We spent £400 on a 1940s loo — it took us four months to find one!
Claire Nugent, 43, and Nigel Morter, 47, have been married for 14 years. they restored a 1940s airfield control tower in Norfolk and now run it as a B&B. She says: When Nigel and I met as students in 1993 we soon discovered we both absolutely loved the 1940s. I had a beautiful mirror from the period that still hangs over our fireplace.
We love the style because there’s such an attention to detail in everything from the handles through to the surfaces.
When we moved in together after university, we’d scour the local North London markets for 1940s pieces while checking out bric-abrac shops and antique dealers on holiday.
I’ve always found other people are more interested in earlier items from Victorian, Edwardian or Georgian times, so we’re usually left to take our pick.
In 2011, our dreams came true when we bought a World War II airfield control tower near Wells-next-the-Sea for £295,000. It had been used as accommodation or a grain store since the war so needed a lot of work — we spent nearly £200,000 getting it back to how it used to be.
We stripped out the laminated flooring and scraped off the modern wallpaper, replacing it with original parquet flooring from a Sheffield school, and painting the walls.
The bathrooms were the biggest source of stress. We once bought a cast-iron bath on eBay only to discover it was still installed. We had to pay someone £250 to drive up with pipe cutters and spanners to dig it out of the bathroom. But it was worth it. Another time we bought a pink bathroom suite then discovered the toilet wasn’t of the period. It took us four months of calling reclamation yards and googling to find the one we wanted. It cost £400 from a reclamation yard in the West Country — the most we’ve paid for something.
While life has been made easier by the arrival of eBay, it does have added stresses. We spent New Year’s Eve two years ago desperately driving around trying to find a signal so I could bid on some concertina dividing doors. Eventually we managed it with 15 seconds to spare and got them for £200.
Our biggest expense was the windows, as control towers have so many. We spent around £45,000 having custom-made replicas, but ours are thankfully double glazed.
It’s taken us three years to do up the tower, and while the B&B part is finished, we’re still working on our private living areas.
I invited my ten-year- old nephew to stay and showed him photos of how it had been when we moved in. Seeing all the modern flooring and wallpaper, he asked: ‘Auntie Claire, why have you wrecked your house?’
We’re so pleased with the results though. My favourite piece is an original Anglepoise workbench lamp in our kitchen, which came from one of the metal huts in the grounds. And the enamel fireplaces cost £200 each, but they add to the historical feel of the building.
We’ve become really wrapped up in the history of airfields. We’ve even met local veterans who flew from the airfield. It’s been great to bring this great tower back to life.
controltowerstays.com