Unusual triangle house to be lived in after 25 years
A TINY and unusual building next to St Sampson’s Church will soon see its first inhabitants in almost a quarter of a century, thanks to the National Trust of Guernsey.
The triangle-shaped Church House has been restored over the last few years and the listed building has been brought up to modern standards while retaining a lot of its original features.
Built in the 19th century, it was used originally as offices by John Mowlem and Co., which used to quarry and export granite. While it now belongs to the parish, the trust was given a 99-year lease and set about restoring the property.
After obtaining the necessary permissions, work started at the end of 2020, although just as the scaffolding was due to be put up the island went into its second lockdown, which set the project back by several weeks.
Conditions set for the development meant that a lot of the original building and its interior had to
be retained. Consequently there are old granite fireplaces in three of the rooms, the wooden windows remain and have had new sash cords fitted, and all the doors to the rooms and cupboards are the originals.
One thing that has not been kept is the old toilet, which was in a small outbuilding across the back yard but which has now been removed.
National Trust of Guernsey president Tony Spruce said this could be used as somewhere to put a washing machine.
Next to this space is a traditional Guernsey copper and the original water pump is nearby, too.
The back yard was open when the property was built but later on a lean-to was put on top to shelter it.
Building work was challenging, said Mr Spruce, who paid tribute to the contribution to the project made by Steve Goubert Contractors, which worked closely with the trust’s Jim Whitmore. He also thanked Ronez for its help.
Once plaster was removed from the walls the building took about three years to dry out before interior work could start in earnest.
But this was not the biggest challenge – that was the roof and the cast iron gutters. ‘They were broken and we had to recreate them to retain that beautiful feature,’ he said.
Once the work was finished the next step was to find a tenant.
‘We were going to advertise it, but someone has already said they want it,’ said Mr Spruce.
While the main building is finished, there is still work to be done on the site, with the old forge building behind the house now to be turned into a small museum, where people will be able to obtain
information about quarrying in the island, as well as about John Mowlem.
Mr Spruce said that as well as interpretation boards, the plan was to recreate the forge.
He hoped the museum would be completed by mid-summer.
