Every Englishman's home is his castle but for Francis Shaw this is quite literally true. He and his wife, Karen, and their two young daughters, bought the ruins of a 14th century castle in Yorkshire and took on the remarkable challenge of restoring an ancient building.
Surrounded by rolling green fields, the location is idyllic; however, the castle itself was little more than four crumbling walls.
Francis has had a passion for castles ever since he was a young boy. It's this passion that led him to train as an architect, although now he's more used to putting up commercial buildings than rescuing wrecks. But after years of only dreaming about it, he finally got the chance to live in one.
To help them accomplish this almost Herculean task, Francis enlisted the help of six stonemasons who lived and worked permanently on site during the project. They painstakingly pieced the castle back together using, wherever possible, the original stone. When that ran out they had to source and cut the rest from local quarries matching it carefully to the original.
As well as repairing any breaches in the exterior walls, they also had to rebuild the whole interior with new walls and floors and new battlements around the top. Unusually, one of the rooms on the 2nd floor was a chapel so Francis and Karen planned to install new stained glass windows in memory of its history.
Francis and Karen joke about finding the perfect suit of armour to grace their baronial hallway but the style inside is more neo-Georgian than mock Tudor. Karen was an interior designer before she took time out to bring up the children and chose to paint the walls in Georgian colours. Finishes are simple and natural and where possible the stone has been left uncovered to expose the true character of the castle.
Using his architectural skills, Francis has laid out the interior to create a large, open plan kitchen, formal sitting room and living space, as well as seven bedrooms all with en-suite bathrooms. Medieval castles have a reputation for being dark and draughty but this one is light and spacious due to the late addition of some Georgian windows on two sides.
It's incredibly rare for a property like this to be available, especially with such a lack of restrictions put on its restoration. Francis and Karen have got there hands on a fantastic structure that has weathered five centuries and, with their help, will be there for many years to come.
Despite trees growing inside the castle walls and the lack of a roof, the couple were confident they could rebuild the ruin with a budget of £400,000 financed by the sale of their previous home and a mortgage. However with the project taking much longer than planned and the couple encountering several setbacks the budget inevitably crept up to around £750,000.
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Want to be a self-build guru? Then read on....
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