Restoration Home

Seasons

2011

7.9

Historic UK buildings get new life as owners transform them into homes. Caroline Quentin hosts, visiting renovation sites while experts explore architectural history and past residents.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Thomas a Becket Church

St Thomas a Becket church in Somerset is on the heritage critical list and badly in need of rescue. A flood in 1968 led to the church's eventual deconsecration and it is just one of many churches in Britain that has been declared redundant. Decline in church-going and amalgamation of parishes have put a huge swathe of our architectural heritage in peril.

S1 • E2

Nutbourne Pumping Station

The story of a derelict 1932 water pumping station in West Sussex, England, converted into a modern family home by Nick and Brigitte Sweet. The programme uncovers the history of a building created in the 1930s depression to bring clean water to the local population.

S1 • E3

Stoke Hall

New owners have the challenge of restoring a mid-18th century Georgian mansion in Derbyshire, UK.

S1 • E4

Stanwick Hall

Stanwick Hall was in poor condition and on the Buildings at Risk Register. Years of neglect left fungus growing on walls running wet with damp and timbers so rotten that one good storm might down the roof. Evidence is uncovered showing the hall was built as a result of a financial scandal of the early 18th century.

S1 • E5

Calverton Manor

Calverton Manor is a collage of different architectural styles with parts thought to date back as far as the 14th century. And it comes with its very own legend involving a rich widow, the local butcher, pots of gold and murder.

S1 • E6

Big House

Once a building of grandeur and influence, Big House in Landshipping, Pembrokeshire has been a ruin for 100 years. A local man attempts to turn it into his home.