Wreck of the Week

My first home as a grown-up was a solid redbrick terrace in married quarters on RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire.  I was 19, pregnant and just a few months before had been swanning around art school wearing my nana's fur coat and a Canon SLR. It was a bit of a culture shock. But it also left me with a fondness for Forces property. Much of it well-made and family sized, particularly officer's houses with their delineated levels of grandness to rank, and imposing frontages. Like this one, the former Wing Commander's home on what had been  RAF Binbrook , now the new village of Brookenby . The house is listed as eight bedrooms, four reception rooms, large kitchen and bunch of other rooms. Although estate agents details (and internal photos) are on the light side. For example, failing to mention that about a quarter of the garden and much of the surrounding land is being sold off as a new build development. These pictures puzzled me: Notice the fence li...

We're going south today. Largely because I'm aware I've spent rather too many weeks recently showing you do-uppers in the North and Wales, but also because several of you have asked me to look southwards. I'm starting here, with this extraordinary former church on the A46, just outside the village of Cold Ashton , and about 10 minutes from Bath . Unusually for a church, it comes with a fair bit of land - which almost makes up for its roadside frontage, and some conversion work has clearly already been done. Although I'm with reader Liam (who sent me the link) that the works haven't exactly enhanced this gorgeous building: For my money the mezzanine that's been put in on the upper floor would go and I'd have an open plan living space, with the bedrooms downstairs in the current 'kitchen' area. Something about dividing up tall windows in old church buildings doesn't sit with me. Also, the bed and that safe? Someone wa...

I've picked out two "two-fers" for you today. Two x two-for-one properties - twofers squared, perhaps? I'm a fan of bundling of buildings and the potential that comes with having a main residence and a second place to do-up. And these two are especially interesting. The first, Bede House and the Old School House, are in the Lincolnshire village of Wrangle , between Boston and Skegness. The four-bedroom Bede House used to belong to nearby St Giles Academy and, according the agent's notes (which are worth a read: "I can't stop thinking what a fantastic opportunity we have here for the right buyer, but then I ask myself who is the right buyer?" Indeed) was knocked down and completely rebuilt from the same bricks by the current owner in 1988. Some people really like jigsaws. And bricks... The house needs work, the schoolhouse needs much more work but also comes with planning permission  to turn it into a three bedroom home. The...