The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (050) Renovation Exploration

 

Danny and Molly were looking forward to spending a quiet week at the Cottage, after their meeting with Max, they had no impending deadlines, so they could please themselves, the weather had certainly quietened down so they thought they might do some exploring. 

 

Back in the Autumn when Molly had offered a donation to repair and maintain St Clara’s Church, she spoke with the Solicitors, and asked them to find out as much as they could about St Clara’s, covenants, deeds, and such like, and what she found out was that the land on which the Church stood belonged to her, as did the vicarage, and a dozen cottages in Church Lane, and a number of other building down by the Spanish River at the northern end of the village.

When they saw the cottages on one of their explorations, they found them to be in a poor state of repair, much as Cliff Haven had been.

So, she asked George to contact the contractors they had used previously to get the buildings made weatherproof at the very least.

 

So, on Tuesday they decided to start their walk in that direction so they could see what progress they had made.

Four of the buildings, an old mill, a grain store, an old barn and the old brewery were located half a mile to the north of the village on the east bank of the Spanish River, between the water and the St Pierre Road, the other three, a stable block and two pairs of cottages, were on the west side.

From the village they followed the path over the road bridge and then went down the steps to the riverside path and walked past the moored houseboats, pleasure boats and barges, after which the path got a bit boggy and overgrown, but after about fifty yards they emerged onto clear ground where the contractors had been at work.

All the external work was completed, the groundwork had been done, all the overgrown shrubbery had been cleared, and three of the four buildings were fully protected against the elements, the roofs, soffits, guttering, double glazing, and external rendering were all completed, the remaining building was still a work in progress.

 

After spending some time walking around the buildings they continued on their walk, rejoining the St Pierre Road and followed it as far as Norman beach then they headed down Beacon Farm Road until they recrossed the river and headed back towards Spaniards Creek.

When they could see the moorings on the western side of the river, they knew they were very close to their goal.

Things were much further from completion than they were across the water, the Cottages were being reroofed as the old one was too far gone, and the stables now had a sound roof, new guttering and the windows and doors had been boarded to keep the elements out.    

Satisfied with what they had seen they continued along the path until they reached the road bridge, then they climbed the steps up to the village and made their way to the Galleon for a well-earned coffee. 

With the work well advanced they had reached the point where they needed to make some decisions.