In an alcove also boarded up, was a very practical arrangement for heating water. Before going to bed the occupants stoked up a firebox under a big copper, and had hot water for the morning.” One of the great finds lay under accumulated layers of linoleum and newspaper: a floor of huge meter-square slabs of black slate that now shine as they must have done 120 years ago. This slate, like the stone, was quarried locally. Other discoveries were an embossed metal ceiling which was later covered up with plaster, and a brick arch between the kitchen and hall which had been blocked off by a small conventional door. The main rebuilding was a small study.

“The walls were so rotten,” Jenny says, “that we pulled them down and reused the stone. My idea was to make a room where a view of the outdoors poured in, yet retain the character of the house.”

Brook side’s simple lines may have been inspired by the stone farmhouse of the original owner’s native Scotland. The severity of the formal entrance is softened by the old-fashioned cottage garden of geraniums, daisies, rambling roses and a plumbago hedge. Red gum plank table and sheepskin covered benches are canopied in spring with the pink Dorothy Perkins rambler rose. Rustic stonewalled kitchen is furnished with pine. Whole wall facing the stairs to attic bedroom had to be rebuilt from the original stone.

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