Much of the house had been fitted with lowered false ceilings over the years, presumably in an attempt to minimise heat rise. We stripped these out – downstairs to the original ceiling levels, although we sheeted over these as the original plaster was in poor condition – we have however left that in place. Upstairs, we took out all of the false ceilings, to expose the original roof space and beams. In the hay loft area where there were no lower tie beams across the space, we left the whole space open to above the high tie beams to create a double-height living room.

In the kitchen and new master bedroom, the undersides of the original beams have been left exposed and the library/upstairs hall, the beams have been left open, with that area being galleried into the roof space. All  beams have been cleaned by grit blasting, structurally checked and then stained.