The dismantling of the main house

First the old slates were stripped from the roof. They were random slates which would be used on the Hafod and the third building (see later).

Meirion Thomas, an expert in dismantling oak framed buildings was in charge of the operation. A drawing of the frame was made and each piece of wood was marked to identify its position on the drawing. The next operation was to knock out the oak pegs which held the joints in the frame together; this was very time consuming. A crane was used to take the frame down and this was done in one very long day. We were left with some surprisingly small piles of wood!

The timber was transported back to the coach house of our existing home 7 miles away. We employed local carpenters and a large room in the coach house, once stabling for four coach horses, became our carpenters' shop. There they worked on the structure over winter. Old timber was cleaned and restored and new oak made up where rotten wood was found. The following Spring we brought it back to the site for reconstruction on new foundations.

If you would like to see the house in which we were living at the time please click here.

 

 

 

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