Stone cottages repointed and their windows repaired

The cottages had been repointed in hard cement some time in the 1970s, and the stone was paying for it: faces spalling, damp inside every winter. We raked the cement out by hand, which is slow, and repointed in hot-mixed lime matched to a surviving patch of original joint.

Three window sills had rotted through. We cut them out and replaced them in stone from the same bed, dressed on site to the old profile.

The conservation officer visited twice. The work is meant to be invisible, and from the lane it is.