Upgrades

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The Window replacement and water borehole were put in during 2009, along with kitchen and shower instillation, soon after it was sold by the water company. The filter house has been used as a holiday home since then. I acquired it in 2020 and will be using the building as my own holiday home and slowly upgrading the utilities and internal fittings for more environmental long term use.

The first task was to repair the walls that were collapsed in four significant areas. Robert the farmer had attempted to fence these off to keep his sheep out, as they had a habit of falling into the concrete filter pit. This was clearly an ardoise manual task given years of neglect and most of the stone now sitting at the bottom of the bank. Stone wall experts at the stone centre near Wirksworth gave valuable advice.

I became expert in the use of ladder rope and bucket, occasionally getting in help for some of the largest stone pieces. This corner wall up a steep bank gave the biggest challenge. I believe I spent a total of 9 weeks simply rebuilding walls. By the end of summer 2021 all walls were fully repaired and remain so to this day. 

Sadly many trees on site were vandalised between March and May 2020 by persons unknown (not NT, Electric provider or local farmer). The rational is beyond me. I have now cut them down and will be replacing them (see below Nov 2023) with many more native species taking advice from NT tree specialists over next few years. 

The 'filter pit' was full of debris from the building decommission prior to 2008. This was cleared summer 2020. I now have the go ahead from Environment Agency to replace septic Tank for a modern waste treatment plant (see below May 2023) and rainwater collection system to be located in this pit during summer 2023.

When the building was decommissioned much of the concrete rubble was simply pushed outside and down the bank, or into the 'filter pit'. This has been dug up and reused to build a retaining wall at the rear of the building and along the front bank, making it a lot easier to deliver bulky items to the farm doors. It now needs time to reseed the grass.

I had envisaged insulating and fitting out the internal space significantly in the initial years. This is not now likely given planning reluctance so will aim for a slow upgrading internally when convenient.  Initially this involves creating comfortable and improved sleeping space which I have currently achieved by placing two caravans here. They have heating, insulation and toilets, but clearly are not the long term option.

The deeds hold an obligation to keep the 1200 meter long  road from Hartsop car park up to the Filter House in good repair. During 2020 significant sums were spent replacing all of the blocked culverts that had clearly not been maintained since the original road was built, and fixing the worst of the road damage. This Culvert repair above, just outside the front gates by the footpath turnoff is my favourite.

The fabric of the building needs constant maintenance in such a harsh location. Since purchase we have replaced both the front door, the barn doors and the steel lintels above these. The eves facia will need maintenance or replacing soon and the windows need constant work.

Over years the rear of the property suffered from slow subsidence of the bank above. This created potential damp issues. That was resolved summer 2022 with the insertion of a soakaway drain along the rear of the building in line with the new future proofing foul drainage system, that will link to replacement treatment plant.

Digging out the historic subsidence and placing both soakaway drain and foul drain along the rear of the property worked well. However it was soon apparent that  the subsidence would continue without further intervention. Fortunately we had ample stone on site to retain the slippage.

The historic soakaway septic tank was small and insufficient for future use, and not up to modern regulation standards. With the anticipation of a more efficient solution being placed in the large concrete filter tank, all of the future planning foul and rainwater drainage needed replacing. Foul drainage now runs from three access points within the building ready for final internal fit-out.