Sussex Victorian A cottage renovation in the Ashdown Forest
Field Journal · Est. 2026

Restoring a Victorian cottage in the forest.

A slow, occasionally triumphant account of coaxing a cottage built in 1900 back to life – one lime-plastered wall at a time.

Restoring a Victorian cottage
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We did not set out to restore a cottage. The cottage, it turns out, had other plans.
The cottage
The Cottage

A Victorian cottage, overlooked for a while – and finding its character again.

A long-time rental that came up for sale a couple of times and had lost a few of its original features along the way – but the good bones were always there.

We're restoring it in an old, rustic, Victorian spirit – bringing back the house that always was. This journal is where we keep the notes, the failures, and snippets of daily life.

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The Garden

The first plants, ordered.

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