And the wall went up

The time has come to separate the Wharf House from our plot.  Our neighbour, Sarah is building a wall across the garden and down towards the canal.  As the Wharf House is a listed building, it took many weeks of discussion with the local planning authority before appropriate bricks could be selected.  The lower part of the garden will eventually have railings down to the canal bank.  The photos below were taken from our side of the wall, looking towards the Wharf House.

This doesn't bode well for our house!  For parts of the village, Cotswold stone is used, but since the Oxford canal was built southwards from the Midlands, most materials for structures around the canal came from the north. Even the Wharf House itself uses several different types of bricks, and bonds.  The following montage shows bricks from a few buildings all within 100yds of the plot.  Before we build the walls, we need to get approval for the brick from the local planning department.  Where do we start?

Celebration

Although we bought the plot with planning permission, there were several changes we wanted to make.  This required two rounds of the planning process, but today we finally received permission to build our new home on our plot.  No photograph of the plot, as we got the news whilst we were in London.

Now, all we need are detailed drawings and a contractor!

Just a patch of overgrown garden

Our plot was purchased in June 2016.  It was previously a vegetable garden for the adjacent historic Cropredy Wharf House.  The plot is bounded by the Wharf House on the south side, a lane on the west side, a lock garden on the north side, and the Oxford canal on the east side.

Before we start!

The photo was taken soon after that. It was taken from the canal towpath on the other side of the Oxford canal and includes one of our two small landing stages.

The following two short videos show a panorama from the towpath, and from the side of the lane. A tad overgrown!

Now we begin the long process of securing planning permission and selecting a contractor to build the house for us.