Medieval magic

Kevin and Sara Tatum faced challenging repairs to their historic hall house before extending it to create a charming and welcoming home

Undaunted by the difficult restoration they faced, Kevin and Sara Tatum brought their 15th-century home back to life

Kevin and Sara Tatum had owned one half of a Grade Ii-listed medieval hall house for several years. So when the other half of the building came onto the market in 2006, they didn’t hesitate to buy it, despite not having the funds to give it the attention it really needed.

‘It’s quite an important house nationally,’ says Kevin. ‘Surviving hall houses are usually larger, as the smaller ones like this were more often knocked down.’ Unable to carry out the works, they initially let it out and Sara’s sister was one of the tenants. When she moved out she described it as ‘a damp hole you would never want to live in’.

Dating from 1420, the cottage has two bedrooms, one in a two-storey, 1950s extension that also houses the kitchen and dining room on the ground floor. The extension wasn’t insulated and had large, metal windows. The walls were cold and the living room in the medieval part of the house had damp spreading four feet up the walls.

It wasn’t until 2013 that they could afford to tackle the project and they soon received planning permission to extend the cottage. First, however, Kevin had to renovate the 1950s extension. After improving the bathroom, he insulated the interior and exterior walls, before cladding the outside with larch boarding. He chose larch as it weathers to silver and, as he explains, ‘It’s impervious to the little creatures that want to eat your house.’ This work also gave him the opportunity to replace the metal windows with ones more appropriate to the scale of the building and to create deeper reveals.

The biggest job, however, was dealing with rising damp. At some point in the cottage’s history, a concrete parking area had been built up to the wall, above plate level. ‘When we dug the cement away we could have wept,’ Kevin recalls. ‘There was nothing left of the plate, it was like a bag of peat. The uprights had rotted and the sand and cement plaster had created condensation.’ Deathwatch beetle and woodworm had done their worst and only 1 inch of the 7 by 5 inch timbers was left.

‘I realised we were going to have to rebuild the whole wall and I knew we couldn’t do it on our own, so I employed a conservation architect from Nicholas Jacob Architects,’ says Kevin. With this expertise on board, permission to do the repairs was granted with no problems. In just two months, Kevin, working with a couple of builders, managed to remove the rotten timber and replace it with new oak, bonded to the originals with stainless steel. While every timber inside is original, the wall was rebuilt around them using traditional techniques, including new wattle and daub, made from cow dung, clay and straw. Kevin sourced these himself in return for a few bottles of wine (for the farmers, not the cows!).

Kevin’s final task was to create the new extension, housing the porch, sunroom, inner hall and a bathroom. Although he employed various trades for the electrics, plumbing and general labour, Kevin is a skilled carpenter and did much of the work himself. He built the kitchen, laid the reclaimed and new oak flooring and landscaped the garden. The couple plan to move back into the property very soon, and will eventually knock through into the other cottage to recreate the medieval floor plan, but for now it’s finished.

‘It’s been emotional,’ he says, reflecting on the years of effort. ‘But having something that needs so much work and taking it to where it should be is so rewarding. It is lovely to get it finished, but I can’t take all the credit, as Sara pulled it all together.’

Sara has an interior design background and owns The Rug & Carpet Studio in Long Melford, which besides selling rugs and carpets, is an Aladdin’s cave of fair-trade homeware.

‘I wanted an eclectic, rustic style, so it looks like a house that’s evolved over time,’ says Sara. Few things in the cottage were bought brand new, most have been renovated, recycled, or refinished.

The second bedroom has reclaimed floorboards and the bathroom has an old cast-iron bath. Even the radiators in the extended hallway travelled from a school, to Kevin’s father’s workshop in the 1960s, before arriving here.

Perhaps the final word on the décor and renovations should go to the previous tenant. When the couple held an open day, Sara’s sister came to see what they had done to her former home. As she walked through the door she said, ‘This is not the same house. It’s stunning.’

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Above: Although the kitchen is part of the 1950s extension, it is impossible to pinpoint where the 15th century ends and the 20th century begins. Using reclaimed flagstones, limewash from Ingilby Paints, and Kevin’s cabinetry, hand-built from reclaimed doors that Sara painted to complement the rustic palette elsewhere, Kevin and Sara have created a modern kitchen that sits easily in this period property Right: This is Sara’s favourite space: ‘It’s a lovely place to spread your work out on the table and open the doors to the garden,’ she says. ‘The room is in the centre of the house so you get a real sense of nurture and security.’ The old pew came from a local auction and works well with this table, made by Churchill Brothers. Kevin found the Welsh dresser at Mander Auctions and restored it

Clockwise from top left: Behind Sara and Kevin, the jumble of roofs and materials tell the story of this cottage over its 700 years, including the most recent extension, with larch cladding from Shrublands Woodland Products. The original timber frame was repaired by RD Lane Carpentry; Kevin built the kitchen. A simple stone splashback complements the salvaged doors and Belfast sink from Treesave Reclamation; the dining room is Sara’s favourite space. ‘We are so pleased with the limewash,’ she says. ‘The chalky finish and multiple tones of colour is so interesting and adds to the cosy feel. We love the colour in the dining room’; the beautiful cast-iron front gate is a bespoke creation by local metal artist Kev Colbear, who also made a lamp for the couple

Clockwise from top left: These wonderful reclaimed bricks for the floor came from a house in Essex. Sara added warmth with two handmade rugs from Iran; the ancient beam and higgledy-piggledy brickwork above the living room fireplace reveal the age of the cottage; Kevin made the panelling himself, and the cast-iron radiators originally came from a school, but had been stored in Kevin’s father’s workshop for many years; ‘most of the furniture in the house came from local auctions or out of previous cottages,’ says Sara, ‘somehow the mix works’

The carpet in the living room was recently handmade in India, based on old Sultanabad carpets made in central Iran during the 1880s. Sara had this kelim-covered sofa made bespoke, using a lovely Turkish Sarkoy kelim she had in stock at her shop, The Rug & Carpet Studio. After careful measuring, the upholsterer realised that the kelim was just big enough and the sofa frame was made to fit. The footstool was made in the same way

Top: Kevin built this pretty sunroom using oak reclaimed from a pagoda, and double-glazed it himself. Part of the new extension, it creates a timeless connection between the medieval cottage and the garden. The floor is made of oak boarding from Thorogood Timber Bottom left: The sunroom is the perfect spot for morning cups of tea while watching the birds. The chairs are from Jayrest Interiors Bottom right: Kevin landscaped the garden, incorporating this seating area. Sara found the vintage outdoor chairs and table on Ebay Left: Alfresco dining is definitely on the menu when you have two outdoor tables to choose from. Kevin built the pergola above it

Clockwise from top left: The beautifully crafted hanging on the wall in this guest bedroom is an old wedding arch from Gujarat, India. Sara was delighted to come across it when buying for her shop. The pretty chair was a local auction buy; Sara found the chaise longue in the main bedroom at a local rummage sale and had it reupholstered in a Linwood fabric. All the curtains are secondhand, from The Curtain Exchange; this vanity unit sits happily among older pieces but is in fact new, from Coach House. The mosaic mirror above is by Jane Ford; the salvaged cast-iron bath was a real find and came with this marble paint effect. The bathroom flooring is sustainable Marmoleum

A magnificent antique bed with corona, bought at a local auction, makes a bold statement in the master bedroom. Sara restored it and replaced the drapes. For a similar bedspread, try Door to the Himalayas. ‘The carpet was made in Turkey about 20 years ago,’ says Sara. ‘I sold it to a client for their sitting room, and when they moved house they asked if I wanted it back’