

and the world just opens up to you.

You literally just have

everything there.

Oh, that's divine.

And, of course, they were more

expensive without the glazing bar

cos that's the traditional

way of making them.

This'll do, won't it, darling?

This will do, yeah.

It doesn't get much better.

After completely replacing the

roof, the attic has been opened up

to create this light, airy space.

What a beautiful room.

Nice, isn't it?

And this is going to be yours,

isn't it?

This is going to,

basically, be mine, yeah.

Playing guitar...music...my

hideaway.

Because you've been away

working and Geri's

been down here all the time,

you've actually been apart

quite a lot during this build,

haven't you?

Yeah, absolutely.

A necessary evil, I think,

of still working in London

and trying to live in Devon.

Has it been difficult?

Yeah, for sure, for sure.

I mean, I think,

it's been particularly

difficult for Geri.

She's here all day on her own,

she's working as well trying to make

all the decisions, it's tough.

The old cob construction

of the house was crumbling.

The walls dropped by four inches

and this rear bedroom was on the

brink of collapse.

But after underpinning,

it has been restored to perfection.

This room is just the most

fantastic shape, isn't it?

I mean, everyone that comes into

this room says it's their favourite.

The house is starting to look lovely

but it's been a fraught journey.

How did you feel having bought,

ostensibly, a very beautiful house

when, I mean, something like 80% of

it just wasn't structurally sound?

I feel a bit stupid.

What possessed me to buy this house

without getting a full

structural survey?

And that was really silly.

But if I had done the full

structural survey,

I wouldn't now own this house

cos I'd have gone - "No, no way."

All my sense would've told me

to just listen to the surveyor

who undoubtedly would've said -

"Do not touch this.

"This is a disaster waiting

to happen." Quite rightly so.

But it's beautiful.

Now it is.

It's absolutely beautiful.

Now it is.

This is looking fantastic,

but it's a smidge a line.

You're meant to be living here

now, aren't you?

Ah, yeah, what can I do?

It's taken this long because we've

unveiled lots of problems

and we've chosen to do it

the right way.

But it has been a massive shock

that we've ended up spending

so much money.

Geri and Kevin have spent more

than they ever imagined on

Barnhill, selling their old house

to finance the restoration.

On top of purchasing the house -

ballpark figure of what

you've spent?

I think that we will have

spent about £1 million

once the house is finished.

Even though it's such a big number,

what we have achieved is this

fantastic house that will

be with us for ever, that we can

have the most amazing memories in.

I've given it so much of me

over the last 14, 15 - ooh! -

16 months that I think there's

a little bit of me in all the walls.

I'm completely and 100% happy that

I took it on and don't ask me

if I'd do it again.

I think you would.

I think I might! That's scary!

Geri and Kevin have given their all

to restoring Barnhill.

When they bought it, the striking

cupola was disintegrating.

It has been strengthened,

the lead replaced, and it's safe

to use as a lookout again.

The jewel in the crown.

Oh, look at it. LOOK at it.

I know! My views,

oh, it's amazing, I love it.

Isn't that beautiful?

This was a real problem area for

you, wasn't it? How you were going

to make it work, whether you could

save it, how you would save it?

Worth keeping?

Yeah. I mean, it's just so unique.

It's the singing, most unique

feature, I would say, of this

house and to take it away it would

just wouldn't be the same thing

and it wouldn't be the same thing

to the community either.

I mean, they come across this bridge

down here walking their dogs,

they look up.

Everyone loves it.

They all think it's a castle

because of this, basically.

And I'm not surprised

the community love it

because it is a magical sight,

isn't it?

To me it's just great and you think,

"Oh, that's mine!" Or ours, sorry.

But it's really mine.

When the Reverend Mallock first

dreamt up this extraordinary

house, he was building his version

of a Gothic fantasy, but the flimsy

walls and quirky features were never

built to last and in recent years,

the things that make this place

unique have started to crumble.

Kevin and Geri bought this house

on a whim and it's lucky they

did because, I think, if they'd

thought too hard about it,

they'd probably have run a mile.

What started as a hobby for Geri

is going to be her life

for some time to come.

But the money spent

and the obstacles overcome,

Barnhill has got some foundations

it can rely on.