This week on Grand Designs Revisited Kevin McCloud returns to Liskeard and an old Cornish flour mill.
Back in 2017, former skydivers Leigh and Richard fell head over heels in love with a listed but derelict 17th century Cornish flour mill.
Empty for 60 years and full of rotten timbers, the dare devils decided this was the unlikely place they wanted to call home. Taking a huge leap of faith, they put their business on hold, sold their house and moved 250 miles to live in a caravan on site.
With no experience of building or restoration, and only £250k to play with, Richard and Leigh’s highly ambitious plan was to faithfully restore the outside and retain as much of the history and magic inside as possible – while also creating a warm, contemporary, four floor, three-bedroom home. They gave themselves 12 months to pull it off, but that proved to be nowhere near long enough. Once work began in earnest, the true scale of the damage to the walls, structure and roof was revealed.
Forced to pay unexpected remedial bills, money quickly began to run out, leaving Richard and Leigh forced to do more and more work themselves.
When the pandemic struck, their battle to finish the mill became a solitary, all-consuming affair. By January 2021, rooms were still unfinished, landscaping was untouched, and they were still living in the caravan.
Now, almost three years later, presenter Kevin McCloud returns to see if this quirky old industrial building has finally become a home.
8pm Thursday on ABC.
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